Making dry hay a real challenge

By now I doubt I have to write how I feel about this weather: rain nearly every day.
And truthfully, when people say to me, “Oh, we need a good rain” or “Farmers should be happy with this,” I want to lose it!
Making dry hay seems to be becoming a bigger and bigger challenge. I keep thinking how was it when we were kids–we made the little square bales on all our land and it seemed like it never rained!
I can’t even imagine if we were trying to do that now (granted, our haying crew is much less).
I also was chatting with a fellow farmer about how a new baler costs $80,000 and a new disc bine is $50,000. Well, cross your fingers that our old stuff keeps on keeping on because there is no way our little farm can afford an expense like that.
Maybe I’m just feeling sorry for myself on Monday morning because once again it is raining! We were able to make a fair bit of hay on the weekend but I had a big day planned for Monday, as well.
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I’ve been working on a project that is hoping to “Develop a Fingerprint for Ontario Beef!”
The plan is to determine if beef produced in Ontario can be scientifically-identified from that produced in another province or country.
Even if the animal has been brought in from another location, if it has been fed here for 120 days, it is considered for this project.
Most of our animals are fed grain that is brought in from the west but this is fine, as well, since this will be the make-up of our fingerprint!
This project is part of a plan to enhance consumer confidence in beef. It also is looking to lay some groundwork to address the issues of mislabelling, which has a negative impact on farmers, abattoirs, and our entire beef sector.
The project is funded, in part, through “Growing Forward 2” and if you are interested in participating, please let me know.
I’m hoping to have samples collected by the end of August for our district.
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Thanks to those who have been giving us such positive feedback on our plots at the Emo Agricultural Research Station (EARS).
They are coming along but from the highway, they look might look better.
We still have things that need to be addressed but just like haying at home, we are fighting with the weather, as well. It sure can be frustrating.
We had a visitor from P.E.I., who was travelling across Canada with his motorbike, stop in because he was so impressed with our station! He thought our corn and soybeans were doing great!
I’m always proud to tell him that we have some great-looking crops on farm, as well. You just don’t get to see a lot of what is happening on farm from the highway.
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The girls were able to get out for a night to work with their fair animals. We always are struggling to get them trained when you are trying to make hay and keep up with yard work, house work, etc. (and trust me, the house is suffering).
I am hoping that Maddie can take her heifer to our 4-H Fun Day planned for this Sunday morning (I guess we will see how things turn out).
Training cattle is a big job. I think it looks easy when they are all standing calmly at the fair but that don’t happen that easily.
And some days, I do wonder why we put ourselves through it all!