Hay, You
We all know that hay pretty much goes with the own-a-horse equation. And those of us who don't board our horses out, but keep them at home instead, know this as well: The finding, transporting, stacking, and rehandling of hay is right up there on the Major Chores list. And then there's the matter of paying for it.
I have this on my mind because today's the first day of our personal haying season. We'll be bringing the first of this year's locally grown hay crop into the barn, for the coming winter. And since good hay weather is also hot weather, there'll be some sweatin' by the oldies at our place today. Hay season: That's been the meaning of summer for me, ever since I was a kid, growing up on a farm. If you weren't cutting and baling hay, you were hauling, loading and unloading it, or feeding and cleaning up after the crew that did, and you worked at it until you had a whole winter's supply for your animals. That's how I still approach it.
So much for afternoons at the lake, at least for the next spare-time while.
Now I'm curious about how YOU go about laying in a hay supply. There's a big range between one bale bought at a time, from a feed store, to having a semi load delivered and stacked by a paid crew. When it shows up on your to-do list, what does "Get Hay" mean to you?
posted by Juli Thorson @ 10:15 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
I used to keep my horse(s) at my parents' place, so putting up hay meant getting several loads of grass and alfalfa and hand stacking it in the old barn. This year, on my place, it means completing the moving of a barn within the next month so that we have someplace dry to put the stuff. Hopefully, it will then come on a big truck and be stacked with a squeeze. Here's hoping. :-)
For me it means hoping the dry weather will soon turn wet and let the hay crop grow. We're running about 1/3 to 1/2 the crop per cutting we had last year. Just put the second cutting in the barn last week. I just hope to get enough to make it throuh winter and not need to buy any. It is sooo expenive this year locally. About $9.00 for a small square bale.
We've finally had rain! I can hear the hay growing T.G. We pick up out of the field, we have a flat bed trailer and can haul 200 bales at a time - truck and trailer loaded. Very labor intensive, I'm not sure if it's worth the savings but the farmers here prefer cash and carry. We can get grass mixes for $2 -2.50/bale and alfalfa for $3-4. We feed clean barn stored round bales throughout the winter for constant roughage when it is cold, and we pick that up on the flat bed also, 4 at a time. I feed very little grain - mainly only for the growing and PGs. All the hay is VERY labor intensive, but I have never had a colic. A hard working sweaty lifestyle. A labor of love.
When I was a kid we bought hay from our neighbor at 8 to 9 ton at a time usually first or second cutting. We'd get up at the crack of dawn grab the truck and trailer and head out pick it up out of the field, when I was little I drove the truck (what a nice plush job that was) when I was older I had the pleasure of picking bales up and throwing them on to the trailer. We'd fill the back of the truck up and the trailer before if got hot.
Our neighbor would count the bales - we'd pay on the spot then head home and park it until it got dark. I can remember paying only $60 a ton a couple of years, its more like $110 now if you pick it up yourself. Then we'd unload on to a hay elevator and stack it in the barn - sprinkling salt every so often (it was important our hay was DRY- because if it wasn't - in that heat, our barn would've gone up like a match stick).
For some reason, in the middle of the night there would always be a meteor shower. I can remember laying on my back on the hay and watching beautiful streaks light arching through the sky. The smell of night and hay are still powerful for me to this day.
Now on my little 5 acres I grow my own hay - on a good year I can get 9-10 ton off it and the second cutting much less, but I can sell all the extra to off set the costs of getting our field fertilized, cut, and then baled. Usually I don't come out even, but I have gotten close.... if I have any left over I bring it to shows to use to off set my trainers bill.
Hay is not grown in our part of Florida so it must all be trucked in. We feed Timothy that comes from Canada. We have used the same supplier for several years. The truck comes once a month and stops beside the road in front of my farm. The semi can't go down the drive to my barn without cutting down a big oak tree which I will not do so we off load onto our pickup and take it to the barn. I feed 9 horses and buy between 60 and 90 bales a month. About 15 other people order hay and pick it up from the truck at my place. The bales average 50 lbs. and are $8.50 per bale. It is always nice hay and the schedule is reliable. We have not been able to develop a reliable source for US hay.
Local Orchard grass was wonderful this year so 6 tons of that was delivered and stacked by the hay farmer's crew. 6 tons of eastern Oregon Alfalfa/Orchard mix were delivered, along with 4 tons of Barn Dry bedding, on Saturday. My husband and son had to stack that load. Timothy hay is next, 4 tons that the farmer will deliver and stack. That takes care of the year for my 4 horses.
NE Colorado .. we buy our grass hay in 3x3x8 bales (sometimes called coffin bales – 1100 to 1250#) we haul two at a time on our pickup .. push and pull them off with our little ole Ford tractor and stack them on pallets. Because we have a smaller tractor we can not stack them up .. trying to buy grass hay is running $6.50 to $9.00 a small bale - 55 to 65# - so we have switched to the larger bales ..
We don’t save much money by buying the coffin bales over the sm bales, except that we only handle them once when we take them off of the truck .. the farmer does load them onto our truck.
I have a garden wagon that I load a days worth of hay onto and I can pull it by hand to each of the paddocks and drop into the hay containers. After a few times of weighting you can eye-ball how much you are putting into the hay containers .. I do double check myself every couple of weeks or so to be sure that I am feeding 10-12# per horse per feeding, I can also watch each horse to see how they look.
We are hoping to do two things to make it easier, 1) build a flat bed trailer so we can haul more bales in a trip, and 2) win the lottery so we can build a hay barn and have someone else haul in our hay for us : )
I try to go for 20 bales at a time...that is what fits comfortably in my truck...I have huge grassy pastures, live in florida and so my pastures stay nice year round, unless it is drought. With three horses, even in the winter I barely use a bale a day.
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