We just had our field baled and Carsten said it's not gonna be hay, it's gonna be shrink-wrapped into silage. Whoa, I thought things were off schedule, but I never dreamed they made other products than hay. (A saran-wrapping machine is a whole 'nother piece of equipment for farmers.)As usual, my man and I had a bet about how many bales were produced. This time I said 7 and he said 9. I won, it was 7. In fact, since Carsten wasn't the one who baled, he was just here tonight to get the bales out, he forgot one. My man saw him start to tie the bales down and he pointed way across to the last one. Whew! That would have been a waste!
Hay farmers know the weather better than the weatherman. So when they make silage and not hay, you know it's gonna rain. They didn't have the luxury of one more day drying time. I had the feeling they were in a hurry when they left our gate open on purpose this afternoon (and then called us to say, "Please don't shut the gate, we're in a hurry!"
I simply love haymaking, it smells like heaven. And our field looks great. In fact, Carsten said that next month he'll be back with a new machine that will somehow take out the weeds (how does that work!?) and aerate the soil. Then he'll return to re-seed. This is great, we can expect even more hay next year, woo!(These photos were taken directly after mowing. The next steps were: spreading, then flipping, then organizing into rows, then baling, all over the last couple of days.)
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5 comments:
I don't know anything about silage. Do horses eat it?
Do the farmers pay you for the silage, or is your benefit that they are clearing you fields for you for free and get paid in silage?
You are so lucky to have such healthy fields to grow your own hay. Grass just doesn't grow well here in our area.
Hay is big business over here, as you know. Most of our hay comes from California and Colorado, though there are some small private farmers who grow hay in small fields in the Rio Grande River Valley.
Many feed stores that sell hay call it Green Gold.
How much hay do you get to keep for yourselves for the winter?
~Lisa
Hi, Laughing Orca Ranch, the answer is NO! You MUST NOT give your horses silage, it contains botulism bacteria that is fatal to horses, but doesn't affect cows.
I do admire your grazing, Lytha, it looks much nicer than ours! We need to get ours cut very soon, but we'll have hay.
Lisa, you have very interesting questions. I hope you have a snack before you try to read my answer!
I didn't know silage/haylage existed before moving to Germany, and now I know that practically every horse owner feeds it to their horses. Looking at Jessica Jahiel's articles, I agree with her that the risk of botulism is too great. However, I must be honest, when practically everyone feeds it in Europe the deaths must be rare, right?
It stinks to me like something rotten (and it is in fact). It's hay that has been turned into Sauerkraut (they sometimes call it sour hay). Sometimes when the neighbors break open a new bale, we can smell it here.
When the farmers shrink wrap it, they encourage bacteria to grow, which eat all the oxygen, and then they die when the air is gone. However, if a tiny hole occurs in the wrap, the whole bale becomes poisoned by the wrong type of bacteria. Since it takes less time on the field, and it can be stored outside, it it practical for farmers and barn owners. When I asked the neighbor why she feeds it as opposed to hay, she says it has a higher vitamin content (which makes sense cuz the sun touches it less).
I asked our hay farmer about where to buy alfalfa (what they call luzern) and he laughed at me - he said "It's hard enough to make HAY in Germany! You have to go to another country to find people growing alfalfa." (Now I'll call it green gold!)
Another interesting thing, I asked him what kind of hay we grow here and he looked at me funny and said, "Hay. It's just grass hay." But I wanted to know what TYPE. We have names for these things back home: ) My man bought me a book about horse nutrition (German) and when they discuss hay, they don't mention the type either. It's just hay. !!
Our hay farmer does not pay us, but he gives us free hay in return.
After looking at New Mexico blogs, I do feel thankful for our grass. However I must say in Germany I've never seen the bright green hay that America has. (How do the American farmers keep their hay so green?)
I cannot say how much hay we keep since we are so new to this. We just give Carsten a call every time we have less than 2 weeks worth, and he brings over another 20-30 small bales (the normal rectangular bales people in America are used to). I am keeping track though, so over time I can be more informed.
We do have a rare situation here.
Thanks for asking,
~lytha
What a great situation to be in — having your own hay. I, too, want to know how they take the weeds out.
I've just read Leah Fry's comment and hope you don't mind me replying. They can't take the weeds out, everything is bundled up together, which is why it's so important to look after your pasture, especially getting rid of any ragwort, which is very poisonous (sorry I don't know if you have it in the US.) When ragwort is dried, it tastes even nicer than when it's growing, so increasing chances of horses eating it. We grow our own hay, too.
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