Homestead Haying
May is the month we get our first cutting of hay. If you were to ask me what kind of hay it is, I honestly couldn’t say. Hay is roughly classified as grass or legume, sometimes a mix. Likely I’d tell you ours is “weedy”. It’s just what grows here, but it’s what we’ve got, so it’s what we use.
We cut our first hay three years ago, in May of 2010. We’d just gotten goats and had about an acre of then unfenced field that we didn’t want to go to waste. Dan bought his first scythe and had at it.
| Dan cutting hay with a scythe. These 1st two photos are from 3 years ago. I didn’t take new ones ‘cuz they’d look just the same.  |
After he cut it, we let it dry on the ground, raked it up, hauled it, piled it up, and covered it with a tarp. I worried about that “hay.” It certainly wasn’t as pretty as the hay we could buy already baled. In fact, we bought some of that pretty baled hay, just to make sure I wasn’t cheating my goats out of the good stuff. Imagine my surprise when they turned up their noses at the boughten hay in favor of our weedy homegrown hay. I later learned this is because the weeds are richer in minerals than grass. Goats have high mineral needs and so preferred the weedy hay.
We learned quite a bit about storing hay too. Or should I say, how not to store it. We thought the tarp would keep the rain off, but discovered that most of the hay became moldy under that tarp. From that lesson we learned several things.
- The hay must be thoroughly dried. If it’s still green when stacked, it will generate heat as it decomposes and will work its way into compost. This can also result in spontaneous combustion, so that the hay actually catches fire.
- It must have air circulation, both on top and underneath.
| Our carport hay mow. Dan put up welded wire fence to hold the hay. We later had to put up tarps too, to protect it from rain. |
What we learned, is that when the air temperature and humidity are just right, the concrete will sweat. Not good for hay.
There are any number of ways to keep hay off the ground. Pallets would be good if available. Even free, however, pallets would require driving to go them pick up, which is time and fuel. Free would still be better than buying, but if we can, we look about for a homestead solution. I learned through research that, back in the day, farmers would pile branches as a base on which to put hay. Branches are something of which we have plenty.
| Remains of last year’s hay on right, the stick bed for this year’s on left |
Currently we have two pastures we can cut for hay. The goats eat what they want and we scythe the rest. The grasses and legumes keep growing, the goats keep eating, and we get a second and third cutting as well. There is a difference in these cuttings, and, in fact, hay is classified by which cut it is: first, second, or third (maybe even fourth depending on where it’s grown).
- First cutting hay is made in the late spring and typically has more stems. It will have a higher percentage of grasses than legumes, which grow more slowly. Some say it also has more weeds, which goats love. It’s usually richer in fiber and carbohydrates.
- Second cutting is the summer cut. It is usually leafier with fewer stems, and supposedly fewer weeds (unless we grew it. It is said to be lower in sugars because of faster growth, but rich in other nutrients.
- Third cutting is the the last summer of fall cut. It usually contains more of the slow growing legumes and is rich in nutrients. Sometimes it is considered too rich for horses, but there is no problem for goats.
With all cuttings, I like to get them before the plants go to seed. This isn’t always possible when one hays by hand, but nutrients decrease at flowering, when the plant begins to put all its energy into the flower and seed.
| Alphie helps as a taste tester. |
We had rain just this past weekend, which meant a shift of gears back to working on the hallway. I managed to rake up the dry stuff before that, and as long as the rest of it has a chance to dry, it should be okay. If it begins to get moldy or mildewed, it goes into the compost.
I don’t mind saying that I sometimes wish we had a sickle mower. It would certainly make the job faster and less tiring! But at least we have two scythes and plenty of grass to cut. I can’t complain about that.
Source: http://www.5acresandadream.com/2013/05/homestead-haying.html
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