In the fall of 2005, Cliff seeded three acres or so in alfalfa. Alfalfa is an amazing producer of hay; around here, you can cut it four or five times in a year and get plenty of quality, high-protein hay for several animals. An alfalfa field can keep yielding for five or six years.
In 2006, even though we didn't always get enough rain, we harvested more than enough hay to pay for the cost of seed and the fuel used in planting the crop the previous year and putting the hay up that year.
In 2007, when it was almost time for the first cutting of the year, we got a late, hard freeze. It killed over half the plants in our stand of alfalfa and, because nature abhors a vacuum, weeds filled in the empty spaces.
So this year the yields weren't very good. Besides, Cliff had begun to resent all the time spent haying when he could be riding the motorcycle.
Now that we have the famous plow, and the use of the brother-in-law's Mahindra, Cliff decided to plow under what remains of the alfalfa for green manure for next year's crop: he'll sow a pasture mix there, something he'll only have to harvest once or twice a year. And he can do the big round bales instead of small square bales. Those small square bales have to be picked up, loaded on a wagon, taken to the barn and unloaded and tossed in a neat stack... usually on days when the temperature is around one hundred degrees. In the shade.
Because the remaining alfalfa is so tall (and it's been cut four times already this year), Cliff decided it might plow under more easilyl if a disc ran over it first; a neighbor boy volunteered for that job.
Now here, for your enjoyment, is a little video of the plow in action.
