Making Hay

The second cutting of hay at my sister's hay field has been cut, dried, and baled at last. Now, Tim is getting ready to haul 21 round bales from her place in Brookston back to the barn here in West Lafayette, a distance of 16 miles each way. 

It's complicated by the fact that Tim wanted square bales as he has the means to transport them, but the farmer splitting the yield with him (and doing the cutting and baling) decided to do round ones. Tim had to rent equipment to load and unload those round bales. And, getting them back to the barn will entail multiple trips.

It was spitting rain (the spots on the photo) when I went out to check Abby and her friends. The hay wagon was ready to be hitched to the truck

and the tractor ready to haul the wagon out to the northwest field where the bales will be stored.

It's fun to watch round bales being made. The hay is raked into rows and then the farmer drives over the rows and the hay baler picks it up.

And even more fun to see those bales pop out of the baler! (Sometimes hay baling makes me think of Dr. Seuss illustrations.)

We still have plenty of good pasture now, but fall is just around the corner, so it feels good to be putting up the hay.

First Cutting Baled and Done

The hay has been cut, dried, and baled, and we got a really good yield from this cutting.

 Raked into winnows and ready for the baler.

The farmer we are splitting the hay with. I love to see a hayfield with round bales in it.

 It's really good hay - not stemmy, green, and very clean. 

 Picking up the individual bales...

... and loading them on the flatbed to take to the farm.

We ended up with 28 5x5 round bales off of 8 acres. Tim is splitting it with the farmers and so we will have 14 additional bales for the winter. 

Round Bales

I came around the corner of the new barn as I was walking out to see Abby and was surprised to find these pallets stacked up in the paddock.

Tim usually has some sort of project going, but I could not guess what they were for and had to ask.

They are for the round bales of hay that Tim has switched to. In the past, he has baled his hay in the traditional rectangular bales, but last summer he tried the round bales and really liked them. He will put the round bales on these pallets to keep them off the ground and dry while they are stored.

Another plus is that there will be no more climbing in and out of the hay mow every day during the cold winter months. Or even better, heaving the bales up into the hay mow of the old barn on a hot summer day after cutting and baling the hay!