Reliant on the Weather

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While much of last week was spent preparing for haying, we spent only some of our time this week on the actual haying process.

Although we had cut a pasture some time ago, sporadic rain left us unable to bale it, leaving it sitting for more than a week in on-and-off rain. We began the week with raking and baling early in the morning so that we could cover as much ground as possible. I spent the entire day raking the pasture. Before today, I had never driven a tractor, but my host taught me how to drive the tractor and how to rake. I was struck by how such an old piece of equipment (this tractor was from 1966) still ran great today, even under heavy use.

I spent the majority of the next day raking as well. However, around midday, I damaged part of the rake. My host wasted no time in fixing the rake. While other employees were baling what I had raked, my host quickly repaired the damaged portion of the rake, making it look almost as if there had been no damage before. The way that such a complicated repair was handled so smoothly fascinated me. It also showed me that while there are key skills necessary to understand how operations work, there is a never-ending amount of knowledge that could be consumed to streamline operations.

The forecast called for severe thunderstorms for the middle of the week, so we were unable to work on the hay. In order to still utilize the day(s), we worked on general chores that we could do inside. However, we were able to continue doing some baling, and I went right back to raking the pasture the next day.

Yet again, night rain rendered us unable to work on the hay on Friday. Instead, we started an irrigation project. In order to minimize the distance that the cattle have to walk to get water, we worked on connecting the water sources to the middle of the pastures. I spent most of my time operating the trencher.

One of my greatest takeaways from this week was how reliant the operations are on the weather. It is unfamiliar territory, for myself, for factors so outside our control to have such an impact on our day-to-day operations and what we are able to complete.

Submitted by: AJ Mishra
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team