Family milk cow: Hay, forage and quality

This is a continue series on raising a family milk cow.  To see the first entry in the series, click here.
To see the previous entry, click here. 

My usual supplier of my hay had an issue with his production, and that forced me to look elsewhere for hay.  I'm expecting hay and forage prices in general to go up this year, and the last thing I want to do is run short of hay this winter and have to buy it when it's expensive. 

A milk cow produces milk that is influenced by the quality of the forage that she's offered -- the better the quality of hay, the more milk that's produced.  The other thing is that I'm going to be consuming the milk, and so I'd like to have as little additional stuff in it as possible. 

6 tons loaded on the trailer

 When I looked for a new hay supplier I wanted someone who knew what they were doing, and hopefully that had the same kind of animal that I was feeding.  This fellow runs an organic grass-fed dairy and milks 110 cows.  As he explained to me today:  "I weaned myself off of corn and feed about 5 years ago, and I'm so glad I did.  I used to send one of my milk checks every month to the feed mill.  I haven't purchased feed in 3 years!" 

Perfect.  Organically managed fields, feeds his cows with the same hay, close by.  But words are one thing.  I took a long careful look at his fields while I was looking at the hay. 

looks a lot like a lawn. 

 The hay in those bales is 3rd cutting.  First cutting he makes into haylage, because it's often too cold and wet to bale earlier in the year.  So the hay he produces and feeds to his cattle is second or third cut.  As a result, it's very fine and dense.  Not much in the way of stems or bulk.  I purchased 10 bales from him last winter and noticed that the animals, particularly the sheep, just gobbled it up.  Without knowing much else, the animals showed me what they preferred. 

tractor loading 600lb bale

 I have to say that I've heard a lot of farmers say that they'd like to raise their own feed on their own land.  This is one of the few guys in my area that seems to be making a go of it. 

Orchard grass, some fescue and a little clover

450 bales to choose from

The hay cost me $135/ton, for third-cutting dry hay.  That's a bargain.  That it's organic and packed for easy feeding to cows is a big bonus.  I'm going to have some of this hay baled into small squares that I'll pick up next week; I use it for the pigs, and it's handy to have it in smaller packages, but it'll be the same organic third cutting thats in the big bales.   I've got 22 tons of the big round bales in the barn; enough that I'll have extra this winter.  I like having more than I need.  I'll also put up an additional 20 tons of small square bales, mostly for resale this winter.  It's mostly horse people who forget that their horses eat all winter long, too.  So I'll mark up the bale I purchased for $5 to $11, and the hay sales will keep me in lunch money for the next year. 

   As Dennis, the farmer, said "hay in the barn is like money in the bank!"    Yes, it is.  And it's a relief to cross hay off my list, and nice to find good forage so close to my farm.