Our farm is forty acres and forty acres feeds one AUM year round. One AUM is a cow/calf combination, two animals.
We lease an additional seventy acres but that only provides two to three months of summer grazing for all our horses and sheep...
... so, we need to buy hay for the Fall, Winter and Spring. In the past we would get loads of 250 small bales at a time and have to unload ourselves then reload it into the hay barn. This year we ordered a semi load 600 small bales and at one half the price, it's like shopping in bulk.
The hay is called North Park Hay, it comes from high up in the mountains, grown on the side of a valley. The farmer cut the hay for us in the early morning when the sugar content was low, great for our pony Merry Legs. We did not have to unload the hay this time, the truck did that for us, a self unloading truck, yea!
Believe it or not we got all but 35 bales into the hay barn and only broke a few.
Quite an adventure for all on the farm, the horses got in on the excitement prancing about watching with very big eyes.
They all really like this hay, once they tasted it they did not want
to eat their old hay and I think the pasture did not taste as good either :)
~Deb
*Last time in Barn Stories: Backyard Treats
