Chase's Organic Dairy - Farm Blog » haying

Hay… not just for cows

Laura228 — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:06:54 +0000

Lew and Aaron stack haylage bales on a trailer truck for the deer farm.

Today was a busy day at the farm. In addition to milking and the usual chores, Thursday’s our day to get hay down. (We drop a week’s worth of square bales down through the hay holes and stack them in front of the cows. We are currently feeding dry hay in the mornings and haylage in the afternoons.) We also loaded some round bales for our friends who have a Red Deer farm in Linneus. We hear that the deer love eating hay and haylage from our farm and are doing really well this winter. We’re looking forward to going to visit them very soon.

We’re also getting ready to travel to Westbrook tomorrow for the MOOMilk launch. We are very excited to see the first batch of MOOMilk come off the production line at Smiling Hill Farm and be loaded on a truck for delivery to grocery stores in Maine this Saturday. This is great news for consumers AND family farms in Maine. Go, MOOMilk!

For more info on MOOMilk, please visit www.moomilkco.com. Here’s an excerpt from a recent press release:

“The start of the production marks a new step in the recovery of the Maine dairy industry. MOOMilk with be produced and processed entirely in Maine, with trucking, processing and delivery all done by Maine family businesses. Ninety percent of the profits from the sale of the milk will go to the family farms producing the milk. MOOMilk is not a cooperative, but a low-profit company with a mission of helping Maine organic family dairy farms survive by earning a fair price for their milk.”

Busy month haying

Laura228 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:10 +0000

August has been an extremely busy month haying. The wet weather of June and July has changed and we have had many days of cloudless blue skies. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve finished haying! We baled about 11,000 square bales this year and about 1,100 round silage bales. We also did about 150 dry round bales. The Chase cows will have plenty to eat this winter!

Most of our hay crew went back to school on Aug. 11th, but we continued haying by starting at 3:00 each day and working until dusk.

We lined up the bales for nearly 1/2 mile on the cross road. We did enough square bales for the crew, then would round bale as much as we could until the dew fell.

Round bales in a field are so scenic, but these won't stay here long. It's best to get them wrapped up or under cover to avoid wasting good hay.

Busy Diskbine Today!

Laura228 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:40:23 +0000

We had a good weather forecast this morning so started cutting around 8:00 AM and kept cutting for nearly 12 hours today! We started with some second crop alfalfa and also cut some timothy/mixed grass fields. We will be busy the next few days – round bales tomorrow and (we hope!) square bales for 2-3 days after that. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather!

The diskbine was busy for nearly 12 hours today. Lots of hay is down on the Chase Farm!

50 More Round Bales of Haylage

Laura228 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:01:09 +0000

Initially, we weren’t planning on being able to hay yesterday but the forecast changed to a lower percentage of showers possible. It got us thinking. Then the hot sun came out and we decided to take a chance on getting a few more bales. We cut around 10:00 AM and hoped for the best!

The hay starts falling around 10:00 AM.

We were baling by 1:30 PM. We had to avoid a bit of soft ground due to so much rain recently.

We managed to get about 50 bales yesterday. Every bale counts!

Not much good weather lately…

Laura228 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:31:31 +0000

We’ve had a difficult time haying recently due to frequent showers but yesterday we did manage to get in 56 round bales of haylage. We would like to be putting in some dry hay but that’s just not possible with the weather we’ve been having. Let’s hope that changes soon!

With less than ideal weather conditions, we're not able to get much dry hay these days. When we can, we get some haylage bales.

Good weather in the forecast…

Laura228 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:28:37 +0000

… means more haying on the Chase Farm! It looks like we will have good weather Monday-Wednesday this week, so we’re cutting today in hopes of getting some square bales. We’ll be calling the crew to let them know we should be haying tomorrow afternoon, as soon as the hay is dry enough to bale. Let’s hope showers stay out of the weather forecast for the next few days! Click here to view more of today’s photos.

The big tractor is on the move today, with lots of hay to cut today and tomorrow. Our nephew, Chase will be tedding it later today to spread it out so it will dry well for square baling tomorrow.

July 15 & 16 On the Farm

Laura228 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:34:59 +0000

Grazing happily until the afternoon milking. Love the view of the Mapleton Road and Doyen's canola fields in the background...

More photos from July 15 & 16 are available

Another 124 round bales!

Laura228 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:48:12 +0000

We had a few days off from haying due to some showery weather but on July 15 we were able to get some more hay – 124 round bales. While haying we enjoyed the view from some of the highest ground on our farm. I took several other photos during the course of the day. To view them, please visit www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027688&id=1410367363&l=5a9b66a1d9.

Baling hay with a beautiful view on July 15, 2009

Big Hay Day!

Laura228 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:42:36 +0000

7/10/09: We're happy to be cutting some hay!

The sun is shining on the Chase Farm today and the HAY IS FALLING!

For more photos, please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/laura228/July09Haying#

You’ve got to make hay when the sun shines

Laura228 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:38:39 +0000

One of the first nice, green bales of 2009

It’s haying time at Chase’s Organic Dairy Farm! The hay crop is ready and we have been able to hay two days so far. Right now, we are ready and waiting for good weather so we can cut more hay.