Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The First Hay Crop of 2011

Grace Valley Farms first cutting of hay has been successfully harvested!

Due to all the rain we had this spring, the grass in our hay field was lush and green. After the grass was cut, we had perfect hay-drying weather. Three days of hot, dry, windy weather meant the hay was ready to bale three days later.  

Our hay is a mixture of many grass varieties as well as birdsfoot trefoil, alfalfa, and sainfoin.

Rocket, our border collie, by a windrow of hay, just before it was baled.

The hay bales in our field.

Benjamin picked up the hay with our tractor. First he speared a bale on the back of the tractor.
He then speared a bale with the front loader.
With both bales now loaded on the tractor, Benjamin heads for the hay yard where he will stack the bales.

There are many more bales to pick up. 

Approaching the hay stack with both bales.

Positioning the front bale  

Benjamin stacks the rear bale before heading back to the field for another set of bales.

The hay is stacked!

We were blessed with 90 round bales and 37 small square bales of hay from our first cutting!



1 comment:

lmtc55 said...

WOW WEE WOW Benjamin, that is some mean tractor driving. Lisa