Hay Day 2019

We got the call that we normally get this time of year from some neighbors down the road.  It goes something like this, "Hey, we'll be baling hay tomorrow afternoon.  Can ya'll come pick up behind the baler?"  We always say, "Yes!"  Putting hay up in the barn is not an easy task, but it is a necessary one.  We don't have enough land to bale hay, so we always purchase between 75 and 80 square bales of good Jiggs Bermuda.  We also purchase round bales from another farmer.  We keep the round bales out in a hay ring in the pasture for about 6 months of the year.

I got in from work and hooked up the cattle trailer behind Benjamin's truck and drove west for about a half of a mile where the neighbors were baling in a field in front of their house.  Tricia drives the truck, I walk behind and toss the bales in the trailer and Benjamin rides in the trailer and stacks.  (Except in the photo below. This was the first bale.)

We decided we were going to get 80 bales this year, so as I threw them in the trailer, I would yell the count and Benjamin would repeat it so we don't lose count.  The neighbors were baling right ahead of us with one tractor 'fluffing' the hay, one tractor baling it, and another with a wagon, picking up the bales that we didn't purchase to put in their barn for later.  For picking it up right behind the baler, we get the hay for $5.50 per bale.  In the photo below, you can see the baler in the center left.

We had to make two separate trips to get 80 bales total, but we live nearby, so we got it done.  When we get the hay back to our farm, that's when the REAL hard work begins.  We have to get it up into the hay loft.  It ain't easy.  We use a pulley and lots of manual labor.  Benjamin hooks the hay up with a bungee strap and I pull it up.

I tied a ring around the end of the rope and drove a nail into the rafter.  Once the bale is pulled up, I put the ring in the nail, so I'm able to walk back and pull the bale into the loft.  Then I slide the bale down the loft and stack it up.  I can stack three bales across and four bales high, so twelve bales per row.  We try to stack it real tight to make the most of our space.

While I am pulling the bale, there's plenty of work going on down below.  Tricia is moving bales from the back of the trailer and stacking them up on the end.  Benjamin then moves them off the trailer and stacks them below the rope and gets ready to attach another to the bungee strap.

Here is the hot, tired... no, exhausted work crew ready for something cold to drink.

We were able to put 80 bales in the loft, just leaving a narrow walk-way down the middle from the trap-door to the end.

We had 12 bales left over from the winter, so we moved them down into the bull's stall and we'll feed those out first.  First in, first out!  The grass is quickly transitioning from leafy growth to seed heads, so they'll need some supplemental hay soon.

We will be reducing the size of our herd soon, taking the oldest bull to the slaughterhouse and will likely sell one of the other bulls.  That would leave us with one bull remaining for meat that we will bring to the butcher shop at the end of summer 2020.

For now, we have all the square bales put away for the winter.  It always is a relief to have this done.  I'll make a phone call to reserve round bales for the winter.  We looked at paperwork and found that we have been averaging spending about $1,000 per year on hay - about half for square bales and half for round bales.