How Do You Grow Hay ?

[ducks4you]

You need to go to a farm supply store to purchase bags of hay seed. I bought 2 pasture fill in bags last year. My hay man says that he preps a new field by killing all vegetation with RoundUp, then giving it about 4 (?) weeks, then planting the new seed.
I decided that I didn't want to kill anything, so I deeply tilled the areas instead, and it took me 6 weeks to hand seed it. The last seeding was a little too late, but the earlier ones have filled in nicely.
I would contact a farmer who grows hay about doing the job for you. The equipment they use is really pricey.
BTW, I have been paying for/loading/unloading and stacking in my loft for 12 years. I've had hay suppliers deliver and stack for me a few times, but I've never been satisfied that they did it securely, so I prefer to do it myself. In 2012, I purchased/stacked 400 bales of hay and 35 bales of straw.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

It could very well be that the only commodity that requires as much labor is firewood.

 

[897tgigvib]

Bountiful Gardens, the true rainbow hippie garden bunch be nice now... have several mixes and varieties of grains grown for feed pirposes, and the information about them. They have them available in packet sizes.

 

[seedcorn]

If you want to grow some wheat for straw, in July buy a bushel of wheat, feed most to your chickens as scratch feed. Then in October, sow it, it will grow. Feb/March feed it some nitrogen, sit back, let it go.

 

[OldGuy43]

First result from a Google search:

Hay refers to grasses or legume plants cut down fresh and baled for animal feed. Hay bales are usually greener than straw bales, the plant material finer. Hay smells really nice, too. You would not want to use this stuff as mulch, or youd end up sprouting a yard full of alfalfa or whatever. Its also more expensive than straw, about three times as much, depending on the grass type. No one would use hay as bedding.

Straw is the dried stalks of cereal plants, like wheat. Its a by-product of harvest. If any seeds remain on the stalks, its by accident. Therefore, straw is nutritionally void, and is not animal feed. However, that lack of seeds makes it a fine mulch, and an inexpensive bedding material. We line our chicken coop with it, and recommend it for weed suppression projects.

http://www.rootsimple.com/2011/02/my-mental-glitch-hay-vs-straw/

Other things to consider:

1. Hay, being an animal feed contains more moisture than straw. Therefore, it is more likely to mold or rot. It is also possible for hay bales to spontaneously combust.
2. Unless your going into the straw or brick business you don't need a bunch of fancy equipment. (See Exodus 5:7) Come to think of it you don't need anything but hands and a sharp knife.
3. I'm told that in some parts of the country hay is cheaper than straw. Makes sense, you can store straw longer than hay. (See #1 above)

As a young man I bucked bales. Got paid 50 a bale in the loft plus meals. That's really heavy, hard, itchy work. You quickly learned to pick and choose who you hired out to. A bale of hay can weigh between 60 and 130 pounds depending on how the baler is adjusted. The farmers who were tight with a dollar would choose the heavier since they were paying per bale. Of course, those fellows would have trouble getting anyone to buck for them.

Hay does smell nice though. :mow

 

[Smart Red]

Growing hay around here usually refers to alfalfa that is cut, dried, and baled. The baled 'hay' is used as feed. When I planted my first alfalfa field, I spread the seed and then went over the whole area with oat seed as a cover crop.

The oats were fast to grow and were cut when the heads were ready for harvest. The remaining oat stems were cut and baled for straw - used mostly for bedding and mulch. Once the oat residue was off the field the alfalfa took off. Hay fields are used for 3-5 years before being returned to crop production.

Some farmers prefer to mix other grasses with their alfalfa - brome being a favorite with horses.

Many times the hay crop is cut for drying and it gets rained on. That can ruin that cutting. The ruined hay is often used just like straw as a bedding, mulch, or compost material. Yes, hay may contain more trash seeds than straw, but it's not overwhelming if you keep close to the garden.

Love, Smart Red

 

[897tgigvib]

In Montana the alfalfa fields are cut twice a year, most of them, some once, some 3 shorter cuttings. They are cut and raked with the New Holland, usually, rake, and left in rows for several days for a preliminary drying, partial drying. During that time there is the chance of a rain, and sometimes you'll see them being baled as the sky clouds up. Weather forecasts are getting better, so the timings of the cuttings are getting better. Some balers make the familiar 110 pounders, but most make the huge rolls, and others are using the trailer squares...a dangerous device actually. The days of the Beaverslide still happen in the Big Hole Valley, mmm, I think mainly as a nostalgia thing. Loose hay piles are still handy. Piled high and tall in a movable fence, an amount is loaded on a pickup and fed to the cattle right near in the same pasture area. Still handy.

Right now here it is snowing, like one of those Christmas globe things. This snow was not expected here at 2,000 feet but here it is. For me, there went one of my preliminary stitchings on part of my garden's netting! Funny, but I actually see a faint bit of blue sky. These are not thick clouds, that's sure.

 

[Smart Red]

As a young man I bucked bales. Got paid 50 a bale in the loft plus meals. That's really heavy, hard, itchy work.

Yup! I used to LOVE haying at Uncle John's farm. Unfortunately, I seldom thought to bring sturdy jeans during my summer visits. While I enjoyed the work and usually had the job of stacking the bales on the wagon, that first bath on my bare legs was a killer. Hard, heavy and stinging work.

Love, Smart Red

 

[digitS']

. . . Hard, heavy and stinging work. . . .

The story of my childhood. Since I was the youngest, I drove the truck unless Mom was helping us. I began driving when I was 8. There is no question about that. I was not 9 until we were at a different farm and I was still driving the truck then. I could have been 7 but I doubt it - I had real trouble reaching the clutch . . .

I was a big kid and was bucking bales at 11. No, we did not have 100# bales but I had to get them above my head to reach my brother before we could head back in! We had big old hay barns.

Steve