Just in Time

Timing is everything on the farm. In fact, there is very little that happens on the homestead that does not require excellent timing.

Fragile crops must be harvested or covered before damaging frosts. Housing for animals must be prepared before their birth or arrival. Weeds must be pulled before they take over the world. There are the considerations of timing for when to turn the ram in with the ewes and when to take him out.

This week saw a series of “just in time” endeavors, including making our first crop hay.

Making hay truly does take the sunshine. If it rains on your cut hay, the quality of the feed is greatly diminished, and the bales are likely to become moldy. Well-dried bales are still green on the inside when opened, even in the middle of winter.

Making hay is essentially storing dried food for the winter, much like how drying foods were essential for humans throughout history before canning and freezing. Drying feed for the animals as well has also been historically important, and it’s equally important today. Our old barn still has the hay hooks for when loose hay stacked on wagons would be brought into the mow for feeding by pitchfork all winter. The hay was cut and raked using horse-drawn equipment, the remnants of which are still on the farm as well.

Today, we hire a crew to bring their specialized equipment for haying. First crop hay is made up in round bales. First cut hay is stalkier and less nutritious. Round bales can be stored outside all winter, and while the outer crust does weather, the pigs love the bale “rind” for rooting and snuggling. Second crop hay is leafier and more nutritious, and we have this made into small square bales for storing in the barns to keep try and clean for pregnant, lactating, and baby animals.

With good weather, haymaking needs a three-day stretch of dry weather. That hasn’t been so easy to find lately! While the storms themselves over the past few weeks have managed to dodge just north or south of the farm, it was too close of a call to warrant cutting. Until Thursday.

There were still chances, but the percentages were lowering. More rain was predicted for Sunday evening, Monday, and Tuesday, so this appeared to be our window of opportunity. Baling day is the most precarious for timing, as you can’t start until the dew has dried off, but you must have the process wrapped up before the dew returns in the evening. Thank goodness the days are long this time of year!

Sunshine and a gentle breeze helped out, and soon the big round baler arrived, pulled by a tractor that completely dwarfs the antique Allis D-15s we still use to do our work on the farm. As the round bales accumulate, Kara brings out the skid steer with the bale spear, and it’s time to load them up and bring them into the barnyard.

Kara has a special way that she stacks the bales end-to-end, orienting them in rows with gaps between so they can have good sunlight on them all year to help them stay dry. Getting these stacked up against each other before the rain came was the goal, and Mom and Steve drove pickups hauling hay wagons all afternoon to bring in the harvest. 93 bales later and with evening approaching, the hay was in. Just in time.

The larger the equipment, however, the less finesse in tight corners, and after dinner we set out with pitch forks and the wagons to glean the remnants. The sky went from blue to pink to orange, and then the mosquitoes came out of the woods in droves. We finished our loads and headed back to the barn just in time for evening chores and the settling of the dew. We fed out about half the hay right away to the hungry sheep, then tarped the rest for the morning.

But the dry stretch had been hard on the garden. Mom has been championing the irrigation, but watering was really just keeping the plants alive. They really needed rain to thrive, and what little rain there had been before haying had been mere sprinkles. By morning, the radar showed that the predicted rain was not going to wait until evening, pouring down in buckets by mid-afternoon. Just in time, the garden plants sighed, just in time.

Now that the fields are cut, we can spread the piles of composting manure and bedding from the animals. This will help provide nutrients and humus for the pasture and hay to grow for second crop, naturally nourishing the cycles of growth. We had made an effort last year to spread as well, but one of our manure spreaders had royally broken down. This spring and summer, Steve was able to fix it, taking apart the broken chain and ladders, banging away in the garage like a smith at his anvil. Now it was back up and running like a charm, just in time to spread before the grasses regrew and would be mashed by driving the tractor and spreader.

There’s an art to just-in-time stewardship of the land. Here’s hoping for plenty of rain for the garden and growth for the second crop hay! See you down on the farm sometime.