Even in severe weather, the hay gets to the herd
Climbing in the square hay bales is standard procedure on the farm.
I had a question from the Tennessean about the blog on hauling in the feed. They wondered if we ever run short of feed in severe weather. I'm happy to say that we have never run out of feed totally, but on a couple of occasions my feed supplier has struggled to get round bales here.
We store about 1800 square bales on a platform over the freestalls, so if we happened to be short of round bales for a day or two we would have feed for all the animals. I don't like to feed these bales to the cows if I can help it, since these bales are meant for the young animals in the young stock barn. If I feed too many of the square bales to the older animals, I may run out of them before next year's crop is put up.
Last winter we did have one day when we were out of round bales and Dennis was unable to get here with a wagon load because of a severe snowstorm with high winds filling the roads with drifts. On that day he brought about a half-dozen round bales, one at a time, in the back of his pickup. All last winter he had to plow roads into his fields to get to the round bales. This winter he has been pretty lucky up till now. By tomorrow morning, if we get the 12-18 inches of snow they are predicting, Dennis may be plowing roads again.
--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont
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Posted by Blogger Chris at February 11, 2005 08:55 AM
I am so gratified that you and your family understand the importance of Organic Farming, which was all there was 150 years ago and further back. Were it not for organic farming possibly I would not be writing you. Who knows the mighty pesticide people would have annhilated the worlds' population had they had their start 500 years ago. May you be eternally blessed because of your devotion to your desire to feed me healthy food, and incidentally pay your bills. kindly Gem.-+
Having grown up on a dairy farm @ 7 generations in the clan Storrs & Townsend, I have seen many changes including 27 farms selling milk in Lebanon, NH, down to now one only. Q. Are you also feeding ensilage &, if so, of what form? With so many dairy farms out of business now, I would think that there would be a lot of hay on the market. As a Biologist & MD, please forgive me for not being at all excited about the 'organic farming trend'. I realize it is a current 'in-thing' thanks to great hype but it can't 'feed the globe' all by itself. All useful forms of fertilizer are needed. I recall how the human waste made the grass grow better on our old farm than any other organic or inorganic fertilizer and I could readily see why the Chinese & others used it on their gardens, albeit a dangerous practice from a medical standpoint. Our 'modern progressive nations' waste it in landfills. I'm wondering when human waste will again be used, once made medically safe.
Jonathan Gates reports from Howmars Farm in Franklin, Vermont.