Makin' hay--er "green gold"

We could hear the swather banging along in the field across Center Valley Road all through the barbecue at Mother's house last night. It was Harvey, who does most of the family farming these days. He told my sisters he would be on the field by Tuesday at the latest; he made it one day early.

Harvey's got one of those big New Holland tractors and a nice swather, so it doesn't take him too long to cut a 15-acre field. His circle was getting smaller as we pulled out of the driveway after dark. The tractor's bright lights were guiding his path as he finished off the field.

Hay season is in full swing right now. We're waiting for Doug Stockdale to show up with his smaller equipment to do our 4-acres. We're hoping for no weather problems because Bill fertilized the field to the tune of nearly $500 several weeks ago. Our hay field also doubled in size when we removed a cross fence.

If all goes well, we'll have hay to sell because I still have two tons coming from Harvey for this past winter. With two horses, we'll need about seven tons to make it through the winter and early spring. And, with that jungle-like field, we could yield 12 or more tons of hay this year. Anything over what we need will be gold with steadily-rising hay prices.

Our hay situation is small potatoes, compared to the "real" farmers around here. Yesterday, Robin McNall came by to visit Kiwi and Kea. She owns Kiwi's mom Sam, who now has a batch of eight puppies. As dogs vied for attention, Robin and I covered a lot of gab topics. Hay was one of them, and when she mentioned "500" acres to be cut and a $40,000 pricetag if they had decided to fertilize, I was a bit embarrassed to even bring up our single-digit farming.

Robin says diesel prices for operating their equipment are obviously adding to the pricetag for bales of hay this year. She's heard estimates of hay selling for anywhere from $225 to $300 a ton. That's going to cut down a lot of cow herds, and that's going to cause a good ol' juicy hamburger to turn into gold too.

Life on the farm is not nearly as simple as it used to be, that's for sure. Maybe it's easier labor-wise because of the equipment, but most of these folks spend an arm and a leg to buy that equipment and then even more to keep it maintained. Farm equipment does not break down at convenient times either.

Farm equipment breaks down in the middle of peak times, and when the fix-it people are slammed with brigades of balers needing repair, things get pretty stressful. Doug told Bill the other day that he's one of those statistics. His baler has been giving him fits this year, so that's put him behind on his annual custom haying regimen. With that in mind, we just keep praying to see a continuous line-up of those smiling sun faces in the weather reports.

All this so a cow or a horse can chew on spears of harvested grass this winter. Ain't simple, and it ain't cheap, that's for sure. We'll just hope for the best cuz with the success of farm production being determined by so many outside factors, that's about all one can do.