THE STATE OF THE HAY

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.