Haying Time

Last year we got 65 bales of sad hardly worth baling hay on our first cutting and we didn't even bother with a second or third cutting. This year, with the drought solidly behind us we got 369 bales of quality hay.

We couldn't have picked a patch of better weather to do our haying. This spring and summer has seen mild temps and rain about every three days which is great for growing but not so great for haying because we didn't have a tedder. We cut, let it dry, rake and then bale and it usually takes 3 or 4 days where we need no rain.

You cant imagine the relief we felt with this years harvest after the terrible drought of last year. We were spending $300 a month on hay for the cattle last year from about mid Nov - March of this year.

We would have preferred to harvest the hay a little sooner as it was getting past its prime but its still very good hay and you cant rush mother nature.

This was a virtual dust and weed patch last year at this time.

Maybelle has to check everything out. Some people say cattle are dumb but I find them to be fairly intelligent and they have a curiosity that disputes the dumb tag.

 

Holly and I and later with the help of our neighbor Roger got all the hay bucked and into the barn before the rains came which happened a few hours after we were done...whew!

The southern pasture had more hay production because we aren't running cattle on it this year.

Holly is a trooper and real partner. We are both somewhat crippled up so it takes us a bit longer than it would other wise but we get great satisfaction from doing for ourselves. In this picture you can see the difference between this years hay which has a green tint and the junk hay we had left from last year. Also, those are Alaskan King Crab pots on the left that we brought from Alaska....I wonder how many Ozark farmers have King crab pots in their hay mow?

So this is what we ended up with. Enough to carry us through the winter without buying hay and we should be able to sell a good bit...and we also expect to get at least one more cutting in a month or so.

Happiness is a full hay mow. We have traded the golf cart with our friends Susan and Blena from Bowen Creek Farm for a couple sheep...so soon we will be expanding to sheep. 

And finally, the orchard is coming along nicely. We have plans to greatly increase the size of the orchard but like most things, time and money are in short supply so its taking longer than we would like.