Our winter's supply of hay was delivered last night. we bought 12 round bales, each about 6' in diameter and weighing over 1200 lb. It's from the same farm that supplied us last year, at a cost of $120/bale, delivered.
In past years, we've had to pull each bale off the truck using our pickup and a long cable. This time, it was much easier. The hay arrived on a trailer that was equipped with a tilting deck and it was simply rolled off. There was one frightening moment when one of the bales bounced off another and headed straight toward the spot where I stood with Floyd. Actually, it didn't come that close, but we didn't wait around to make sure; we ran.
We're letting the goats and sheep free-feed on the bales. Some years, this works, and some, it doesn't. It depends on how tightly the bales are wrapped and how many animals we have. So far, they're not making a big mess and I'm raking up just enough spilled hay to feed the horses (who are jealous and want to free-feed, too). If the bales get too badly torn apart, we'll lock the herd out of the area where the hay is, and deliver a measured amount to them every day. It's easier when they help themselves, though.
Oh how I wish we could let our goats free-feed, but they'd tear it apart, stomp on it, sleep on it, pee on it, etc. It's bad enough they manage to do that even WITH a manger.
ReplyDeleteI have to rake up several times a day or mine will spoil the hay, too. The raked-up hay goes to the horses
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