Yesterday we broke ground on our third hay barn. I'm still kind of taken aback that we will now be the proud owners of not 1, not 2, but 3 hay barns. A long time ago we set a goal of being able to store a year's worth of hay at our farm, and it has taken us almost six years to reach that goal. Once hay barn number three is completed we should be able to store a year's supply of hay onsite. In drought years where we have to feed hay through the growing season we would fall short of our goal, but in most years we should finally be able to store our coveted 365 day supply of hay.
Like any good livestock people, be it horses, cattle, sheep, goats, etc. we are of the opinion that more is better when it comes to having hay on hand. It helps us sleep better at night knowing that we have an ample supply of hay. Our two hay barns were making us pretty happy but hopefully having three hay barns will get us to a zen place when it comes to hay storage.
The main reason we wanted a third hay barn is simply to allow us to have a higher degree of control over the quality of hay we purchase. When we can purchase hay and take immediate delivery of it we can be a lot fussier about what we buy. When February rolls around and everyone else's hay supplies are running low, we (hopefully) won't be having to purchase whatever hay is still available, but instead will be gleefully feeding hay out of our nicely stocked 3rd hay barn. Jason and I are absolutely giddy about this.
As we do every year, we have put aside a certain amount of money each month in our farm savings account to be in a position to purchase a year's supply of hay during the months of May through August. We hope to purchase as much as possible during May and June as first cut hay, and then second cut hay, tends to be the best hay in our area. Our goal is to buy as much first cut hay as possible, and then fill the rest of our needs with second cut hay. That means we need to be in a position to purchase a 365 day supply of hay within a 90 day window.
Our area is in a pretty good spring drought right now which makes me wonder what hay supplies will be like this year. Hopefully the rain will finally start heading our way and Mother Nature can not mess up our best laid hay plans. Regardless, we're happy to soon be able to store an additional 15 semi-trailer loads of hay.
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Johnny watching the posts being put in for the new hay barn
the posts are set
work has started on the roof
Hemi, Thomas and Apollo take 1 . . .
. . . and take 2
Donovan, Oskar and Ripley
Chance and Trigger
Convey and Homer
Toledo and Johnny
Roho and Gus
Dolly
Merlin
Calimba
Charlotte
Renatta
Cino and Havana
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2 comments:
We can store a years worth of hay in our barn as we have a big loft and a third level which we never use. Now there are only 4 horses here, but when we had 8 it was pretty packed. We get regular bales, not round bales...and we stack pretty high. I can't imagine how much hay you need to have on hand...you must have at least 20 horses, right?
Once again, your photos are gorgeous!
Happiness is: a full hay mow (barn)
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