We are straight up in the middle of hay season. The days are long. Out here, the sun comes up between 4:45 and 5:15am. That also means the husband is up during those times trying to race the sun. Making hay is a complete science. There are moisture levels, humidity, mold, and rain to take into account. If the air is too hot, it dries out the alfalfa and grass too fast, if we have rain, the cut grass can mold. It’s always a race against the clock most days. Also when tractors are moving and working for 16 hours straight, there’s going to be problems. And rocks…those are pesky too. The rocks break teeth on the mowers and balers. It’s a no win situation.
There are many, many days that we are delivering food to the field and take a couple laps in the tractor just so we all can be together for thirty minutes.
The day is busily spent coordinating where people are raking, baling, cutting, hauling, stacking, irrigating finished pastures, fixing broken equipment, moral support, then throw in a little cattle work. The workers are busily doing everything they can to get grass and alfalfa to grow, cut and off the ground as fast as they can. So far, they’ve had a really good production year with the hay. The interns have done a super job at getting the hay off the field and irrigation started back so more grass can grow.
They will do two or three more cuttings on each field/circle this season. The season will (hopefully) end sometime in September/October.
