Moving hay

Late last June, if you remember, we purchased fifteen 600-lb. round bales of hay (4.5 tons) delivered for our upcoming winter cattle feed. (Ironically the farmer delivered them during one of the fiercest thunderstorms we've had in a long time.) After the weather calmed down, Don neatly stacked the bales in the front driveway and we tarped them against any subsequent rainstorms.

Now it was time to move those bales from the front of the house to the back, where we wanted to stack as many inside the barn as would fit.

One thing became apparent at the time the bales were delivered: These bales weighed way, way more than 600 lbs. each. Don estimates they exceed 800 lbs. The farmer was apologetic; apparently he had never used a round baler before, and it took some adjustment, so the bales turned out a lot bigger than he anticipated. Still, he gave us 15 bales at the original price he quoted, so we weren't arguing that we got closer to six tons for the price of four and a half.

These bales were almost comically misshapen. Most were wound tighter on one end than the other, leading to a humorous mushroom shape. But hey, we weren't arguing about their appearance. We appreciated the extra tonnage.

But the extra-heavy bales did present one quandary: Our tractor couldn't lift them using the front-loader spikes, which cantilever weight away from the main body of the tractor. How were we going to move 15 bales from the front driveway to the barn in back?

So, after doing some research, Don made one of the few new purchases we've made since I lost my job last February: A hay bale spike that goes on the back of the tractor. Attached to the three-point hitch, this spike is able to lift a couple thousand pounds, so it easily handled the round bales.

More and more farmers are transitioning to round bales, so this purchase was way overdue.

Anyway, with the change in weather, Don was anxious to get as much hay under cover as possible. The cattle were almost finished with the last of the old hay, so Don took the opportunity to clean out the center part of the barn. This was highly educational, as he kept uncovering tools or items that had been missing for nearly five years, since we moved in ("So that's where my spare Sawzall went!").

Finally, after about a week of sorting and tidying, the center part of the barn was fairly open. (If you peer closely, you can see what's left of the last remaining old hay bale in the center back.)

Don untarped the new hay bales. Some of the bales had a few rotty spots, but for the most part they were in very good condition. Additionally, these bales are much higher quality hay than the stuff we'd bought last spring to tide us over.

One by one, Don positioned the tractor by a bale, backed the spike into it, and lifted the bale into the air. 

Then he drove around to the lower driveway and brought the bale to the barn.

Once at the opening of the barn, he dropped the bale just outside.

Then he turned the tractor around and, using the bucket, tipped it on its end. Alley-oop!

Once it was tipped up, he used the bucket to slide the bale over the concrete floor of the barn. His goal was to cram as many bales in the barn as possible. There is very little maneuvering room in this space, so it's not like we could stack them or anything. Besides, we needed the bales to be positioned so that we could cut the twine that binds them and unpeel the hay when it's time to feed the animals.

You can see the size difference between these newer bales (left) and the last remnant of the old 500-lb bales we bought last March (right). For one thing, the newer bales are over five feet high (they're taller than me), and wider in diameter. (This photo is an unfair comparison since the old bale is mostly used up.)

In the end, Don managed to squeeze 10 of the 15 bales into the barn, nine of which are shown below.

For the remaining five bales, he laid down pallets just off the main driveway and stacked the bales in a pyramid, then we tarped the bloody heck out of them and tied the tarps tight.

We broke into one of the new bales a couple days ago, and the cows are crazy for it. In fact, just tonight Maggie didn't even want her usual evening grain. She wanted hay.

This is yet another example of what we're doing to batten down the hatches for winter. Now we have plenty of feed inside the barn to last all during the cold and snowy months, and enough tarped in the driveway to get us through the muddy spring months.