# Almost ready to start in Western Australia



## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

Just about ready to start my first hay season in years in the south west of Western Australia.

Been out checking our oats and pasture with the wife and probably start cutting this Sunday or Monday.

Will pick up a new Lely 3.2 metre wide Mower tomorrow to add to the new JD 6105R and JD 469 baler we have just splurged on.

Bit scary. Haven't baled for 20 odd years and aiming to do as close to half of the 4000 round bales we will do this year as possible. Want to try and reduce the reliance on contractors my parents have fallen into as they have got older. Will keep you posted with my trials and tribulations.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Eastfreo said:


> Just about ready to start my first hay season in years in the south west of Western Australia.
> 
> Been out checking our oats and pasture with the wife and probably start cutting this Sunday or Monday.
> 
> ...


I for one would like to see pictures of your hay world there in Western Australia. Good luck with your season.


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

Checking the oats - almost there


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

Checking the oats and rye grass - almost there


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## Idaho Hay (Oct 14, 2016)

There's proof that the world is in fact round (like a ball... not a circle). I'm thinking about getting ready for snow, and you're getting ready to cut hay.

By the way, Great looking stand of rye grass.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I guess it's my turn to live vicariously for 6 months.


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

Good looking oats, good luck on your haying season.


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## bluefarmer (Oct 10, 2010)

Your wife looking good too!!! I am glad we're through with our hay but that green grass makes me envy you just a little! 38 degrees here this morning.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Y'all gettin ready but the wife is in a jacket.....crop looks great! I suppose early in the season we may still have the occasional light jacket on too...good luck on the season freo, keep us posted!


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

When I was a kid we always started hay the first week of November. Now we seem to start earlier and earlier but maybe we will be back on track.

Picked up our new Lely mower today. Still got our old one. Had 20 years plus of faithful service so hard to buy a different brand. Bought a Massey one three years ago and not so impressed with how it has stood up. Usually we have two mowers going to stay ahead of the baler.

And also I agree. I did well with my wife! Still looking great despite keeping two kids (10 and almost 8) and myself plus running the farm and family finances. My dad said she was awesome when we started dating and she spent weekends coming down to the farm and willingly picking up rocks.


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

New Mower (on old truck). Can't wait to get started.


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## Idaho Hay (Oct 14, 2016)

Eastfreo said:


> And also I agree. I did well with my wife! Still looking great despite keeping two kids (10 and almost 8) and myself plus running the farm and family finances. My dad said she was awesome when we started dating and she spent weekends coming down to the farm and willingly picking up rocks.


That's great. My wife loves the farm life as well. And three kids later (four if you count me), she still looks good too.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Eastfreo said:


> New Mower (on old truck). Can't wait to get started.


I like the way those mower pins are level, should make connection easy....


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

Does the mower have 3 blade turtles, like the old Vicons?


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

Gotta like new iron. Makes me wish I could come help you.


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

Now, you're gonna have to get a set of Massey Ferguson decals to put on it!


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

The Lely just had two blades per (whatever you call it). Our old one is 20 years old and been brilliant. Just cut about 50 hectares today and yesterday with the new one and still haven't lost a blade. That is despite a few decent rocks and even hitting an old wood fence post that some how was buried in the ground and just emerged.


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

Just finished my first go around for the season. Arabella decides it is fun to play in the grass!


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

Almost finIshed our second paddock


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

View from the new JD 6105R. Love this tractor.


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

John Deere and the Massey look good together.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Around 1988 my parents and I visited Australia and New Zealand. It's also the first time we saw a disc mower at a farm near Melbourne. They weren't even sold around here until sometime in the mid to late 90s when a custom guy somehow got himself a test NH disc pull type unit. And that was a test demo until. Didn't see any actually for sale for another 2-3 years.


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## Idaho Hay (Oct 14, 2016)

Your kids are truly blessed to be able to grow up in farm country like that. Too many kids now days grow up in the city and the only way they know how to play is with a controller in their hands.

Beautiful Sunset! We've had semi-clear weather here the last few days and have had some really nice sunsets as well. However, The weather is supposed to change later this week to a low of 14F and a high of 31F and a good chance of snow.


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

Nice pics. Good gear.

Take off the loader when you are doing paddock work. It doesn't take long. You will have better visibility, the tractor won't bounce as much, and the loader pivot pins and holes will not wear as much. You might need to add some front weights though. I find with the 9 foot Krone mower conditioner on my NH TS100 I need about 6 front weights with the loader off.

I'm starting in the next week or two.

Roger


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

Haven't had a chance to get back to the forum for a bit. Thanks to all for advice.

I ended up doing about 1,300 bales and our farm did another 1,100 or so with our new JD 469. In addition our contractor did about 1,000 (using same model baler).

Really happy with the result as I was only aiming for us to do about 1,000 while we learnt. But the baler was a great piece of kit.

Had a few bind ups from feeding too fast, had an issue with the net not cutting for a day (used a few tips I read in here and blowing out the cutting knife area seemed to fix it) and our rake doesn't seem to be picking up the hay as well as it used to but nothing major.

Also really surprisingly (as we have had our worst ever season here for pastures), we ended up with a record hay crop. Seems like it all came together at the right moment and we have almost 50% more in a lot of paddocks. We haven't weighed the bales yet to compare ours and the contractor but they are the same height, seem about the same density so that shouldn't be a huge factor.


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

Last paddock I baled. To show you how strange the season was the paddock in the distance was the first one we did about three weeks before. Both paddocks seeded and fertilised at the same time yet massive differences in when their growth. The first one and some others ended up with another foot or so of re-growth and stayed green. You can see the hay left by the rake.


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

On a completely different note, with some rain interruption we found some time to go ferreting!

Had some local guys who have four ferrets ask if they could come over. We all went out and got 31 rabbits and even two little foxes that were down a warren. Amazing how braves these little critters are.

Also I have no idea why my photos attach on an angle. They come up fine on my iPad but then attach on their sides!


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Eastfreo said:


> On a completely different note, with some rain interruption we found some time to go ferreting!
> 
> Had some local guys who have four ferrets ask if they could come over. We all went out and got 31 rabbits and even two little foxes that were down a warren. Amazing how braves these little critters are.
> 
> Also I have no idea why my photos attach on an angle. They come up fine on my iPad but then attach on their sides!


Cute kids...

What's a "warren"?? LOL

Ya gotta translate fer us...  OL J R


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I had no idea folks used ferrets for hunting.....


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## Eastfreo (Aug 15, 2017)

A "warren" is the series of holes that rabbits live in.


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## Hay diddle diddle (Nov 17, 2017)

Daughter had a ferret. Vicious bastard of an animal. Would sink it fangs into me every chance it got. Certainly wasn't upset when it disappeared...


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

We had one for a pet for about two weeks, I remember it smelled awful....it too disappeared


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

In the '90s my wife and I spent some time in Perth attending a Plant Nutrition Conference one week and the next week a conference on zinc as a plant nutrient. The interim weekend we were booked to take a tour to the south in Western Australia, to see agriculture in the Pemberton vicinity. We attempted to redeem our tour tickets in order to rent a car and visit the Outback in Western Australia. the tour booking lady looked at us quizzing noting that we were from Texas. Her comment, "Your from Texas and you want to see the Outback???" Needless to say, we took the tour to the Pemberton vicinity. Beautiful country, and as one native chided us, Western Australia is bigger than Texas.


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## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

vhaby said:


> ..... and as one native chided us, Western Australia is bigger than Texas.


May be it is a lot bigger, nearly 4 times the area but it has less than 1/10th the population, Texas population is in fact larger than that for the whole of Australia.

"WA" as we call it is very diverse and although Eastfreo is only about 350km (220 miles) by road from me, I had almost finished my hay season when he started. About 200 miles as the crow flies, (straight line) means about 2 full weeks difference in the farming seasonal both ends, ie effectively Eastfreo's area gets 4 weeks more growing time on average.

My season too was "different"; the worst I have ever had for hay and approaching the worst for pasture. With my haying I am now running only 1.00 sheep per acre, in the past I have run up to 5.00 but planting less area to hay. In 2002 I had 4.20 sheep per acre and the same proportion of land area as now to hay and negligible hand feeding of the sheep.

Marvellous the difference a beautiful soft start to the rainy season can have compared to a start two and a half months late at the end of June, with the same cut-off time in early October for the rains.

Grain growers in my area have had a fantastic season because good rains to finish the season filled the gram heads, whereas, although the late finishing-rains allowed me to at least cut some hay the abbreviated growing season meant insufficient bulk in the dry matter to make hay. Slightly higher prices for hay have helped a little to offset the low production.


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