Summertime Hay Hauling Memories

Reader Contribution by Sherry Leverich Tucker
article image

This is haying season. It’s the time of year when those hay fields are full of grasses and clovers at the right stage of maturity to make the perfect cured hay. This forage will nourish and fill the bellies of cattle all winter long. Hay making has streamlined to large round hay bales picked up and loaded by large tractors onto big, heavy-duty trailers. Now all but a small percentage of hay is put into large bales. Some farmers still make square bales out of alfalfa, clovers, orchard grass and straw for small livestock farmers. I remember a time not too long ago of nothing but square bales.

When I was young summertime on our family operated dairy farm was dominated by hay season and gardening. Hay always took priority over everything else until it was completed. Having the hay necessary to get the cattle through the winter was very important. It is definitely easier now to procure hay from a variety of sources, or even have a crew come to your farm to cut, rake and bale your own pasture. This just wasn’t done in those days, at least not economically. My dad was completely self-sufficient and I could never imagine him buying hay.

Making good hay is an art, just like most farm tasks. I knew it was a good crop of hay if the fescue was thick and high and bits of hop, red and ladino clover were interspersed throughout. It’s ready to cut when the fescue is almost mature, but hasn’t bloomed, and the clover hasn’t bloomed too much, because the bloomed heads will just shatter and not stay with the hay. It’s nice to get it cut at the perfect time; but with farming comes many unpredictable factors such as equipment breakdowns and weather. Before hay cutting would start, Dad would get the equipment out and start prepping it. All the sickles on the mower were sharpened and everything got greased before every use. I don’t know all that he did, but I knew it was important in the process of getting it done right.

After the hay is cut, it is cured for a couple of days, depending on the weather. Cured hay smells so good, it has a sweet, green smell and is achieved by simply letting the cut hay dry and age. This is a very important process to be done before baling. If the hay is not cured and has too much moisture in it when baled, it can mold or even cause combustion (after being tightly stacked in the barn). The rows of cured hay are then raked into windrows that are forked into the baler to compact into a bale. My dad (and others from that “Grapes of Wrath” generation) was a special breed of man that had the patience and knowledge to figure out and make any machine do its intention. I remember him having to tweak the hay baler every year, and often throughout the season. Especially to make the bales tight and keep the knotting mechanism working correctly for the baling twine that ties around the bale to keep it together.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368