Krois hay and grain farming

As I continue my blogging, I will start with a family that has farmed in the Colville Valley since the '40's. Andy and Bobbi Krois are the parents of Ange who happens to live on the property across the street from me. 

I had once said that I would be interested to know the in's n out's of hay farming at a party about two months ago at Ange's house. Andy remembered and invited me down to his fields while they worked this week. 

Andy first explained that today they were cutting triticale grain, which is a hybrid of wheat and rye, but were only baling some left over alfalfa they cut a couple days ago.

Andy's son Steve, is cutting the grain with his John Deere Powr-Reverser 890. They cut it and leave the grain to dry for a day or two before baling. The moisture has to be just right or they must use a drying agent on the baler.

  

Steve took me for a round of cutting. It was a rough ride caused by gopher mounds, but air conditioning and stereo did help, although I asked where the 27 inch flat screen was...never said I was a farmer.

The triticale grain is slightly larger than wheat grain and is used exclusively for forage and feed.

The tall grain is grown alongside a field of alfalfa, also belonging to Andy, that was cut three weeks ago and being watered for another cutting this summer.

Andy's machine can bale very large round bales...called big rounds. The inside of the tractor had as many dials, knobs and handles that a small plane might possess. From the inside the operator can control size, moisture, weight and more with the controls.

Close-up of the baling (or bailing according to Websters) machine.

Here is the net that wraps the "big rounds" much like you would use Costco Stretch-Tite that I use for a cob of corn that is going into the microwave.

The big rounds run between 900 and 1100 pounds, depending on what crop is being cut. With the 4-5 big rounds per acre and Andy's 500 acres...that amounts to quite a bit of forage.

Andy wanted to take my photo and had me back up into the shower from the pivot...jeez it was cold.

The 1/5 mile center pivot nearly cover 1/2 mile in diameter area. Andy draws straight out of the Colville River and is worried that he can only do it for one or two weeks more. The warm winter gave us the correct amount of annual precipitation, but no snow pack to speak of, which is what would of carried the river well into September. Each section of the pivot is independently motorized and a little computer box tells the wheels when to catch up to the section in front.

Free car wash, but after driving the 1/2 mile dirt road leaving the field, the car was a mess!

Andy used another tractor later in the day to move the recently rolled bales off to the side and out of the way of the pivot. In a day or two a semi will come and start loading the rounds for sale. 

I live on the hill behind the tractor.

If you look up and down the 20 mile Colville Valley during this time of year you will see thousands of "big rounds" sitting in the field just waiting to be taken away.