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Address Excess Hay Accumulation to Prevent Smothering

0:52
11:40
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STARTING A FARM...SPEND A DAY IN THE LIFE OF OUR FARM JOURNEY

What happens here

Locate areas where hay has been left in large, thick clumps on the field. These accumulations can act as a smothering layer, preventing sunlight and air from reaching the newly sprouted grass and cover crops beneath, causing them to die. Use a pitchfork to carefully lift and gather these hay clumps. The goal is to clear the hay from the underlying vegetation, allowing it to grow unimpeded. This collected hay will then be repurposed for erosion control in later steps.

Goal: Identify and remove large clumps of hay left behind from previous baling activities. These clumps can smother and kill beneficial cover crops and grass underneath, hindering overall soil health and pasture establishment.

Tools and materials

  • Pitchfork
  • Utility Vehicle (e.g
  • Gator)
  • Excess Hay

What they say

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with this bare land Ryan equals washing washing equals fix it got to fix it quick so where we be able to hey the other day I've got some piles of hay I need to scoop them up so they don't kill the grass and we're gonna use that to fix the spots that are washing so come along with me I'm gonna have a little bit of fun alright [Music] new h-bomb so guys first things first while we're driving over here to the other side of the farm look at this mess oh my god so this used to be our farm Road right here and now it's trees and trash everywhere okay solve this mess all this land here that's behind me we're going to take back to feel and we're going to take it all the way down to the creek now the Forestry Service has some rules that we have to play by okay so we can't cut trees within 50 feet of the creek if we do that we could damage the watershed and we don't want to damage the watershed so we're doing what we're supposed to do in the meantime here's a big mess and there's a bee around me and they won't leave me alone dude go away there's a hole there's 200 acres here so the timber guys are getting some nice timber here we've got some pretty decent pine saw logs here which means a little more bling bling' a little more money in the pocket that we can use to put back into the land and fix all this mess which will happen soon let's go over to the pond real quick I'll show you what's going on at the pond not a good thing going on over to the pond thank you and show you first of all I can't tell you how impressed I am and how good a job these timber guys have done this garret logging has been great with me they've done an awesome job however the only way they could get the land cut over here across the pond which we're going to cut that we're going to take it back to field leaving some huge oaks and big beautiful trees and and take out the old scraggly fraggles this was all filled at one point and we're retaking it so don't hate me for cutting the trees but anyhow they've got to come across the pond dam right here and when they come across the pond dam what's it gonna do it's gonna spread the soil well it's smooth the soil and it looks great but we've got trees and brush and branches all in the pond which will eventually catch up on the pond pipe we've got to drain pipes for the pond what's got to happen here is after they get done cutting I've got to make an apparatus to reach out there or get a canoe and get out there and get those branches and toss them out of…

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