Alfalfa Field Part 1

I thought I would do a little recap and then a play by play of what happens on our alfalfa field each summer. I'm only going to do this for one cutting. We expect to get three cuttings. Four cuttings are ideal but the weather and growing season dictate that. During the other cuttings I may post some pictures of interest but I won't go into as much detail.

We have an agreement with a local hay grower to put up our hay. We own the field and the irrigation equipment. He owns the hay machinery that you will see (with the exception of the hay squeeze) and he and his crew puts up the hay. We have worked for him off and on for many years but I probably won't be much help this year.

On May 13th we started irrigating the alfalfa field. It takes five and a half days to irrigate the whole field with two wheel lines each half a mile long. We move (aka change) the wheel lines twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Sometimes the girls went with me, sometimes they stayed in the pickup with Daddy, and sometimes they stayed in the house with Daddy or a grandparent.

Here's a picture of the girls and I in the pickup after changing the wheel lines one morning. Helena is bundled in the pink next to my chin. She rides in the front pack and Hannah walks with me. Sometimes I have to carry her but try to avoid it. Sorry about the cruddy picture. I took it of us with my cell phone.

After we were done with our irrigation it was time to roll the wheel lines back to their starting positions. I do this so that they are ready to go if we decide we have to irrigate again, and otherwise they are in the right place to start the water again when they hay has been taken off of the field. This time of year it's not uncommon for a thunderstorm to kick up and for it to pack a punch with it's gusty winds. A half a mile of aluminum pipe with wheels on it that can act like sails will take off in a heart beat. We have lost ours twice, I think. Once to a very deep drain ditch and once to the neighbors field. It isn't any fun or cheap to take pipe to town to be repaired/replaced and then reassemble the whole half mile.

In an effort to keep them in one place, we have stakes that we pound into the ground attached to a rope tied around the pipe (pictures below later in the post). I was able to drive down one wheel line and pound in the six sets of stakes. Daddy checked his fields with the girls while I walked down the other wheel line and pounded in the other six sets of stakes.

Boy were we ever glad that we staked the wheel lines down really well. We are easily a week behind, if not two, on getting hay cut around here. We had several storms come through. There were times when I looked out the window to see the wheel lines roll a bit in the wind and then slam against end of the rope. It made my heart skip a beat and I prayed that they would hang together through the wind. Here's an example of one of the high desert torrential down pours coupled with gusting winds.

Today is cutting day. Before the swathers got the field I needed to go unstake the wheel line, and take some sections off so that they could get around the end of the field. Here's the rope tied to the wheel line. I had pounded one stake in on the east and one on the west.

Here it is after I pulled the stakes. I'm sure to hang them back on the rope. If hit, they do ugly things to hay equipment.

Hannah waiting patiently in the pick up.

Helena waiting patiently in the pickup. She slept most of the time that we were out there.

This guy was spraying the field right next to us this morning. Please ignore the side mirror in the bottom corner. I wasn't trying to win a photo contest here. I checked with the spotter on the ground to be sure we could go into our field and we got the OK. Our field actually had to be sprayed twice this year. Once for weeds and a second time for insects. It is sprayed for weeds because "clean" (weed free) hay sells for more than weedy hay. The cost of the spraying pays off when you consider the premium for the hay. It was sprayed for insects because they were going to eat us out of house and home. It they get out of control they can eat so much it damages the yield. The amount of hay in tons that you save from the insects, also generally makes the spray jobs worth the expense.

They are cutting the field right now as I type. It has already been rained on while they were cutting it and I'm sure it's liable to happen again. It's not ideal to have the hay get rained on after it has been cut. It is better to get rain right after it has been cut and is still green rather than after it is cured (dry) and ready to bale.

The swathers complete several operations when they go through the field. They have a bar in the front with blades on it called a sickle bar. The sickle bar cuts they hay and then it is fed through the conditioner. The conditioner breaks the stems in several places so the moisture can escape causing it to dry faster. The hay sails through the conditioner and then hits the shields underneath the swather. These shields are adjusted to the preference of the farmer to make a wide or narrow windrow of hay. There will be pictures of windrows in the days to come. When the two swathers meet in the middle they are done. So that's all for today. It's up to mother nature to do the rest for the next few days.

Hannah "riding" her bike. Her shirt says it all. :)