Hay Hay Hay

Did up the first cut at home for my milk cows in
haylage chopped into the pit, around the first week
of June. Then moved on to wet bales of first cut,
have around 300 of those. Now I am making some
dry hay. Rolled up 150 one afternoon, and wrapped
100 of them to protect them from weather. Bales up
83 bales yesterday, and hay another 30 acres laying
to cure. I still have 65 more acres of hay to cut in
first cut, and I don?t need it and the market is a bit
soft right now.
Got to get the rest of this dry hay done and moved,
so I can go back and make the second cut ( rocket
fuel ) for the milk cows. Stopping to clear bales off
the field takes up time, and I don?t have much
storage. Got a regular customer coming to pick up
100 off the field, should help. We are fairly dry this
year, but I grow mostly Alfalfa or Red Clover, and
our ground is well drained, so stands of hay put
down deep roots, and grow well through dry times
when grass with its sallow roots needs regular rain.
The pictures I took yesterday are in a little triangle
field of about 5 acres, cut off from a big field by a
drainage ditch. Got 50 bales off this field, and sold
them for enough money to take the wife and I on a
four day bus tour to Iowa, and Farm Progress show
in August.
Last year it rained so much , it was hard to get dry
hay. Year before was like this, but the market for
hay was hot. Hay is a fickle crop to sell.

Looks good I?d like to take a trip to the farm progress show someday .

Very nice Bruce. Really nice yields. Thanks for the pics and chat.

That's some nice looking rows Bruce!

It is funny how things work. Hay is increasing in price here. The cold April seems to have reduced yields on our first crop hay. Then other areas are too dry and there hay is yielding about half.

looks like a nice cut bruce, having to much hay is a good problem to have. there was a fellow posted here yesterday about having to sell cow/calf pairs to match his hay supply, as you said the hay business is whacky!

We are in a horrible drought here. I?m baling everything that won?t run away and will be fine, but I know guys that have already started selling their herds. I rolled up 76 rounds today on ground that usually gives me close to double that. It?s so short and fine it?s hard to get the bales to hold together. This is when I wished I had upgraded to a netwrap machine. They are saying $90 a bale by cold weather.

You have some nice feed ready!

Would like to have about half of that hay for this winter. People are already looking for hay this summer here. Hay sure is a fickle market. I sat on hay for 2-3 years then all of a sudden it flew away this past winter/spring.