Post by Nonesuch Melissa on Dec 31, 2014 13:50:57 GMT -5
It still amazes me that I can spend hours and even days thinking about so many things that were not even on my radar before we began farming. One of those things that takes up a lot of time is securing and storing hay.
This year I'm trying to figure out timing our getting hay just right to get all of the year and two year old hay I've stored out of the barn and start fresh. And I am almost there. I'm down to 5 large round rolls of that old, not so great quality hay. Happily with my stockpile I am only feeding about one roll a week to the Dexters. I am buying in one roll at a time of better quality hay to feed the milk cows and weaning heifers.
I am thinking I should be arranging a delivery of round rolls for around 1 Feb. I feel pretty secure doing this because this was a great year for hay in Texas and there is just a lot of hay out there to choose from. Ideally I'd like to split a semi load with a neighbor, (16-19 rolls each, depending on weight) because I have no way to store a full load and do not think I can feed out enough hay to not have it sitting out getting weathered.
So far my system for using the bigger rounds has really been saving money. With the better quality big rolls, we unroll half and roll it into another bale and store it in the barn. The half that is the core (about 700-800 pounds) goes to the milk cows in a ring and the other half (loose rolled) is broken down daily to fill the calf and goat mangers. The waste hay from the milk cows goes to the pigs as food and the waste hay from the beefers (lower quality) is bedding for the goats and pigs and nest material for the chickens. The left over soiled bedding is put into compost.
All this is, of course, more work but I think I've saved nearly $500 in hay this year alone. Our little tractor is perfect for moving all this stuff around. and I realize that without it we would not have so many options.
After the drought years I have become super nervous about getting low on hay and it has taken some deep breathing to let the barn naturally empty out. I will feel better when it is full again. Like I said... a lot of thought for something I never used to think about at all...