Bales heavier than the others, are a clue to possibly damp or moldy hay in them. You don't want to feed the moldy stuff or use for bedding. Better hay dealers will take back bad bales, ask your hay seller about it. Do make the fencing firm, so horse can't lean over and push into the stored hay. Has horse been checked by horse dentist, up-to-date on vaccinations, since you brought her home? Bad teeth, with long points, uneven surface, make eating hay hard. Horse won't get food value from hay you serve him. Now that horse is in better shape, you want to make sure it is protected from the basic problems, tetnus, Rabies, fly-borne illness, West Nile. You can vaccinate horse yourself, or have the vet out to do it. Do you have a history from the Rescue folks? If not, you start from scratch, with two sets of injections, then yearly boosters next fall. With giving injections yourself, no cost for vet visits, you can easily space out the shots, not give them all the same day. We try to space ours a week apart. Less stress on horse system, than with a bunch of different meds given at once. With horse being in poor shape on arrival, you may want to make a chart of her gains, post inside the barn. Weight tapes are available at the local TSC type farm stores, tack stores. Use tape to measure horse girth, guestimate weight, put it on the chart. Take a photo if possible, put it up on chart as well. Date the numbers. Plan to take the numbers again, weekly, put on chart. Take a monthly photo to add to chart. This will provide a consistant record of how you are keeping the horse. Prevents big weight gain or loss under winter hair, with weekly checking. You may have some issues with horse feed quantities, since you have not managed keeping one on your own before. Most new owners tend to overfeed, a LOT. Hair covers things, may be porked out or ribby under thick winter coats. Weekly check should help you here. It is better to feed more hay, a couple times a day, than to increase the grain quantity. Plain cracked corn and oats are great grain feed, you don't have to buy expensive brand-name feeds. Most are just full of sugars, which horse doesn't need. Hay quantity will vary on how well horse uses it up. Colder, freezing temps, will mean horse should get more hay quantity to stay warm. Not a lot more, unless temps are down below zero. I try to feed what horse will clean up in an hour of steady hay eating. Longer eating time usually means mine are just stuffing themselves, not NEEDING it. Nights mine are fed inside, they get a little more hay quantity, fed individually. Nights are colder, need more food to stay warm, plus it keeps them busy in stalls. Fatter horses get less, young horses get more, because it is probably opposite when feed as a group outside in the AM. Hay is better for staying warm, semi-ferments, creating body heat to keep animal warm. Grain doesn't work that way, so not the same benefit to horse. Provide ample salt and water, especially in cold weather. Tank heaters will keep ice from forming, so horse has water at all times during cold weather. Water is almost your most valuable winter feed product. Without it, horse will easily sicken, not be able to manage in the cold. Colic is a huge problem with winter horsekeeping. They don't drink enough to keep the gut hydrated. Know your horse's normal water consumption amount, pay attention when horse doesn't drink that much. You have to get them hydrated somehow. Wet beet pulp is the new favorite feed for horses, can be a great filler, adds liquid to the system. We feed it daily here, all the horses eat quite a bit, especially in winter. Cheap, easy to digest feed. Something you might check out for yourself.

My 18 year old JD170 finally 'died'. Or so I told myself and my wife. :-) Actually, one of the spindles broke and everyone knows that a broken spindle can't be fixed. Right? So what's a guy to do (sob). What any guy would do -- I went and bought a brand new X300 which will be delivered in 2 days. I only cut a mostly flat 1/2 acre so the X300 is overkill but who cares! I do want to buy the snow blower attachment and figured the X300 will be excellent for that purpose. I really can't wait. By the way Jaws, the spec sheet says the X300 has the K46 transmission, not the T46. I didn't read this post until last night, so I didn't get down to look at the sticker. All the posts though just confirmed that I bought one great machine. I might bypass the RIO switch though as I didn't buy the 4WS and do back up quite a bit. My 170 still has a perfectly running Kawasaki 14HP engine and tranny. What a workhorse! I gave pause to look at the HuskVys and Cub Cadets, but my 170 made me a JD loyalist. It really gave me outstanding service and I wasn't one to take care of it much. Lacking a shed and garage space, I often left it out all year, including severe upstate NY winters. It always started right up in the spring. But rust (wonder how that happened), deteriorating bags (hmmmm), and faded paint (go figure) convinced me that it was time. Actually, the fact that my 10yo son will want to be cutting the lawn in a couple years had something to do with it. Figured I want a some time where it's just MY machine. Don't worry guys -- I promise to take care of my new machine. I'm 53, and want this machine to last me 20 years or more -- or until I get the itch for a new model, whichever comes first. JD did give me $250 for a trade-in on the 170. I might had got more for it if I wanted to fix the spindle, clean it up and put up for sale -- but that would take time away from my X300. I'll let you guys know how I like it. Who am I kidding... I'm going to Love it!

my2014 X300 transmission just died.,.,,.230 hrs on it.,.,i mow approx. 1.2 acres and use the 44 inch snowblower.,.,.,i was told by dealer that J.d new of this transmission issue early on and then rebuilt/redesigned the tranny in the newer versions in 2018.,.,realizing that the 3/4 axles were borderline strong enough for the snowblower attachment.,.,.,$1,200 later.,.,i'm mowing again.,.,,.if your going to add attachment to any tractor maybe 3/4 axle should be avoided.,

Well, first cut has taken place. The mulch kit was dealer fitted but looks different from the photos above, as there is no block on the side discharge (should I check this out with the dealer?). Having only used a 16inch push gas mower, it's quite a big change to use a fancy smancy tractor. It took several passes before I figured out the blades weren't on! It's also shown up the big dips I have on my lawn and the two holes! I must fill those up and toss in some grass seed. The plug in hose thingy worked great. I'm just thinking about smoothing out some of those tight bends in the plastic border that separates the gravel from the grass. I will have to reset some portions. Can anyone tell me what I should be aiming at when setting the plastic border height? Are all plastic borders the same? Thanks.