HAY STORAGE

Make your harvest last with these efficient tips.

-  HOBBY FARM EDITORS

Sky-high machinery and fuel costs and the lack of affordable haying-crew labor is driving up the cost of putting up hay. At the same time, hay shortages have become a way of life. When you harvest quality hay, it's dollarwise to preserve it so it lasts.

PUTTING UP HAY

Hay is a generic term for grass or legume plants that have been cut, dried and stored for use as animal feed, particularly for grazing species, such as cattle, equines, llamas, alpacas, goats and sheep. Because feed changes upset some animals' digestive systems, it's advisable to put up enough of the same type of hay to last a season. To preserve its nutritional value, put up no more than you'll feed within a year of harvest. Keep these things in mind when you plan how much you're going to grow and package.

Hay can be bundled in three basic ways:

SMALL SQUARE BALES: Traditional rectangular-shaped, string- or wire-tied bales are generally 2-by-2-by-4 feet and weigh between 40 and 100 pounds. While small square bales are ideal for ease of feeding, putting them up, is more labor-, time- and cost-intensive than baling large round or large square bales.

LARGE SQUARE BALES: Rectangular bales — generally 3-by-3-by-8 feet in size and weighing 600 to 700 pounds — are easy to use, as they break off in flakes like small square bales. However, you'll need a tractor with a loader spike to move them.