“A Bale of Hay”

Riding home tonight, I passed through a section of Anderson County which is not yet urban.  So many areas now simply hold ubiquitous subdivisions. Other former green pastures for cows are new home construction.  But I rode through one area tonight in which farms are still supreme.  Across these pasture lands were many scattered round bales of mostly fescue hay.  The first cutting of fescue is always the best, as in our area it grows mostly in the spring and fall.  In the fall the cattle occupy the pastures, but for those with enough acreage in the spring a cutting of hay is procured, sometimes enough for at least a third of the winter needs.

Round bales as opposed to square bales are most popular for cattle, as these can be handled with a fork on the front end loader of a tractor, some with one, others with two prongs which spear the center of the bale from the side and enable it to be lifted, placed on a wagon or stacked in long rows against a barn or shed.  Of course, some farmers place this under a shed roof, and this is the best quality hay, sometimes even good enough for horses.  Cattle will sift through a lot of trash or weeds in the hay to obtain their nutrition; horses are a finicky bunch and require more protein and much higher quality hay.

As I turned the corner on the road towards home, out of the corner of my left eye, I caught the evening sun, and the gorgeous colors of the reddening sky, as a large cumulus cloud scattered the light into hues of red, orange and purple, the colors of the evening day.  Silhouetted against this magnificent backdrop of sky and distant horizon lay the hay-field, with bales scattered across the undulating landscape.  Freshly mown, only the round bales remained, as soldiers kneeling on the ground awaiting another destination.  It reminded me of my younger days, when I was the one gathering in the bales of hay, along with my brothers and neighbors.  We all worked together helping place the hay into the loft of the barn, lest an evening shower arose and the hay becoming wet would be ruined.

Wet hay is moldy hay and it will heat when it is stored, sometimes even catching fire in the barn.  Not only is it unsafe for the animals to eat, it loses a lot of its nutrition.  Moldy hay ends up on the garden as mulch, or in some God-forsaken place on the farm, having lost its original usefulness.  Sometimes it is redeemed by placing it in one of the stalls for animals to bed down for the evening.

I am not sure when round bales were invented, or when the conversion from square bales which must be stacked by strong men to round bales which can be pierced and moved by a tractor fork lift actually occurred.  But this has proven to be a revolution in hay making and storage.  Round bales, even those which are not wrapped in plastic sheeting can be stored outside and stacked in such a way as they will, for the most part shed water.  For a year or two, they can weather the environmental vagaries of rain and weather, heat and cold and still provide some nutrition for cattle.  Horse quality hay is a much more precious commodity and is generally kept indoors.

The square bale consists of a series of packed pieces of cut hay which when squeezed into a rectangle by the baler will provide 70lbs more or less of hay per bale.  The round bale is much larger, and sometimes 300lbs or more of hay is rolled into layers into a spiral around an initial central core which can be rolled out if needed like a long blanket of 6-8 inches thickness of hay.  This can be eaten off the ground by hungry cattle.  Some farmers who are more frugal waste less by placing the bale in a large metal circle which contains the whole bale, but allows the cattle or horses to eat to their hearts content.  The horses or cows dismember the bale over a day to a week, depending on how many animals are eating at one time.  As one bale is eaten, another is put in its place for the animals which have little to no winter grazing.

These days, in our area, there are not many “full time farmers”, who derive their sole income from farming.  Most do this as a part-time hobby or job, and use cattle as a form of a bank, to keep resources available to be converted to cash whenever needed in a Monday or Tuesday sale at the cattle auction barn.  Very few persons, in our area, use horses for this purpose as they are simply so damn expensive to raise.  There are a few farmers, however, who are smart enough to do quite well with horses.

The bale of hay which caught my eye this evening reminded me of a more simple time, when neighbors actually knew each other and helped each other gather the hay into the barn.   I miss those times, profoundly.  Living now in a subdivision, the closest thing I get to hay is when my mower goes on the fritz, as now when the belt for the mower deck fell off.  I have bought three belts so far, and none fit, being either too long or short.  Tomorrow morning I will try again.  I am sure this time I have the exact size to fit all the pulleys and be neither too tight nor too loose to fit.

Tomorrow, I will mow my front and back lawn, with my mixed grasses and ubiquitous white clover, which has grown to the point it even contains baby rabbits.  It will be cut and tamed again to about 4 inches.  The clover will lose all its white blooms; the unruly grass will be tamed.  Its haircut will be complete and my yard will look exactly like all my neighbors’ yards once again.  But there will be no hay made on this land, only a lot of clippings, which I will duly vacuum into the collector bins on my Cub Cadet and dump into a very large pile on top of my winter leaves.  I have placed worms inside my pile, and they love to eat this stuff.  The dogs also use it to “do their thing” and have learned even to cover well their droppings.  I have very large worms.  My wife says they look like little snakes.  But I know they really are Louisiana night crawlers.  They come out at night and crawl around the yard.  I have watched a robin wrestle with one trying to swallow the thing and almost choke on it.  My robins patrol the yard regularly in the morning and evening selecting only the most- juicy morsels.

I no longer make hay, nor do I store any hay in the barn.  I do grow lots of worms, however.  My worms grow lots of robins and other birds. So I guess you could say I am still a farmer of sorts.  I farm robins, sparrows, bluebirds, brown thrush and mockingbirds.  I suppose there is some benefit in that.  I am a city farmer.  I grow worms and sometimes when the sun is just right, I grow a tomato, too.

Bill W.