Can You Cut HAY With a BRUSH HOG (Bush Hog / Rotary Cutter) Homesteading 101

We are cutting our hay today.
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College Hill Farm is a Homestead/Hobby Farm operated by Joel and Crystal Eldridge. We homestead, garden, can, freeze, store, dehydrate, raise animals, vlog, and write about the homesteading way of life, which is really an Appalachian way of life for hundreds of years. We provide time honored traditional advice from years of experience. We also try new things we have never tried before to see how they work for us. Be certain to visit our channel page at / collegehillfarm On the page you can see our trailer which details why we are on UA-cam. So subscribe and join us on our journey. If you hit the little bell it will notify you when we upload videos. We upload every Sunday. Sometimes one or sometimes 5 videos are uploaded depending on what went on on the homestead that week. Feel free to contact us by snail mail at College Hill Farm PO Box 89 Paint Lick, Ky. 40461 You might also catch up with us at Village Fest - In the Historic Village of Paint Lick the first Saturday in October.

[@tinker-tinker]

I'd be interested in seeing how you go about sweeping the hay.

[@CollegeHillFarm]

I did a video about our homemade sweep. Here it is ua-cam.com/video/2gQgVOmeeEg/v-deo.html

[@tinker-tinker]

@@CollegeHillFarm Thanks, I've seen similar sweeping methods. It works really good on gently sloped to flat land with tall growing grasses. I envy your timothy grass. I'm stuck with mostly Bermuda grass. I've over seeded with red clover and tall fescue, but until I can get the soil fertility up the only thing that continues to grow most of the year is the Bermuda and white clover. I do still gather what I can, but I use a lawn sweeper for now. I put it around my grape vines and fruit trees, and use it to help compost the sawdust from my sawmill. For me my lawn sweeper has been one of my best purchases. I use it to gather leaves, pick up the pecans in the fall, and collect my short grass. I'll end up making a sweep like your once I can get my grasses to grow taller. Does the front end loader on your tractor have a float position? I would think cutting the bevel on the tines the other way and using the float position would make it easier to sweep the hay without risking breaking the tines off.

[@CollegeHillFarm]

My bucket does not have a float position. That would be nice. I have never tried the tines the other way. I bought a bunch - like 50 for $1 each 3 or 4 years ago and still have maybe 30 of them left. I break one every now and again. But I have really gotten better at it as the years have gone by.

[@MikeOrazzi]

It looks good to me. Our fields are in rough shape, so I tend to brush hog slower. In time, with enough cuttings, we hope the grass improves. @@CollegeHillFarm

[@CollegeHillFarm]

We overseeded some of ours. I mowed really low and then put on the cultivators and cut grooves all of the area. Then I planted a seed mix with rye, timothy, and orchard grass. The pasture was full of weeds and tall fescue. I mowed and never let the weeds go to seed. Took about 4 yrs but mine is way better. @@MikeOrazzi

[@bashkimterzija9484]

Common I cannot stand bullshit talk 😊

[@CollegeHillFarm]

Me either