And now I have lights!!!

Got off work early today due to the rain.  Decided to finish rewiring the barn.  There hasn't been power or lights in the barn since we moved in.  This makes it difficult during the short days in the fall and winter when I need to feed or check cows after dark. Long story short got it all hooked up and now I can see after dark!

I produce a lot more hay here on the farm than I can use.  I sell this hay to raise money for maintenance and supplies for the farm.  Here are some pics and info.

 This is a picture of the 3rd. cutting bales.  I sell these at $5/bale.  Very nice hay.  Mostly grass with a kiss of red clover.  Due to the heat this year the clover was very sparse!

This is my 2nd cutting hay, we sell this at $50/bale and the bales are 4'x5' and weigh 1100 #'s

We had a lot of rain in the spring following fertilization.  This gave me a very heavy second cutting.  This also causes the hay to dry a little slower due to the thickness and moisture in soil and the hay itself.

If you compare my second cutting to the third you will notice the third is much greener.  This is called sun bleaching. This occurs when hay is left under sunlight after it is dry.  The sun begins to break down the nutrients in the hay taking away some of it feed value.  A little bleaching mainly causes it to lose the green color but has a small effect on the nutrient value.  However, if left for a long period or rained on and then left out long period to dry it will have a strong effect of feed value.

  I had to leave my 2nd cut hay exposed an extra day to ensure it was dry so it bleached some.  It is still green inside the bale but not as pretty as the 3rd cut.  3rd cutting was cut, dried, and baled in a span of three and a half days where as the 2nd took almost a week. 


Interesting fact.  You will notice the round bales are wrapped in plastic.  This is done with a bale wrapping machine.  I do not have a building to store hay in so I wrap the round bales in plastic to protect them.  Once opened up the bales look just like the day they were wrapped.