This Year's Hay

For the last 9 years, we have purchased horse hay. For many years we would have to buy one ton at a time and fill our barn over the course of the summer.  Last year, we contracted with a farmer to put "big bales" in for us, all in one day. We didn't really like managing the feeding process with the big bales (they are a pain to flake off and maneuver into our feeders), but we liked having it all put into the barn in one shot. 

We've been subject to market conditions, which felt somewhat silly -- to have trouble finding hay when we live in the middle of grass fields. It's not just the cost, but also the hassle and risk to have to find more hay in the winter, when there might not be any around. And this year, with droughts in some places and flooding in others, it's likely to be another hard year to find hay, as most local farmers will plan to ship all theirs off to Eastern Oregon or Texas, where there could be a shortage. That causes a shortage here too, which seem ridiculous. But of course, economics are the driver in this.

This year, we decided to experiment with haying some of our own ground. We aren't sure we are going to do this again. It's not for the faint of heart -- there is one helluva lot of risk in this. And it's definitely not proving out to be cheaper. But it's certainly a learning experience.

In addition to a hillside field, we took a few acres of a lower field, because the grasses are a mixed type and the grass seed farmer is not happy with the way that plot of land grows. So we thought we would simply turn it into horse feed.

It looked pretty nice after being cut and tetted.

Then finally the raking and baling began. 

But the weather started to change. Slow at first, but we were fighting against a thunderstorm forecast. See the clouds building up?

We put together a hay crew to get it out of the field and into the barn over the weekend, when it was still dry. They worked some hard and long hours. 

We used our hay elevator for the first time. Wow, what a savior it was, for loading hay into the loft of the barn.

Aleaha was a helper too, cleaning up in between loads.

The good news is that we filled the barn chock-full. I'm not sure if we have our full 20 ton like I wanted to have, but every nook and cranny is crammed with hay.

The tough news is that the rain came with a vengeance, and we have lost a lot of hay. I can't dwell on that, and we are going to try to recover. Hopefully we will still be able to sell some to recover some of the cost.