Spoiled Hay
June 3rd, 2014 · No Comments · Posted in Blog, farming
Our livestock ate nothing but hay–about 200 small bales–during a four-month period over the winter. That’s a lot of hay, and I suppose I should have purchased–or built–some sort of feeder to serve the hay in. But like so many things for the novice farmer, the protocols for hay feeding are a work in progress. We’re muddling our way along to a more perfect feeding solution and meanwhile simply tossed the hay bales on the ground for the animals to much on.
I can justify spreading hay around the property because our soil can certainly use the organic matter. I reasoned that when spring finally arrived, the grass would easily grow through any leftover hay and would be that much happier for the extra nourishment. Well, the hay piled up a bit thicker than I was planning. Instead of disappearing in new grass, the uneaten hay created large mats where nothing seemed to be growing at all.
It took about two full days of work to remove all the spoiled hay. I found that if I bent down close to the ground, I could get under it with a forked spade and lift big flakes into the bucket of the tractor. I picked a spot in the shade of some trees behind our new compost bins to pile the hay. And quite a pile it made. With all the cow, sheep and goat manure in the hay, this should make some fine compost down the road. Except now my wife objects to my choice of placement for the pile: it’s right in her view from the front porch where she spend so much time conducting business.
Spoiled hay has a number of good uses. We could spread it around the fruit trees in our orchard as mulch. But I’m sticking with my plan to pile fresh wood chips instead. At the farm where we bought our boy goat, the owners ran old hay through a shredder and spread it over the floor in their barns. The shredded hay made an incredibly cushy and tidy bed to walk on. But I must say, at $5 a bale, there are more efficient ways to deploy hay than just spreading it around on the ground. Before winter arrives, I think we’ll see about some kind of feeder.
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