It is hay season on farms all across the Midwest. It is a lot easier making hay during a dry spell versus a wet spell. With the recent shortage of rain locally, many farmers are seeing some reduced yields in their hay fields. The weather has been quite variable across the United States.
My favorite group page on Facebook is Hay Kings. I have read and learned so much about how hay producers all across the United States grow/make hay. There are a lot of differences in the kinds of forages grown and harvesting. Farmers will ask for help with problems such as production techniques, storage facilities, marketing their hay and sometimes rant about unfortunate happenings.
Farmers in Texas, Oklahoma, and many Gulf states are usually broiling in summer heat by June. This year the temps have been cool and they are swimming in record rainfall that halted hay production for weeks. In our neighbor to the west, Iowa and the states north and west of Iowa, the dry spring is not only hurting yields but insect pressure has become very problematic.
What little time I have had to peruse this facebook page lately has informed me that in Ohio, going east into New York many farmers have had a terrible time making hay due to wet weather. I have read multiple accounts of large-scale hay producers having trouble with hay bales heating and molding, including some accounts of barn fires that have occurred due to hay being baled too wet for storage.
In Will County many hay farmers still make the small, square bales. Technically, they are a rectangle, usually measuring 14” tall x 18” wide in lengths 36-48” long. With horses being the predominant livestock in our county, the small bale is still the preferred package. It appears that the majority of the livestock industry that supplies us with animal protein makes larger bales handled with machinery.
I have to include some sarcasm with this week’s article. It appears that some of my customers that buy hay for their horses have become frugal about the cost of hay. At one location I got some ribbing about my price of $5/bale for grass hay. I reminded them that it was the same as last year, and the yields are down just like last year. Should I feel sorry for them having to buy 150 bales of hay to feed their horse for the year when I drove my rusty, old 2003 pickup truck by their two flashy crew cab GMC Denali pickup trucks?
Much of the retail world has raised prices and blamed pandemic related issues. Am I in the wrong profession or mismanaging my resources? In the last week I also loaded hay into a truck/horse trailer combination that probably cost over $100,000. Of course they wanted the best hay at the lowest price. This reminds me of about 5 years ago when a customer told me they borrowed a friends truck to get straw bales because he did not want to scratch the bed of his own truck.
We did not scratch his truck. I am still scratching my head wondering why anyone would buy a truck and then not use it, as a truck. I must be getting really old; I still think my truck is a work tool and not a status symbol. And if you would worry about a scratch in the bed of your truck from a bale of hay, you would probably never want to be seen driving one of my trucks.
0 Comments