Hay Production
Hay production begins in the field. This picture is of alfalfa at time of harvest with 1/10 bloom and no yellow leaf or insect consumed leaf.
The sharp eye will also see a good leaf to stem ratio.
Alfalfa is cut with a rotary cutter without crimping rollers. Grass hay is cut with crimping rollers.
Grass hay is cut before or in the boot stage (meaning the grass flower is in the leaf sheath or that point of combined peak nutrition and hay tonnage) does not attract blister beetle and can safely be crimped to speed drying and allow for a softer hay desired by horses and the green color desired by buyers.
We do not broker any hay. We sell hay that we grow directly by our own hand. It is by that basis we can confidently state the quality of any hay we offer for sale.
When weather requires all fields to be baled at once rather than spread over a wider window of time some hay bales my stay on trailers longer than desired creating one bale side sun bleached bales. This can also occur for those buyers that leave their trailers to be loaded at harvest and pick up their trailers at a later time.
The buyer remains responsible for securing the load on their trailers to include tarping to prevent sun bleach.
How green is a green bale depends as much on the quality of light when the picture is taken. This bale's green color does not look so green when out in the direct sun light a it is shown in this picture. In the shaded light of a barn this same bale appears a darker green color.
Once the hay bales make it to the barn they are secured above ground and from all sun and weather effects. The last 200 bales, typically from the first alfalfa cutting, remain for our own winter horse consumption.
The hay barn interior walls are paneled with 3/4 inch plywood for ease of bale grabber use and keeping the hay off the metal barn sides that would collect condensation. Both a hay quality and a time/money savings measure.
Notice the irregular color of these bales. That reflects the top layers of the windrow being sun bleached while the lower layers remain shaded while drying. This is alfalfa hay that was baled on a day of higher than desired humidity requiring a longer drying period to limit mold and mildew once baled.
This youngster finds pulling a hand wagon with two alfalfa bales across the ground a bit much.
While we would like to produce a 25 pound bale for our lady hay buyers the reality of the hay baler industry is fixed at 50-65 pound bales. That is the size common baling machines are manufactured for the most consistent to produce small square hay bale.
We keep a supply of barn cats on hand to catch mice and rats.
The idea is no droppings in the hay. That along with to keep the mice from chewing the electrical wiring of our equipment.
It generally takes 6 to 10 cats to keep mice out of the hay barns. To keep the cats hunting in and near the barn we supply them with fresh water and an occasional dry cat food snack.
Continue for those that really want to get into the details of our hay production
Email or call 913 773 8110
Alfalfa Hay | Testing | Production | Must Read | Transportation
Location | Purchase | Blister Beetle | Fact Sheet PDF