Making Hay

It's amazing what we don't know. lol

I had an uncomfortable feeling that we were supposed to be doing something about our pasture that is supposed to be coastal Bermuda hay but looks more like a huge weed patch. I finally did a google search and read up on it, discovering that there is a small window of about two weeks in which to cut the hay so that it will be at it's optimum - retaining the most nutrition for the livestock and not being too wet or too dry.

What I did not read and didn't find out until just this week by asking one of the locals is that you're supposed to mow the pasture early to knock out the weeds, which can't grow back as lustily because of the heat. That way, you have a lovely field of hay which is more nutritious and healthy for the livestock.

Needless to say, we did not do that. So our first cutting of the hay will be full of weeds. It's not a total loss because the goats will still eat some of it and it can be used for bedding, too.

Apparently, the second and third cutting of a hay field yields the best hay. Unfortunately, fuel has become so expensive that it is knocking a lot of hay balers out of business, so we're going to have to really search for someone to bale our hay for a price that won't break the bank.