Yea. DH and I baled hay today and along with a bunch (didn't get a count) of round bales for the cows and horses, we square baled 71 more bales of Alicia for the goats. It was thick and beautiful and smells so good. We put 46 of them over in the big barn and brought 25 of them to the house tonight. I tell ya that square baling is a lot harder than it was when I was in my 20's. :/ Poor little Josh is 6 and he wrestled those bales around today just like a big boy. :biggrin I'm so proud of him. He didn't complain once or whine about wanting to go to the house. He almost got his sea legs on that hay trailer even with DH's driving! :really All of my animals are set for the winter. Last cutting of hay for the year done. :yes No more expensive fertilizer to buy until spring. Woo HOO!! Things went good today.
We don't grow/bale our own hay but I understand the feeling of having your winter's supply of hay in place. We are supposed to get our last delivery next week but the weather isn't looking good and I'm so hoping it clears up enough for us to get it together. Then we can breathe easy....until spring. LOL
Alicia is a bermuda grass hay that is leafier and thicker than coastal bermuda. We have a field of Coastal also and our new hay fields that DH put in are Jiggs bermuda. I really like the Alicia. Our Alicia field is a little smaller than the coastal and we can get as much if not more off of it than we can the Coastal field. I have walked through that field after it has been cut and ready to bail and the grass would be knee deep. You can get a big round bale about every 50 feet when it is like that.
That sounds like the stuff that they've been planting around here the last couple years.....but I think they call this stuff, super grazer, or something like that......it is very heavy in leaf.....much more than our old bermuda's.
Chris, I had to refind this post as I wanna read up on your grass types as we are going to plant more grass seed this spring and I want a grass that my goats like,something that grows fast and can take the dryness and heat .
These were sprigged not seeds. Some varieties of grass hay have to be sprigged instead of seeded. I watched them sprig the Jiggs fields. DH raked and cleaned and then plowed the fields then the guy came with a big waggon filled with grass sprigs. He had 2 guys throwing it off the wagon onto the field. When they got it all strowed everywhere then the guy came back with a machine that sort of "rolled" the sprigs into the ground. Had a big round wheel with big knobs on it that smashed the sprigs into the dirt and then rolled over it. He charged $250.00 an acre to plant the Jiggs. Don't know about the Coastal and Alicia as DH's father had those fields planted many years ago.
