Ain’t that the truth! We woke to the sound of mowing in neighboring fields this morning. After a week of hot, humid and showery weather (not good for drying hay!), today is cooler, clear and dry. And the forecast is for more of the same. Three consecutive days of dry weather is going to make for excellent haying and mowers will be running in many fields here this week.
So far this year, we have about 500 bales put up in our hay mow. We needs about 1000 additional bales to get us through until this time next year. We are feeding about 60 alpacas. Fortunately we have a lot of pasture, so we don’t rely solely on hay for their feed.
If you’re in the hay business, you’re at the mercy of the weather. And when the grass is ready and the forecast is good, you drop whatever else you’re doing and mow…and rake…and bale…then you have to get the hay to where it’s going to be stored. We don’t make our own hay; we purchase it from local farmers. Since we work full time on our farm, we are available to pick up hay right in the field or directly off the wagon, saving the farmer from having to store the hay and saving us a little on the price.
We anticipate that by Friday we will get the call (or calls) and will be scrambling for a day or two to pick up hay then get it stored in our hay mow. It’s a lot of work and it’s a hot and scratchy job. But there’s nothing more satisfying then having the mow full of hay – ready for winter!