# Rain, rain, go away.....



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

We're just shy of 8" of rain for May, guaranteed to exceed 8 by the end of the month. Right now, we're at 21" YTD. Average year runs about 39".

Rivers were dropping, 2 ferries were operating, 3rd shut down because of levee problems. Now the rivers are coming back up. Got called last night---plans were to open one ferry at backup location today, but will probably shutdown by Sunday. All ferries will probably be shut down by Monday.

Going shopping today--haircut, groceries, flippers, hovercraft.

Cy, and the rest of you guys up north--could you maybe do a reverse rain dance? Turn it off for a while?

Ralph


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I'd love to turn it off for awhile.I've missed the heavy rains fortunately.But it is cloudy,cold and drizzleing most days.I've had 6 days in field so far this spring.Sometimes get 1/2 day in and then another shower comes threw.And if 1 cloud goes over it rains on the field I'm in.

I wonder what the rest of the yr will bring?It is looking similar to 93.Our corn never made it that yr and was plowed under in Sept.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Same here. Cold and wet. Wanted to mow hay yesterday on 40% chance and clear till next Saturday. Got cold feet, ended up with 1/2" yesterday evening and now have 70% chances Thursday thru Saturday with about 2" predicted. No-tilled all my corn in too wet but so far so good on it. I think it has been 90 once so far and last year we had over 30 days 90+ by now.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Rain here today in eastern PA.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

swmnhay said:


> I wonder what the rest of the yr will bring?It is looking similar to 93.Our corn never made it that yr and was plowed under in Sept.


Yepp, that's what it's starting to look like hereabouts. Had to helicopter beer and food in during the 93 flood. At least out priorities were right.

Ralph


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Reverse rain dance is hopeless when there is first cutting hay coming up. 

I'm 3 miles from the Floyd river, and that went from abnormaly shallow to flooding all over the place in a day or so.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Guys were out yesterday raking, tedding, baling late in the afternoon. Can't imagine they got it all raked up and put away. 
Problem here is, they keep changing forecast from clear weather to rain at the last minute every other day. 
I still haven't cut 1 acre yet.

On edit: more soaking rain again today!!!


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## dbergh (Jun 3, 2010)

What a screwed up year so far.

We came out of winter and went through spring bone dry. Had to irrigate alfalfa 3 times on 24 hour sets to catch up and make first cutting. Now, of course, we are finally ready to cut and have a pretty nice crop after weeks of endless frost and wind and mother nature decides it is time to start raining :angry: . Fortunately we only got 20 out of 525 acres on the ground. Weather man doesn't seem to know his a## from a hole in the ground here anymore.

Sugarbeets froze out numerous times. Potatoes were burned back to the ground by frost May 24. Same on the corn. Things have got to get better at some point. Guys here are ready to pull their hair out.


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## LaneFarms (Apr 10, 2010)

I sure wish y'all could send that rain this way. We average a little over 50" a year and have 9" so far. All of the ponds are dry and I am going to have to go back to feeding hay within the next week. I wish we could have a normal weather year, we have been dry for 5 or 6 years.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I


LaneFarms said:


> I sure wish y'all could send that rain this way. We average a little over 50" a year and have 9" so far.


I'm loading up right now; will send it down the Mississippi over the next few days. River expected to jump 7' between now and Saturday. Ferry that opened yesterday, closed this morning. Glad we went shopping and laid in 2-3 weeks supplies.

Ralph


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Raining here too I think I saw most of the corn on the islands near here flooded out. I noticed the bucket on the tractor I used Sunday was overflowing this morning. Its about 12" deep before it overflows.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

It's global warming guys, all this cool wet weather is because the earth's getting hotter, and my *ss shits apple butter.

It's all a cycle, I think in 73 around here everything was planted n the dust, then it rained all summer, all fall, and not a bean was cut nor a ear picked until the ground froze solid. Then came spring every hay grower in the area seen the snow melt and alfalfa plants a foot above the ground from the heaving.

http://denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Major floods hereabouts in '73 and '93. '13 going to be any different? Here's today's hydrological forecast from the NWS:

"RAINFALL FORECASTS OVER THE NEXT 3 DAYS INDICATE EXCESSIVE RAINFALL IS LIKELY OVER PARTS OF MISSOURI ... IOWA ... AND ILLINOIS. BASED ON THIS FORECAST RAINFALL ... RIVER FORECAST MODELS ARE INDICATING A POTENTIAL OF MAJOR FLOODING ON BOTH THE MISSOURI AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. THESE MODELS INDICATE IF THIS FORECAST RAINFALL IS REALIZED ... RIVER LEVELS ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT ST. LOUIS COULD BE HIGHER THAN ANY FLOOD SINCE 1995. THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT ST. LOUIS CRESTED AT 41.89 FEET ON MAY 22 1995."

This is based 1" of rain expected in the next 24 hours. Forecast calls for 3-5" further north over the next 3 days.

Hmmmmm. Starting to sound like the Bible. We had hail yesterday. What next--locusts? Boils? Darkness? Politicians?

Ralph


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

Amnesty????


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

We will all probably be begging for rain before too long. I just take it as it comes and try to work around it. I always feel bad for the guys that have their crops ruined from some of these events.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Just shy of 10" for the month of May. But, guess what! It's raining, so we will probably break 10" today.

Ralph


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

We had 11.75 inches of rain in May....average is supposed to be about 3.75. This past week has been excellent hay curing weather though.


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## cwright (Oct 19, 2011)

FarmerCline said:


> We had 11.75 inches of rain in May....average is supposed to be about 3.75. This past week has been excellent hay curing weather though.


The same on the West side of the Smokies. May was wet but it dried out really fast. Humidity has been really low.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

FarmerCline said:


> We had 11.75 inches of rain in May....average is supposed to be about 3.75. This past week has been excellent hay curing weather though.


We're not that far from FarmerCline, maybe an hour and half, and we only had 2.8" for May.

Son drilled in some Soybeans and Millet today and when the Deere came back in it looked more a real deer brown and tan with dust.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Back to our normal abnormal--clouds, rain, rivers flooding, tornadoes nearby Friday night, ferries shut down, farmers complaining...

But, on the bright side--no bicyclists, no motorcycles, no bozos asking where the nearest gas station is, drinking too much.

We could go out...if we could get there.

10.75" in May.

Ralph


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## scrapiron (Mar 10, 2010)

I will echo what Lane Farms said : EXCEPT he has had 3x more rain than we have had. With our 7/10 inch last evening we have had 3.6in the last 8 months. Our 7+feet of rain last summer is long gone ! We are in a worse drought than last year. Our grass has not started growing yet, still feeding hay everyday, weeds are not growing or are dead. We WILL get some rain, just don't know when.

scrapiron


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## LaneFarms (Apr 10, 2010)

Sorry for the griping the other day. I have had 4" the last two days and now have tropical storm Andrea that is going to come in tomorrow night.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Aaron, batten down the hatches, it's comin....we are soaked, watermelons need some bright sunshine next week or there will be trouble brewing, pnuts good, ditto cotton and corn, got most of hay up last week, come on rain....good thing if we get some sunshine next week....


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## LaneFarms (Apr 10, 2010)

Melons are really going to be hurting here. Most started loading this weekend and were having a hard time finding ripe ones. Glad you could get some hay up
We are still weeks away from having any ready to cut.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Looked at a field today of melons, looked real good, big leaves, melons look good, need to start picking by 15th to get shipped for 4th, gonna be close that's for sure, several fields aborted, but they're coming n strong now, just need some strong sunlight next week or so and should make a decent crop. I have a friend heading down to Kissimmee next week to deliver a Massey ferguson, gonna pick up a trailer load I thnk and take em back to NC, try to sell there, I have a tedder to pick up there, hence the reason, if I gotta go, might as well try to pay for the trip....


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

somedevildawg said:


> Looked at a field today of melons, looked real good, big leaves, melons look good, need to start picking by 15th to get shipped for 4th, gonna be close that's for sure, several fields aborted, but they're coming n strong now, just need some strong sunlight next week or so and should make a decent crop. I have a friend heading down to Kissimmee next week to deliver a Massey ferguson, gonna pick up a trailer load I thnk and take em back to NC, try to sell there, I have a tedder to pick up there, hence the reason, if I gotta go, might as well try to pay for the trip....


 What part of NC you coming to? You shouldn't have any trouble selling fresh watermelons up this way. The cool spring and all this cloudy rainy has made my watermelon patch look like crap...the vines are just now beginning to run...normally they would have already covered the ground and been blooming away.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

FarmerCline said:


> What part of NC you coming to? You shouldn't have any trouble selling fresh watermelons up this way. The cool spring and all this cloudy rainy has made my watermelon patch look like crap...the vines are just now beginning to run...normally they would have already covered the ground and been blooming away.


 gotta go just south of Charlotte to pick up tedder so somewhere in that neck o woods, maybe Salisbury and get some cheerwine....


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I'm about an hour northwest of Charlotte, what kind of tedder are you getting? You can't beat a good cheerwine. I bet quite a few on here don't know what cheerwine is....never will forget the first time I went up north and ordered cheerwine.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

FarmerCline said:


> I'm about an hour northwest of Charlotte, what kind of tedder are you getting? You can't beat a good cheerwine. I bet quite a few on here don't know what cheerwine is....never will forget the first time I went up north and ordered cheerwine.


I bought a krone 4 basket from a fella just south of Charlotte, also bought a claas disco 8.5' cut from the same fella, he didn't give em away but looks like he cared for them well....

I used to coach American legion baseball and our regionals were at Catawba college one year, cheerwine was right around the corner, they sponsored everything there, my first time, now they are sold here. Still drink it occasionally, like when ya couldn't get coors, now that we can buy it locally, it's not the novelty anymore...

Something I'll never forget was ordering a hotdog from the same ballpark....ordered a chili dog, guy says maybe you need to ell me what you want on that chili dog, so I say "mustard, chili, onions"....he says ok you want a chili dog all the way.....hmmmm, what the hell is just a chili dog, oh, it's chili, slaw, mustard, onions.....wth, we call that a chili/slaw dog, found out through that and after eating mustard based BBQ that food even in our own areas of the country can be rather different...


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

You should like that krone tedder. I ended up buying a new krone 4 basket tedder about a month ago and I can't be more pleased. It is good and heavy and does not bounce in the field and trails behind the tractor going down the road without swaying. I really like the border tedding position for going around the outside of the field as it pulls the hay in from the edge of the woods so that the sun drys it better.


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## LaneFarms (Apr 10, 2010)

I have a good friend that grows melons if you need a load. We are about 30 miles west of I-75.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I should have bought a Krone. I have a Pequea and its solid and does have the ability to throw hay inward from fences, too, but I've lost a wheel bearing, Tedder tooth and the ability to tilt the Tedder. 
I fixed it after bleeding some air from the valve body. 
I think I got a very good deal on it (used $3,900) and its overall in good condition, but it's broken a few times on me. New Krone is $8,800. New pequea is $7,800.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

One thing I've learned jd, a man could make a good living buying down here and taking it back up north and selling, y'all definitely have higher prices on used eq.

Thanks Aaron, may give you a call on that..


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

JD3430 said:


> I should have bought a Krone. I have a Pequea and its solid and does have the ability to throw hay inward from fences, too, but I've lost a wheel bearing, Tedder tooth and the ability to tilt the Tedder.
> I fixed it after bleeding some air from the valve body.
> I think I got a very good deal on it (used $3,900) and its overall in good condition, but it's broken a few times on me. New Krone is $8,800. New pequea is $7,800.


 Heck I got my new krone for $7,700 out the door. I probably could have got it for less but I bought it the week I had to have it and the dealer knew that I had to have it. It sounds like need to come down south to buy your equipment and haul it home.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

They were $7000 here last year from our NH dealer. We call those dogs "Carolina Dogs"


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## New Moon Ranch (May 28, 2013)

Dry. Hot and REALLY dry. And we just put out fertilizer yesterday morning. And so the countdown to disaster begins....

Good luck, you fellas up north.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I do buy equipment down south. I bought my dump truck from Hamilton,TN. Bought my M-7040 from Greensouth in Lithonia, GA. Bought my F-550 from Capitol Ford in Raleigh, NC.

See...sometimes I know what I'm doin'.....

Back to the rain: Just got flooding rains up here all day. Now our past mature, headed out hay looks like it was slept on by dinosaurs....its all kinda matted-down now.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

JD3430 said:


> I do buy equipment down south. I bought my dump truck from Hamilton,TN. Bought my M-7040 from Greensouth in Lithonia, GA. Bought my F-550 from Capitol Ford in Raleigh, NC.
> 
> See...sometimes I know what I'm doin'.....
> 
> Back to the rain: Just got flooding rains up here all day. Now our past mature, headed out hay looks like it was slept on by dinosaurs....its all kinda matted-down now.


Thems crop circles jd.......aliens not dinosaurs, we got em down here too....don't believe me, check out A&E they gotta show bout it....right after the one about finding Sasquatch......

Greensouth has a rather large dealer network down in these parts....


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

JD3430 said:


> Back to the rain: Just got flooding rains up here all day. Now our past mature, headed out hay looks like it was slept on by dinosaurs....its all kinda matted-down now.


Now you'll really appreciate having the discbine instead of the sickle.

Looks to be the entire week is going to be a wash here as well.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

It does cut downed hay better than haybine, but in the last field I cut, kids drove all over the crop before I cut it. I noticed that the discbine wouldn't cut the tire tracks. The tire tracks are now Mohawks in the field


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

mlappin said:


> Looks to be the entire week is going to be a wash here as well.


Whoa! You're northeast of me and I just looked at weather.com. No rain called for after Sunday. I'm planning/hoping to get first cutting done next week. Some Potomac OG already dropping seeds. The Crown Royal OG still flowering. The Tekapo OG just starting to bloom.

If you do get rain, please keep it up there---the rivers are dropping but slowly. And I'm going on two months of being cooped in.

Ralph

And they don't even mention the south end of the county:: http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/local/article_66b0e254-cf0d-11e2-8777-001a4bcf6878.html


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

JD3430 said:


> It does cut downed hay better than haybine, but in the last field I cut, kids drove all over the crop before I cut it. I noticed that the discbine wouldn't cut the tire tracks. The tire tracks are now Mohawks in the field


If a disc bine didn't pickup the tire tracks a haybine sure as heck would not.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

rjmoses said:


> Whoa! You're northeast of me and I just looked at weather.com. No rain called for after Sunday. I'm planning/hoping to get first cutting done next week. Some Potomac OG already dropping seeds. The Crown Royal OG still flowering. The Tekapo OG just starting to bloom.
> 
> If you do get rain, please keep it up there---the rivers are dropping but slowly. And I'm going on two months of being cooped in.
> 
> ...


Looks pretty wet here next week, maybe it will change.

http://www.weather.com/weather/today/North+Liberty+IN+46554:4:US


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

3 more days of rain coming.
Rained a couple inches on Friday night into Saturday morning.

I have the typical landowner calls and emails "when are you coming out to cut, my place looks like a jungle".

Wish I had a pithy, but polite comeback for them. 
Just made 50 rolls of 25% moisture hay that's worthless in a effort to get something done last week. Really don't want to keep doing THAT.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

JD3430 said:


> 3 more days of rain coming.
> Rained a couple inches on Friday night into Saturday morning.
> 
> I have the typical landowner calls and emails "when are you coming out to cut, my place looks like a jungle".
> ...


Been there done that. It very well could be that they have no idea that it takes up to 3 or 4 days to get hay dry enough to keep. I had a customer that bought three hundred round bales a year from me and had no ideal that you had to get it down around 18 or under for it to store properly. He thought you could mow it in the morning and bale it that night and end up with dry hay.

If their ground is wet enough that they might not know that not only do you need three days for the hay to dry, but that you might need a week of dry weather for the ground to dry out enough to avoid getting stuck.

Email them a few links from ag colleges on the process of making dry hay, if they still just don't get it, keep making it but start looking for ground to replace theirs and let somebody else deal with them.

I had one guy that would call twice a week one year, it was so wet and rained so often my cousins husband who's in landscaping was trying to get me to help em mow lawns with my zero turn as he couldn't keep up with all his running between the rains. Was so wet I had two spots in the yard I couldn't even mow till the middle of July. Was so wet I custom mowed one guys first cutting in August and still left a few wheel tracks. I printed some links off and took em to the guy so he could look it up for himself, that ended the nagging. I'm still amazed though as this guy worries so much I wonder how he's managed not to stroke out yet.


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