[Previous entry: "Leave It To Beaver"] [Next entry: "Transitions"]
01/18/2003: "The Hay Burners"
For the past few weeks we’ve had snow on the ground, so the guys have been seriously “hitting the hay” for the first time this winter. If I’d ever wondered why horses were referred to as hay-burners, I’d have my answer - especially from Indy. And I thought DJ could pack away the groceries! Geez, can this boy EAT!
He doesn’t waste it by pulling in down from the feeder, then strewing is all over the place and not eating it. Believe me, he EATS it. I’ve never seen the area around the feeder so pristine. He even cleans up what Ms Ami - a champion hay waster if there ever was one - pulls down and never finishes. Of course, I realize he’s a growing boy, but Holy Guacamole!
We went with round bales this year for the first time - over my long held misgivings. We didn’t have much choice. When I say Mike and I make our own hay, I mean we GROW it. We do NOT cut, rake and bale it. Even if we had all that equipment, it’s pretty hard to picture either Mike or me standing on that hay wagon, tossing those 50 lb. square bales up on the stack as the binder spits them out - ha ha. Heck, I’m not supposed to even LIFT them anymore because of my prosthetic hip. Well, enough said about THAT picture!
So, we hire the actual cutting and bailing. The problem is, not many people are in the baling business any more, and those that are - like our guy - have a hard time finding help to do the grunt work of tossing those square bales. Sigh. Even teenagers refuse to work that hard these days. Anyway, this being the situation, the hay guys around here all have an extremely strong preference for doing round bales. The equipment does all the work, and all they have to do is drive around. We have always square baled the hay for the horses, and then round baled the rest to sell for cows. This year, however, our guy hadn’t been able to get any help, and wanted to round bale it all. I reluctantly agreed.
These are medium sized round bales - about 500 lbs. so Mike and I rolled as many into the barn as we could stuff in there, and hoped for the best. That was a pretty funny picture too, folks. :o) I swear Indy and Ami were laughing…
Actually, things have turned out quite well. We’ve gone through two of them now, and the hay has been in super condition - soft, green and oh, that WONDERFUL smell of good hay. And, as I indicated above, the horses seem to agree. It’s a bit less convenient to feed than the square bales. Instead of tossing a flake, you have to peel loose hay off the bale, and it takes quite a bit of that to equal the more compressed flakes. The upside though is that you have a much better chance of catching weeds and other problem spots that you might miss in the middle of a flake, no matter how careful you were. Since I guess we’ll be doing this from now on, it’s a good thing it’s working out!
The snow has mostly melted off now though, and they’ve both gone back to grazing quite a bit. Hard to believe we still have that much grass this time of year, but it’s there. I seriously doubt they’re getting much nutrition from it, but they ARE having fun. :o)
