06/26/2025
A big thank you to all the diligent, hard working farmers out there! TRSW Morgans has always been very fortunate to have wonderful hay suppliers, Where would we be without them. And our neighbor did have a barn burn to the ground due to wet hay.
THE Angst of Hay Season...
Although we have been doing hay for half a century now, each hay season comes with a flurry of anxiety and frustration. We depend on the weather gods to dictate when and if we will bring a crop of hay in. As the climate changes, each year seems to be just as difficult and unpredictable as the last, if not more so.
Even before baling that hay, there is so much work that is demanded for its success. There are seed, fertilizer, cutting, raking and all those long hours on the tractor in steamy heat doing the work beforehand.
Timing when to cut and when to bale is like rolling dice. You need the perfect conditions. That translates into hot, dry (not humid weather) and lots of wind and sun to cure the hay. We typically like to bank on 4-5 days of good weather before cutting and baling. Nowadays, finding a window of perfect weather is almost impossible. (Last season we lost our entire first cut due to rain.)
Once a field is down, the clock is running. Putting together a hay crew is perhaps one of the most hair-pulling, organizing skills needed with a lot of “I’m sorry but..” included. Because we cannot give a definite start time, people are accustomed to a schedule. No such animal exists in farming. There is no schedule when it comes to Mother Nature. The hay will be ready to bale when ‘she’ decides. Start times are constantly shifting with the weather. There is always a rush on to get hay baled and off the field before a rain storm. And no, you can’t bale and unload hay at 5 in the morning. Dew on the hay has to dry before being baled. A wet bale can mean a barn fire!
When hay season rolls around, everyone has a bad back, asthma, bad knees, too weak, too old, etc. No amount of money can entice people to put on long pants and dig into the dust and lift of the bales off the wagon. I have great respect for farmers. Nobody toils harder than they and live with the uncertainty of unkind weather. You have my respect!
Every time you throw a flake of hay to your horse, remember how much headache, sweat and sore muscles, along with the hay rash that went into growing, cutting, baling and storing it. Hay for farmers is “green gold” and as precious as it sounds.
