LittleField Notes: Hay – Farming Systems & Approaches

LittleField Notes

by Ryan Foxley of Arlington, WA photographs by Joe D. Finnerty and Laura Littlefield

All was silent as earlier than — All silent save the dripping rain. – H.W. Longfellow

July 7

As I sit and watch rain fall on new mown hay I can’t assist however consider the experiences of farmers of yore. I feel particularly of the Hjorts, George and Kristina, who100 years in the past lived in the home the place I now reside and mowed hay in the identical river-bottom fields I now mow. I ponder that an correct climate forecast was not obtainable to them, a reality nearly unbelievable to a tradition grown accustomed to laptop generated climate fashions, satellite tv for pc pictures, 24-hour TV climate channels and hourly smart-phone updates.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve nearly obsessively checked the climate — ready for 5 solar icons in a row to seem on the pc display. That may be sufficient time early within the season to get a couple of acres of combined meadow grass cured and saved within the haymow.

The 4th of July dawned sunny and delightful and the following a number of days regarded favorable. June tends to be gloomy, however July sometimes turns beautiful within the Pacific Northwest and our farming forebears on this area made hay in that month. So I greased up the John Deere Huge 4 and, in deference to custom, celebrated the 4th with my household and associates and waited to mow till the fifth. As predicted the solar was shining and summer time appeared to have lastly arrived. We tedded the hay every day, aerating it with the previous machine’s lifting and fluffing motion, very almost approximating a person working by way of the sector with a pitchfork.

By the way, the time period “ted” comes from the Previous-English “have a tendency.” Haying round right here actually does require a whole lot of tending. Grass merely gained’t remedy itself simply laying there on the bottom the way in which it does in arid climates. Regardless of the favorable forecasts and with solely a 20% probability of rain referred to as for, seemingly out of nowhere the clouds rolled in and the rain fell for 2 days.

Pondering of my forebears, I reasoned that George would even have minimize his hay on the fifth. I imagined him, like me staring out the kitchen window on the pouring rain, espresso cup in hand shaking his head at his misfortune. Or would he? Maybe he would have been extra resigned than I? Extra accepting, extra at peace with the unpredictable nature of the climate and the way in which his and his household’s life was sure up with its fickle disregard for human wants and needs. Would his lack of up-to-the-minute climate forecasts have affected his alternative of instruments and strategies?

I do know from the jaunty previous photograph of George’s sons Torvald and Conrad that they made haycocks right here on the farm, so I think about they will need to have simply anticipated it to rain — minimize when you’ll be able to, however count on rain and hope the sheltering results of a correctly made hay cock will get you thru. I, nonetheless, am hooked on the labor saving motion of the unfastened hay loader and so don’t construct haycocks. I’d wish to suppose that our fashionable forecasting instruments can let me do my haying at opportune occasions and thus keep away from the work of constructing hay cocks and in flip hand loading them on the wagon.

July 8

After a day of rain the solar has returned and as I write this I can hear Joe out driving a Fjord workforce on the tedder, the machine clacking and clanging away, tending to the moist grass, which we nonetheless hope to show into cured hay. Even when it’s buzzing alongside that previous machine seems like a runaway and never sometimes makes my coronary heart skip a beat. Rain is rather more harmful to 3 or 4 day previous minimize hay than to 1 or two day previous and I feel this crop, with ample fluffing nonetheless has the potential to be surprisingly good contemplating the quantity of rain that fell yesterday.

This night I raked the hay into windrows with the aspect supply rake. Inevitably when the rake picks, folds and flips the hay we discover that there’s at all times some on the underside that’s seemingly untouched by tedder or solar and appears as inexperienced because the day it was minimize. The rake does a pleasant job of bringing this inexperienced hay to the highest of the windrow for additional curing.

The forecast doesn’t look promising. Seems to be like now we have two extra days of dry climate earlier than the rains return as soon as once more.

July 11

After a few respectable days I made the choice to hook up the hayloader and get some hay within the barn. It has cured properly although in an ideal world I’d wait another day, as there are nonetheless a good variety of slugs in it. Within the Northwest not solely do now we have multitudes of backyard slugs that wish to munch on crisp lettuces, however we additionally encounter slugs of one other form. A hay slug is a bit inexperienced wad of hay tucked in with completely cured hay. A couple of are okay and in our unfastened hay system at all times dry down properly within the barn. Nevertheless, loading the hay this afternoon there have been extra of those hay slugs than I wish to see so we must restrict the quantity of hay that goes into the loft. Free hay fluffed properly and never stacked too deeply will end curing superbly within the barn. Seeing the quantity of inexperienced nonetheless within the subject I do know that I’ve greater than I dare safely put within the barn.

July 12

With extra rain forecast and impressed by the previous image of Thor and Conrad amongst the haycocks I made a decision if we have been to save lots of the three acres proper round the home we had higher go old-school and take a look at making haycocks. I gathered all obtainable assist, distributed pitchforks and commenced making little haystacks out of the windrowed hay. With the hay nearly cured and little worry of heating, we made stacks as massive as we fairly might. We aimed to construct a cock with good straight sides and a moisture shedding, rounded cap on prime. The thought is to get as a lot of the crop as potential below a protecting outer layer of sacrificial hay. The outer six or so inches can be moist and switch brown whereas the hay inside stays inexperienced and dry. The job went surprisingly rapidly with the entire subject cocked by midday. By 4 o’clock it was raining.

July 15

The haycocks withstood two days of strong rain. This morning, reaching a hand into the stack, I used to be happy to seek out the hay inside completely dry with a pleasing contemporary odor. With rain as soon as once more forecast for tomorrow we determined to peel off the spoiled outer layer and cargo the preserved inside hay on the wagon and haul it to the barn. Uncertain of how a lot rain a haycock can take earlier than the inside layers begin to moisten, and with such an unsure forecast I made a decision to place the great hay within the barn whereas we had the chance. We peeled off the spoiled outer layer, evenly distributing it over the sector stubble and hauled the great hay to the barn. Total the haycock experiment was a giant success. Had we left the hay within the windrow it could have undoubtedly spoiled past saving.

July 26

As I sit right here typing up the remainder of these notes, and with an SFJ deadline looming we’re nonetheless ready for the arrival of summer time. We now have not but had greater than three consecutive days with out rain. The temperature has hardly ever exceeded 70. We now have a number of tri-pods within the subject trying to remedy inexperienced hay utilizing strategies that peasants have utilized in extraordinarily moist climates the world over. I’ll inform this story in full within the subsequent challenge after it has completed unfolding. Within the meantime I can be grateful a minimum of that we’re not coping with the intense warmth that a lot of the nation is going through.

Humility

So is weather-knowledge energy? Does having a pc with 24-hour forecasts make me a greater farmer? Trying again on the final month I’d reply with a convincing NO. Not solely have the climate forecasters been improper greater than proper, but in addition I discover that I typically put an excessive amount of inventory of their predictions usually making selections that show expensive.

Farming is about selections. Decisions that at occasions really feel like a Faustian cut price. If I mow too quickly my efforts could also be spoiled by rain. If I wait I’ll not have ample curing time earlier than it rains once more. If I delay longer nonetheless, ready for that good run of excellent climate, I run the chance of getting nothing however rank, stemmy and overly mature hay with ever diminishing dietary worth.

Haying with horses both simplifies these selections or makes them extra sophisticated relying by way of which lens one chooses to look. Little doubt haying with horses takes extra time: fewer acres minimize in a day, fewer tons gathered to stack or mow in a single day. I view this as a method of spreading threat, a assure that I’ll by no means have all of my hay on the bottom on the similar time. If I’ve three or 4 acres of hay on the bottom and lose it all- on the finish of the day that’s nonetheless solely 3 or 4 acres, not 30 or 40. In fact the massive tractor farmer will inform me that when he will get a superb stretch of climate he can get all of his hay minimize and cured without delay. That’s his benefit. I, in fact, am a horse farmer — I don’t even personal a PTO mower, or baler. I select to see the aspect of the coin that tells me I’ll lose a bit hay right here and there as I am going, however that I’m higher off not placing all my hay-eggs in a single speedy tractor-basket. That’s to say nothing of the worth inherent on this slower method of working.

Farming by no means fails to dish up one lesson in humility after one other. Regardless of having all of the climate data the information-age has to supply, farmers will nonetheless lose hay to the rain, apple blossoms to frost, winter wheat to drought… If we’re gradual to study humility in Nature’s presence we will make certain that one other lesson is rarely far off.