Another adventure in haying at the farm

The farm where Sparkles (G.'s cow) lives was doing some haying this weekend and my family went over to help out.

Haying season has been significantly shortened this year due to such a wet summer (to store square bales of hay in a barn loft, the hay must be dry or it will start a fire) so there was a big effort to do as much haying as possible on this rare (for this summer) stretch of dry weather.

Last year I posted my 10 learnings about haying (it was my first introduction to it) and this year I have a couple of updates about this aspect of my farming education.

Last year I wrote: Wear long pants and a long sleeved shirt even if it is wicked hot outside. Last night G. and I were nursing cuts and a rash from the constant contact of hay on our forearms.
This year: I wore long pants but still chose a short sleeve shirt because even though it was cooler in the hay loft this year, I can't stand to be any hotter than I have to be. I'm nursing another hay rash and cuts on my arms but not complaining about it this time around.

Last year: Bring lots and lots of water. It might have been the upper 80s outside, but on the roof of a barn, it gets a whole lot hotter.
This year: We froze our water bottles the night before and they stayed cold for the duration of our work at the barn. It was wonderfully refreshing so we plan to do this again next year.

Last year: People with pollen allergies should plan to have an extra dose of antihistamine and eye drops on hand along with access to an air conditioned room for the night to fight off their body’s reaction to being around that much hay. (G. and I had a rough night sleeping last night but we were feeling much better today.)
This year: The extra dose of antihistamine and eye drops didn't help much. I still spent the night wheezing and coughing and G. coughed and sneezed all night. We both agreed it was par for the course and opted to indulge ourselves with frozen slush as our feel-better remedy.

Last year: Hay bales are slippery when you climb on them. Swinging a heavy bale while balancing on a few bales of hay (we had to build from the floor up) took some coordination. Both G. and I took a header off the hay stack but were unhurt (unless you count the painful blush each of us conjured after the tumble).
This year: I'm happy to report there were no novice falls for either G or I this time! But I have to admit that I whacked my head on the barn rafters while stacking the bales in an almost full barn. My head has a nice knot now but at least my faux pas was a little less obvious this time.

Last year: There is a science to stacking the bales of hay. I was instructed to use the momentum of the bale to squash it in to place in the stack and could not seem to get the hang of it. The rest of the stacking crew made it look easy (years of experience will do that).
This year: My technique was still sorely lacking and I needed a bit more coaching on my swing. I think I improved slightly by the end of the 4+ hour day but an expert I am still not.

Last year: It takes about 5 1/2 hours to load and stack 1,400 bales of hay in the hayloft...
This year: We loaded hay in to two different barn lofts and spent about 4 1/2 hours between the two locations stacking bales before the machinery experienced a mechanical glitch and we called it a day.

Last year: 1,400 bales of hay will feed about 20-25 beef cows during winter. I knew cows ate a lot but I have a whole new perspective about how much that "a lot" actually looks like now.
This year: We were reminded again about the amount of work it takes to feed a couple of dozen cows in the winter.

G. took a bit of video of the square baler in the field and Fino giggled the whole time she was recording. It makes me laugh to hear how much he enjoyed that piece of machinery.



Here's a peek inside the hayloft with some video G. took last year.