Wether you make your living from your stock or they're members of the family, we're here for you. Raising and baling high quality forage isn't our side hustle or a part of our farm... it is our farm. Our focus is producing quality forage for your stock. We put in a lot of effort to grow a consistent, quality product feeding the most important animals in the world... yours.
We're members of the National Hay Association and the Illinois Forage and Grasslands Council (In fact our founder sits on the board of directors).
We're a small family farm in Southern Illinois. We bale 850 acres of hay. We raise alfalfa, alfalfa/grass mix and grass hay.
As we've grown our farm one of the hardest parts was getting help with our soil and plant health. We've created a program to help small farms have better pastures year after year. Join the program for the sake of your stock.
Choosing the right seed for your pasture is challenging. We had the same problem. Our solution... we started working with one of the leading forage seed companies in Illinois to provide the varieties of seed that are right for our area.
Well almost! We mowed the last of our grass hay the day before yesterday and will be baling some round bales for cattle on this 80 acres. So far this season we've put over a million pounds of hay in the barns. Almost 1,000 bales of alfalfa, several hundred bales of grass hay and about 300 bales of alfalfa grass mix. The bulk of this has already been sold, so get with us before we run out.
Some things we think all horse owners should be thinking about right now. This July looks to be very hot and dry. Our weather service is predicting SEVERE HEAT and dryer than average weather for the month. This will make it tough to grow hay. At this point we're not too concerned, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on. In our operation we always try to have a year and a half of hay in our barn by the end of summer. The reason for this is to protect us if we start next year in a bad hay situation. It gives us time to come up with a plan without too much stress.
As farmers we love rain, but too much rain can be almost as tough as no rain. First, the hay looks great, but with continued rain in the forecast it's going to be a challenge to get it out of the field in good condition. Also, as we extend the harvest date we have to be mindful of weed pressure, lignin content in the alfalfa, foxtail, etc. It's all part of the process to raise the best hay possible.
With all of that said we're super excited about this year. We've added a large square bale stack wagon to our fleet to help get the bales out of the field faster. As with any hay operation getting the bales out of the field is one of the most time consuming parts of the process. We're hoping this new stack wagon speeds that process up. We've also added another 150 acres of alfalfa. We planted these fields last August and will be baling in the first cutting this year. That puts us at roughly 300 acres, with more to be added this year.
That's it for now, as the season moves along we'll post updates here on the site and on Facebook.