Post by Kelsey on Mar 5, 2017 20:17:25 GMT -5
Here's the deal...
We have enough land to graze our cows during the growing season, but we feed a lot of hay in the winter and late summer.
Due to our location, hay is quite expensive, and we don't have a lot of options if we want it delivered. Typically, the only hay that we can get trucked over and loaded into our barn is the nice timothy and alfalfa from E WA. Beautiful hay, but it's pricey, not organic/low-spray, and not local. Fortunately the cows have always loved this hay and the quality is super high - no weeds, no mold, cut and baled at the right time, etc.
But there are many many little hobby farms or properties here with 5-10 or more acres that have fields that just sit there, or get cut and baled once per summer. It is the saddest hay/straw you'll ever see - unpalatable grass species (like sweet vernal grass) mixed with thistles, highly poisonous tansy ragwort, the grass is totally done and brown before it's baled - it's a joke! There's one or two families with haying equipment that go around and cut and bale for people.
Anyway, as you can guess, I look at all these pastures and think of the potential, while buying hay from 150+ miles away....
I am trying to think of what would be required to transition one or two or more of these pastures to real hay fields.
I'm still thinking this through, but imagine I would provide the guidance (tilling, adding compost, seeding, etc) and would facilitate the haying process (hiring the hay guys to bring their equipment over) and the landowner would have a contract to give me first dibs on the hay (obviously would have to find a different buyer if it didn't turn out to be high enough quality).
I know this would be a multi-year process, and I would have to find cooperative land owners, but we hope to be here for a while and really want to be able to source feeds locally for our cows (we will be selling dairy products eventually/soon?? so there is additional incentive in terms of advertising our products and producing superior cheese).
Sooo... thank you if you read all that!
Any thoughts?
Is this a reasonable endeavour? What other issues should I consider?
Unfortunately I don't know a whole lot about hay production, though I've been reading more. The main challenge would be finding the right species for the properties - of course a mix could be great - but we receive very little rain from June through mid October (in 2015 we got 1/3 inch from May through Oct, somewhat unusual, but it has been the trend in recent years, sadly) and I don't think anyone really has the means to irrigate a large area. Or maybe they do - I have no idea! Maybe it will end up being teff, or an annual crop like oats or barley hay, I don't know...
Any advice or thoughts or cautions are much appreciated!
Thanks!
We have enough land to graze our cows during the growing season, but we feed a lot of hay in the winter and late summer.
Due to our location, hay is quite expensive, and we don't have a lot of options if we want it delivered. Typically, the only hay that we can get trucked over and loaded into our barn is the nice timothy and alfalfa from E WA. Beautiful hay, but it's pricey, not organic/low-spray, and not local. Fortunately the cows have always loved this hay and the quality is super high - no weeds, no mold, cut and baled at the right time, etc.
But there are many many little hobby farms or properties here with 5-10 or more acres that have fields that just sit there, or get cut and baled once per summer. It is the saddest hay/straw you'll ever see - unpalatable grass species (like sweet vernal grass) mixed with thistles, highly poisonous tansy ragwort, the grass is totally done and brown before it's baled - it's a joke! There's one or two families with haying equipment that go around and cut and bale for people.
Anyway, as you can guess, I look at all these pastures and think of the potential, while buying hay from 150+ miles away....
I am trying to think of what would be required to transition one or two or more of these pastures to real hay fields.
I'm still thinking this through, but imagine I would provide the guidance (tilling, adding compost, seeding, etc) and would facilitate the haying process (hiring the hay guys to bring their equipment over) and the landowner would have a contract to give me first dibs on the hay (obviously would have to find a different buyer if it didn't turn out to be high enough quality).
I know this would be a multi-year process, and I would have to find cooperative land owners, but we hope to be here for a while and really want to be able to source feeds locally for our cows (we will be selling dairy products eventually/soon?? so there is additional incentive in terms of advertising our products and producing superior cheese).
Sooo... thank you if you read all that!
Any thoughts?
Is this a reasonable endeavour? What other issues should I consider?
Unfortunately I don't know a whole lot about hay production, though I've been reading more. The main challenge would be finding the right species for the properties - of course a mix could be great - but we receive very little rain from June through mid October (in 2015 we got 1/3 inch from May through Oct, somewhat unusual, but it has been the trend in recent years, sadly) and I don't think anyone really has the means to irrigate a large area. Or maybe they do - I have no idea! Maybe it will end up being teff, or an annual crop like oats or barley hay, I don't know...
Any advice or thoughts or cautions are much appreciated!
Thanks!