We baled our hay at the start of this week - our big farming endeavour every year!
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| Bales in the sunshine |
We round bale ours and the other day someone asked me why. We could make much more money from them if we baled it into small square bales and sold them through the winter. Our main issue with that, other than very few contractors will bale them like that anymore, is we have no storage for them.
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| Bales in the rain |
One day we will build a barn to store our bales in (if we can get planning), but in the meantime we will keep having round bales. These can spend a bit of time in the rain without getting too damaged and they are easily transported away from our little smallholding - sold off the field. It's a good job too with all the rain we've been having over the last couple of days!
Well done to you, I wish we could put the clock back, we did have 2 allotments once and tried to grow as much as poss but we're both a bit creaky now.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to love following your posts.
Briony
x
Two allotments would be hard work. I struggle to keep on top of all I've got! I need the kids to be a bit bigger to help more!
DeleteWe see mostly round bales here,but some farms still stick with the square...they look so lovely leaning in threes.
ReplyDeleteJane x
We used to bale thousands of small square bales when I was younger but it was very labour intensive so being able to move everything by machine is much easier.
DeleteHere all you ever see anymore is round bales. Finding the old square ones is getting difficult.
ReplyDeleteThere's still a lot in the UK really as there's a big market for people with horses. They love 'em!
DeleteTHAT is a wonderful picture!
ReplyDeleteWe round bale most our hay and feed to cows all winter but we also square bale hay for my horse (as I can lift those bales without help of hubby and his tractor!) We built a barn from old barn wood recycled so have lots of storage. Too much storage as their is way more than hay hidden up in those lofts!
Thank you! Thats the trouble with storage but I've been trying to be good an not keep too much rubbish. One day I'll build a barn to store all that in!
DeleteThe only downside to the round bales is the handling. Even the large Hestons can be put down somewhere handy, covered in a tarp and slices peeled off to use. Now we don't have a tractor we will have to hope to find someone local who still does small square bales.
ReplyDeleteThat is the downside, but they work for us at the moment but we've got no stock so not such a problem! Your find someone who'll do it. A good contractor is worth they're weight in gold!
Delete*there
DeleteWe took delivery today of a big round bale of hay, I am hoping it will be enough for the Alpacas through winter, We also had a very large straw bale I didnt realise they came so big, this is for piggy bedding.
ReplyDeleteThey don't go that far but I'm sure you can buy more in if you need to. A pikel is a good tool for spreading it about.
DeleteI would love to be able to harvest and bale that much hay! We always buy round bales because they are more economical to purchase. That's important when one is counting pennies!
ReplyDeleteI know all about counting pennies! When we get round to getting some stock we'll have to buy some in probably!
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