Hays In!!

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Shari

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Of course is was the hottest weekend on record and an impending thunder storm on the way, it was a race to get all the hay hauled in.

Lucky for us, a close neighbor needed some hay and willing to use his equipment to help bring it in faster. He also bought the extra 100 bales, which was a godsend.

DH & DS was very glad for the help and so in turn they helped the hay buyer to store what he bought. Made the job go a lot faster.

Within two hours of getting the hay in........it started to rain.

Here are a couple of haying photos..this one I like because it was 9:30 at night...fairly dark except for the tree that is lit up behind the tractor.

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Couple of days later,,,mid day, baling.

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This is the best grass hay yet...nice in green. Very glad I have enough stored for awhile and this part of the very hard work is over for this year.

So how is everyone else's haying going?
 
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Not good....my own hay for the minis has been cut and wrapped for the neighbour's dairy cattle. We haven't had any stretch of decent drying weather, let alone decent cutting weather! The most we have been getting between rain is maybe 24 hours!!!! We haven't had any better luck at the big horse barn. They've given up on first cut (as have I) and are hoping for decent weather for drying second cut.

Glad someone somewhere is getting good first cut off!!! I've driven past quite a few fields with hay down and turning brown
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~kathryn
 
Sorry to hear of your hay problems, Kathryn!
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We, like Shari, got our first crop of hay in, it's great hay and we've got lots of it.
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It does feel good to have half our year's supply safe in the hay barn.
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Our hay isn't coming in
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The hay guy came and started to cut it yesterday, gave up and told me it wasn't worth his time, it wasn't thick enough. I had it all sold too! So now I have to pay someone to come mow it so we can work on getting a fall crop.
 
We are also having trouble. It hasn't gone more than one day without raining for a month. My hay guy said he'd have it in 1-3 weeks over a month ago. I hope he gets a great second cutting.

There's a feeling of contentedness when the barn's full of hay--like no other feeling. I can't wait to get it back!
 
Not good.

Thought about this yesterday and realized I don't have one bale put up yet! Time to start shopping around to see who has the best prices and start putting some up.

We're not cutting our own fields this year, due to our pastures hold to much moisture and they just are not drying out enough this year to get them cut.
 
We don't hay as we don't have the acreage, but my neighbor hays quite a few fields and I buy from him. Well, on 9:45pm Sunday night he comes rolling up with 150 bales (I was already in my nightie!) but I figure I should be happy to have my hay no matter what time it is. So hubby and I go out and help unload and stack in my barn, and while we're in there, the person outside on top of the stack handing bales down sees lightening!! So they decide to go back out to the field and get the REST of the hay out of the field!! It's like 11 pm by the time they pull out again. Hubby goes to help and they have him drive while the 3 of them stack like maniacs. Well, the rain never comes, but we get 100 more bales in our barn and the rest goes on down the road to there house. I guess the saying "you have to make hay while the sun shines" also applies at night too!! They hadn't eaten since noon so I quick threw some burgers on the grill and cut some melon and was feeding hungry workers at 1:30 am!

So now we have 250 bales of some very nice, fine-stemmed local grass hay put up in the barn. I think I am going to tell him I want 50 or 100 more just for good luck. It's $3.50 a bale delivered and stacked, or $3.00 in the field. Nice. I checked Craig's list and prices are around $150 a ton for local grass hays and about $250 so far for eastern WA hays like timothy and orchard. Probably the fuel to bring it over here to the west side of the state is contributing to that high price.

Jayne
 
Man, I am sorry for all of you that can't hay your fields this year. It has been really strange weather for this last year, which makes it tough for many of you.

We were lucky this year and managed to get the haying done in a pretty small window of good weather.

Farming/Haying is a "what is the weather going to be", type of life. The hay guy worked until total dark every night until the hay was ready for baling. Longgg hours in farming, thats for sure!

I see ad's around here for grass hay sold in field...that might be an option for some.
 
I gave up years ago, and just buy skids of hay cubes now, 40 bags a skid, delievered & piled for $9.80 / 40lb. bags. A skid here is $392.00

We have one skid in & another skid coming this week.

That is all we use for the winter for 10 minis. They are on pasture for the summer.
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No waste and better quality.
 
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My 2nd cutting should be done here in the next week or two. So far its been a bumper hay year. Rained at just the right time so far, at this rate I think we may squeeze in a 4th cutting. I'm switching from straight grass to a 50/50 mix of alfalfa/grass to hopefully cut down on grain cost this winter.

edited to add re the hay cubes I've tried those and quality is VARIABLE. I looked at 4 different companies when I bought them (was going to post pictures so everone could see the difference but never got around to it. TSC (I think the name was Safley or something like that) had THEE BEST cubes and they were in the middle price wise.
 
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Our haying season is off to a good start...the fields all look very nice and thick. We have about 100 acres in and put up, all are small bales for my minis those weigh about 60-70#s each. No rain on any of it.Today hubby and son are out cutting and bailing, I think they said they have about 90 acres down, and ready to be bailed. Once that is done they only have about another 50-70 acres to go...and we are done with first crop!!!!
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, and hopefully we get all of first crop in with no rain. We usually do all of first crop into the small bales and second we make into the big rounds..for the cattle. So far..so good here!
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Heres a question for you hay experts...A guy came and hayed our xtra field (this is the first time we have done this) and we were to split it 50/50. Well he cut some, baled some, and left. It sat in the field a couple of days till I called and he said "Oh, thats yours I already took mine" Well I didnt know and it did rain on it the nite before-but thats all. I immediately put it all in the barn. Now this is just grass and I was going to keep it as a filler or just something to throw out mid day winter...I was not counting on it as my HAY as I ordered Timothy from my usual guy. Question is...Is it all ruined or do I just have to check EXTRA well for mold before I feed it? It is piled loosely in the barn for extra ventilation-and seems to look and smell OK...
 
Was the hay dry when you put it in the barn? You said it is piled loosly ...but its still in bales right? If it got a good soaking from the rain the night before..and you pile it wet, it is going to get moldy on you. But, if it just got a touch of rain, and was able to dry before you put it in, you'r OK. The mold wont be immediate it will start after its been piled and fermenting. If it was just the top pr ends that got a little bit of a sprinkle on it..it probably will dry if its piled lose, but I would still be watching carefully for any mold. We always put a good layer of salt between our rows of hay, and make about 250 acres of hay each year. Never had any problems with mold and usually nice and green, with no rain.
 
I have 160 in. Need about 300 more. My regular guy was to bring some over, but called tonight and said it was getting hot on the wagon. Another guy called today (neighbor that I'm not sure knows what good hay is) and said he cut Monday, baled Tuesday, and wanted me to take it today. He would bring it in his bale catcher wagon, and dump it in front of my barn for the bargain price of $4/bale. Geez how nice. Another guy called me a week or so ago and said he had some nice hay for $4 delivered in the barn. I saw the hay and should have taken it, but had already committed to my regular dealer. We're getting the rain every 24=48 hours too, so hay is going to be tight.
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