The Hay is in the Barn

Have you ever heard of the expression, "The Hay is in the Barn?"  It's a saying that means that all the work is done and there's nothing else to do.  Sometimes you'll hear that phrase used by coaches just prior to a big game - "The hay is in the barn."  In other words, we're conditioned, we've practiced and have a game plan, we've studied our opponent's tendencies, we're ready.  There's nothing left to do but go out and execute. 

In an agricultural sense, it means exactly what it says.  The hay has been cut, raked, fluffed, dried by the sun, baled and is put up in a barn to be used later.  The only thing left to do is to bring it out of the barn as needed and feed to your animals. 

Hay is very important to farm animals, especially during the winter months when there's not much forage for them.  Even though our winters aren't harsh in South Louisiana, we still want to ensure that we have enough hay to last until the clover and Spring grass returns.  It is very important that your hay has nutrients.  The nutrient content of the hay is dependent on the leaf/stem ratio.  The leaf contains most of the energy and protein versus the stem which is mostly fiber.

Around this time each year, I call a neighbor about a mile down the road who bales square bales of Jiggs Bermuda hay and request to purchase 100 bales.  This is good quality hay mostly fed to horses, but we feed it to our cows.  Dairy cattle need the best hay, with more nutrients, since they are producing milk.  Milk production draws heavily upon a cow's store of nutrients and must be replaced.  This is especially critical in winter or in periods of drought when there is no lush grass in the pasture.

Our neighbor sells us the hay for $5 per bale picked up in the field directly behind the baler.  If you pick it up later, it is more expensive due to his labor and that makes sense to me.  This year during hay time Tricia was in the Shining City by the Sea, Corpus Christi, visiting her mother and missed out on the fun.  The boys and I hooked up my dad's cattle trailer to Russ' pickup truck to go pick up hay. 

Russ & his red Toyota

This old, trusty trailer was my grandfather's trailer and was purchased in the 70's.  We have hauled many a cow to market, many a sheep, goat, and dairy cow to livestock shows.  We have made many late-night, back road journeys to avoid the highway patrol since the lights no longer work on it.  It has had numerous paint jobs, floor repairs, and patchwork on the frame as rust has taken its toll on the old girl, but she still gets the job done.  I guess there's a lesson in there for us as well - we don't have to be young or pretty, as long as we get the work done!  Anyway, we also use it to haul hay.

So we drove it down the road and into the hay field directly behind the baler.  Benjamin drove the truck pulling the trailer and Russ was in the trailer.  (For full disclosure, Benjamin is 11 years old, but he drove like a champ, didn't run over anyone and gained some good experience.)  When a hay bale came out of the baler, I lifted it and handed it to Russ who stacked it.  The capacity of the trailer and the truck bed is about 50 bales so it took two trips, but we got it done.  It was hot - 98 degrees hot!

When we got each load back to the barn, we had to use a pulley to winch each bale into the loft and stack it.  This involved Russ, at ground level, using a bungee cord on the end of the rope to attach each bale.  I would then hoist each bale up to the loft by walking backward to the other end of the barn.  I did make a process improvement this year.  Last year, once the bale was pulled up even with the loft floor, I would have to hold tension on the rope while I grabbed the bale and pulled it in.  This year, actually using my gray matter, I tied a big washer to the end of the rope I was pulling and hammered a nail in the rafters at the exact length that puts the hay bale at floor level.  After pulling the bale up even with the floor, I put the washer hole into the nail I had driven so that the nail held the tension - not me.  This enabled me to take a nice, leisurely walk to the end of the loft and unclip the hay - a definite improvement.  With the sun beating down on the tin roof in the loft of the barn, it was hotter than a 2 dollar pistol.  Did I mention it was swelteringly hot?



Russ is attaching the bale of hay to the bungee cord.



Hoisting bales up to the loft.



View from the loft with pulley in foreground



100 bales stacked floor to ceiling

Heading down the trap door in the loft

After doing this exercise 100 times we were finally finished.  While it was indeed exhaustingly hot work, it was also an honest day's work.  Work that makes you proud of the accomplishment and makes you fully appreciate a cold shower and a comfortable bed!  THE HAY IS IN THE BARN!