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Oh no! The hay!



Every year it is a bit of a gamble to get the hay in. Hay needs to be cut when there are 3-5 days of good dry weather coming. If we put up wet hay, it (at best) molds or (at worst) heats up, spontaneously combusts and burns the barn down. Nothing to trifle with. 

This year we've had our April rains in late May and early June. I have never seen so many 5-day forecasts with rain predicted for almost everyday! We have already lost a small field of clover hay to the rain. Every time hay gets rained on it loses nutritional value. We finally called our dairy farmer neighbor and offered the rained-on clover to him as haylage. 

It looks as though haylage may be in our future, as well. We experimented with it on a very small scale last fall, with good results. But of course we don't have the equipment or set-up needed to do haylage on a large scale. We'll have to hire it done...
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  1. PamJune 7, 2008 at 9:45 PM

    I take it this means you have NOT cut the hay yet?

    ReplyDelete
  2. LonaJune 8, 2008 at 12:47 PM

    We did cut one small clover field and that was what we gave away. We have not cut any more...

    ReplyDelete

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