Got to say that I disagree with John_PA a little bit (repectfully, of course). It may do with our climate, where we occasionally get rain every day for 70 days, but only just enough to keep the hay damp. Around here it is better to cut late and get something, than cut with no weather window and lose it all. Half rotted hay is not turned silage at all, silage is an anaerobic (no oxygen) fermentation, not rot. Rot causes mold and mildew that can lead to health problems for horses, and does not increase the palatability at all. Salting hay does not actually dry it enough to help "cure" wet hay, it merely makes a rotted mess more palatable.
That said, hay getting rained on a bit does not hurt it, if it does not stay damp too long, and you can get it dry and out of the field. We get a lot of days where the guessers call for a 40-70% chances of rain, and it is limited to a few showers late in the afternoon, with 80F and sunny before and after the rain. Nobody else around here will cut because they call for rain, yes, mine gets rained on, but it only stays wet for less than an hour. Last two years I have been the first in my area to get dry hay up, so sell out fast to folks who are out from winter. It is a guessing game, but recording the weather every day and then looking at trends from years past has done us a lot of good, the weather seems to follow the same pattern most years, it might be a week or two off one way or the other, but once you figure out where you are at in the pattern, it helps.
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Today's Featured Article - Timing Your Magneto Ignition Tractor - by Chris Pratt. If you have done major engine work or restored your tractor, chances are you removed the magneto and spark plug wires and eventually reached the point where you had to put it all back together and make it run. On our first cosmetic restoration, not having a manual, we carefully marked the wires, taped the magneto in the position it came off, and were careful not to turn the engine over while we had these components off. We thought we could get by with this since the engine ran perfectly and would not need any internal work. After the cleanup and painting was done, we began reassembly and finally came to t
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