Round or Square?

I don't know if you're like us, but we have routines -daily, weekly, monthly and annually.  Routines make us feel comfortable.  We are familiar with the events.  No surprises.  Routines are cyclical.  You can almost set your watch by them.  Normally by this time, we have 100 square bales of hay stacked tightly in the hayloft of our barn that you can see below.  Retrieving the hay from the neighbor's field is hard work and getting it into the loft is even harder.

This year, as it seems, the two months of hurricanes have put a stick in the spokes of our cyclical year routine of putting up hay.  Several years ago we posted THIS POST about getting hay in the barn.  Our neighbors down the road weren't able to get the amount of cuttings in due to the hurricanes and that left their supply of hay woefully short.  It looks like we may not have any square bales this year.

But, as in year's past, we also purchase round bales of hay from another gentleman who lives about four miles north and east of our place.  He has a trailer that fits eight round bales on it.  I email him and as soon as he is able, he hooks up his tractor and delivers the eight bales to our little farm.  We got our first delivery of the season on Wednesday afternoon.

The hay man stacked the hay in a straight row right in front of the gate.  Since I don't have a tractor, this serves a practical purpose.  As soon as the cows are in need of another bale of hay, I'll swing the gate open and roll the first bale out to the hungry cattle.  The grass in the pasture is dwindling and at this time in the growing season, the grass isn't as nutritious as it once was.  The cows will soon need a bale.

We will do our best to protect this hay.  Tomorrow, I will place a tarpaulin over the bales to protect them from getting rained on in order to preserve the quality.

We've learned that a round bale of hay usually lasts about 6 days; however, it will be less this year.  Our two bulls are much larger and will consume more hay quickly.  At the end of December, they both go to the butcher shop.  After that, a hay bale will last longer.