About Hay

Hay can be made up of a combination of grass and legumes which are cut and stored as feed for livestock. Hay is given to livestock when there is little or no natural forage available. Hay fields are large open fields where grasses and legumes are allowed to mature and bloom and/or allowed to produced seed.

Farmers monitor their fields to identify when plants have reached the optimal stage of maturation. When plants have reached a certain maturity they contain the greatest amount of sugar, vitamins and minerals, and other nutrients making it optimal for livestock feed.

There are multiple steps in the haying process. Once the farmer identifies that it is time to "make hay", the first step is to mow or cut the plants. The cut grass and/or legumes then sits on the ground for a period of time to allow for it to dry. If not sufficiently dried, it will rot and can become harmful for animals to consume.

To speed up the process, a machine called a tedder is run over the drying field of hay turning and further spreading the hay out. The next step is to prepare the hay for baling. Before the crop is baled, a hay rake is pulled behind a tractor and the hay is raked into straight rows. As rows are made, farmers pull a baler down the rows. The baler picks up the row of hay and processes it into bales. Farmers can make different kinds of bales depending on the equipment they use and their preference of bale shape and size. Bales can be large or small and rectangular or round.

Another method of producing hay is to wrap bales in plastic soon after it is cut. This method produces "baleage". To create baleage, farmers bale the hay when it is freshly cut not allowing it to dry. Undried plant matter still contains high amounts of moisture. By sealing the bales, the plant materials start to ferment from the sugars and lack of oxygen. Fermented bales contain more sugars, vitamins, and nutrients compared to dry bales. The fermenting process also allows for a more complete digestions of starchy plants by livestock.

Some larger farming operations cut hay directly into trucks which then deliver the hay to be stored in large concrete areas called bunker silos. Hay is then loose stacked up to 20 feet high x 50 feet wide x 500 ft long and covered with thick tarps. This allows baleage to be created on a much larger scale and farmers avoid having to wrap single bales or line baling their harvest.

The process of haying is greatly affected by weather patterns. A farmer will often harvest hay up to four times in a season depending on the weather and grass or legume that is being grown. These are called cuttings. With each cutting, there can be variances of proteins, vitamins, and minerals in the hay.

Fun Facts

• Hay and straw are two different products. Hay is a combination of all the above ground parts of a grass or legume plant which includes stalks, leaves, flowers, and seeds. Straw is the stalk that is left over from grain harvests. Unlike hay, straw has little to no nutritional value to animals other than fiber and is usually used as animal bedding.

Sources

• http://www.fao.org/3/x7660e/x7660e00.htm#Contents
• https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/e/1628/files/2016/03/Hay-Making-Equipment-1k1qy5g.pdf