It’s happened to the best of us. You’ve got a load of hay on and a gust of wind or a poorly negotiated corner and POOF! a bale rolls off your load. Do you notice? Nope, you’re too focused on driving home as fast as you possibly can because the skies are about to open up and drench you and your beloved hay score off of Craigslist. You know the kind, must pickup today $1 a bale things.
Pulling into your barn, negotiating the aisle like an FEI 4 in hand driver on a mission, you’ve beaten the rain! For the heck of it you actually decide to count the bales as you toss them into the barn. 17, 18, 19…. Where’s 20? Damn it I gave the guy a $20, did I miscount loading? Nope, one of the bales decided that becoming fodder was beneath its purpose in life and cast itself into the unknown.
Do you go back for it?
Depends. $1 probably not, $7 to $10 2nd cut compressed bale. Oh heck yeah you will. Retracing your exact steps in hopes of finding the $60lbs of forage that costs more than your morning DD.
But beware! Once your bale has become a roadside hitchhiker it’s going to do just that. Enter the opportunist in the micro mini compact car or other small farm vultures. I myself have scarfed up a cast bale or two in my day.
Last week while driving north on the highway I spotted a rouge bale in the southbound shoulder. Perfect, no one is going to get that one, MINE, I thought as I continued up to “the city” for supplies. Wrong! As I crested the hill preparing to put my blinker on to make my way for the deliciously green bale I had seen earlier I was shocked to see the micro mini had beat me to it! She had already gotten to the side of the road and was cramming the soft, leafy, tightly bound goodness into the back seat of her coup. A bounty she obviously was willing to sacrifice the car for. Smells of fresh cut greens swirling in her nostrils the whole ride home.
Touché my tiny donut wheeled friend! Until next bale.