Author: admin

We have all our hay!  This year we found a new hay farmer just a few miles from our ranch.  He has a beautiful 8 acres of timothy/alfalfa mix that was just planted last year and this was the first cut on the field.  What beautiful hay. Young, green, leafy and so sweet smelling.  He got 398 bales (30-40lbs) off the field and be bought them all.

The farmer had 2 wagons so we’d take one as they kicked up bales to the 2nd.  It’s a slow go on hilly roads with full wagon.   But 3 trips and some fancy packing all the hay is in without so much as an inch to spare!  The bales are stacked within foot of the ceiling and I can barely make it through the door. Thankfully my barn breathes very well and there is good air circulation up and over and under the stack. 

1st hay wagon

1st wagon unloaded, 157 bales in the barn.  There was no point in taking a completed photo because it was just a dark wall of hay.  We managed to fit 398 bales in there. 

 Note: Timothy hay is not recommended for alpacas.  It tends to be stalky if cut too late and can give alpacas ulsers.  This hayis for the horses however it is young and leafy enough that the alpaces do like it too.  I will be purchasing  a 2nd cut orchard grass mix for the alpaca’s main diet.

June in Western New York means hay season! This is year 3 of me running our own farm and each year we’re getting “better” at predicting our hay needs and storage space.  This year I think we’ll finally have gotten our act together.

Storage:
In years past my storage space was limited to one 11×11 foot stall.  Amazingly I could squeeze 100 bales into that little space.  OH yeah, you’re looking at the queen of stacking hay.  This year we have plenty of space.  The center of our barn is 18’x35’ and I have been using it as a run-in for the horses.  Before then It was filled with junk and clutter accumulated from previous owners. 

The horses have now been evicted, the floor raked and pallets are laid out.  I’m ready for hay!  I’m hoping to fit 3-400 bales in here with room for a walking path and air flow.

Here’s a photo of the new space and Goliath looking in wondering why he can’t play in there any more.

It’s Memorial Day weekend and hopefully we don’t get any more frost warnings so it’s time to plant the garden.  Hmm, garden, that requires a tilled area in which to plant. This presents a problem because we don’t own a tiller but we do have a wide variety of implements for our tractor that should accomplish the task of removing sod and breaking up the soil.

So what to use? Bucket on the tractor to skim off soil and dirt box to break up the first few inches?  Nope, did that last year, that’s old news.  2 bottom plow? Can’t too close to the fence.

Ah ha! Backhoe!  Dig a 4’ hole, dump sod in hole and fill back in.  Yup, that sounds a heck of a lot more fun!