To say we’ve been busy around the farm lately would be nothing short of an understatement. In the last month, we’ve welcomed the birth of almost 30 calves and put up first crop of hay. We’re definitely not complaining – the calves are strong and healthy and this is the first time we’ve put up first crop in May.

Normally, we spread harvesting each cut of hay over about a two week period because of the amount of ground we farm and the fact we both have full-time jobs – sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day. But this year, the last week of May had almost perfect weather conditions for putting up hay so Andy and I took time off work so we could condense first crop down to one week.

Cutting Hay

Harvesting hay is a fairly straight-forward process. We start by cutting the field with a mower-conditioner aka MoCo. We use a MoCo since we can cut a field fairly quickly and, perhaps more importantly, the MoCo is designed to crimp the hay allowing the grass to release moisture which results in a faster dry time when compared to other methods of cutting hay. The MoCo cuts about a 10′ swath of hay which each pass and, depending on the roughness of the ground, we can cut at about 9 mph. Sounds good on paper, however, in real life when cutting over 100 acres of hay, this step takes time! Here’s a video of the MoCo in action-

The MoCo is no joke. I remind the kids (or nag if you ask them) every time we cut hay that they are never to be around this piece of equipment when it’s running. Not only are the cutting discs dangerous, you also have to worry about the machine turning rocks into projectiles which is why we only hook the MoCo up to a tractor with a cab.

Drying

The MoCo drops the hay in wide swaths allowing the hay to start the drying process immediately after cutting. Depending on weather conditions, drying can take anywhere from two to four days on average. We typically rake the hay a day or two after cutting so the underside can dry. This is especially beneficial when working with forages that have a longer dry time such as clover.

Baling

Most of the hay we put up are large round bales. In years past, we put up small square bales for the horses and goats, but I’ve got to be honest, I just have no desire to hop on a hay wagon anymore. Something about work smarter not harder? Anyway, when putting up hay yourself you can monitor weather and drying conditions so hopefully avoid mold issues with the large rounds – which is why I previously hesitated to feed round bales to the horses. Cows can handle lesser quality hay if need be, horses can’t.

When putting up dry stored hay, it’s imperative to wait and bale once the hay is completely dry as any moisture can mold, or worse, heat up and start a fire. It’s frightening how quickly hay can heat up and you can lose not only the feed for your animals, but the building the hay is stored in too. We leave the bales on the field for at least a few days so the hay can go through a sweat to ensure there’s no heating when moved in to the barn.

Storage

This year after talking to a couple longtime local farmers, we decided to try our hand at put up high moisture hay. You can find a quick overview of high moisture hay here . We had the opportunity to feed some of this hay over winter and the cows absolutely loved it. I imagine eating dry hay is like pouring yourself a bowl of wheat cereal only to realize your out of milk. You can eat it, but definitely not as appealing as the cereal with milk – or in this case, high moisture hay.

Anyway, unlike dry hay, high moisture hay is baled while still damp. The extra moisture requires this type of hay to be wrapped in plastic to lock out oxygen so the hay doesn’t mold and also so the bales can ferment. This step of the process requires a bale wrapper which we don’t have, but the farmers that introduced us to this method have the wrapping equipment and offered to help us put up our first crop of hay. We took them up on the offer as it’s much more cost effective to pay them for their time and equipment (and expertise) then to invest in a wrapper right now. Here’s what the wrapping process looks like-

We are extremely grateful the farmers were willing to share their knowledge and equipment to make our first wrapping experience a success. Not everyone is willing to help others succeed, especially on a 100 degree day 🙂 But, our first experience with this process was pretty flawless.

Here’s a picture of the finished wrapped bales, waiting to be fed this winter –

In addition to the high moisture hay, we put up a portion of first crop as dry hay which we’ll feed to the horses and goats.

What’s Next

The hay we put up so far is a good start to what we need to feed the animals throughout winter, however, we’ll need two to three times this amount to keep our animals full until spring. We’re definitely praying for rain as the weather is looking hot and dry in our area for the foreseeable future and the hot, dry weather is already stressing the crops.