Hay Production

Probably the most important aspect of our farm is the production of hay to feed all our animals through the winter.
Basic steps of haying:
#1 Most important and often difficult is to find 3-4 days of good weather (no rain) and ideally low humidity.
#2 Cutting the hay (we have two cutters to help speed up the process). One John Deere MoCo and a Kuhns disc mower.
#3 Depending on how thick the hay is most of the time it needs to be teddered. Which spreads the hay out allowing better drying.
#4 Raking- puts the hay in big rows for the baler to pick up
#5 Baling - either round bales (John Deere 468) or square bales (New Holland 310). Round bales are all picked up and stored with a tractor. Square baling is all manual labor, we stand on the back of a wagon and as the bales come out we have to pick them up and stack them. Doesn't sound too bad unless you add in that it's usually 90+ degrees and we are in long pants and long sleeves and once the wagon is full (about 100 bales) we have to unload it all and restack it in the barn.
This is also a very time consuming process.. We all spend hour, after hour on the tractors (which is how I started listening to Podcasts (my favorite being "Stuff You Should Know" by Josh and Chuck).
That is.... if everything goes smoothly... we have had unexpected rain.. broken equipment... flat tires...   now, doesn't this sound like fun? Actually, I really enjoy farming and wouldn't trade it for anything else. I don't have a boss, I get to enjoy time in the fresh air and sunshine, it's peaceful and I enjoy all the animals.