Each year, as the grass growth stops in the autumn, beef and dairy farms take their cows out of the pasture. “If you leave them on the grass for too long, they’ll keep gnawing and will start pulling the grass out. They’ll chew it right up,” Bob Vollinger told me during a recent conversation. Vollinger raises beef cows at Vollinger Farm in Florence. It’s during this time of year, he said, that the hay he grew during the warm months becomes an essential component of his herd’s diet.
Hay is grass that has been grown, mown, and dried to be fed to livestock, typically cows, sheep, and goats. Growing high-quality hay is more complex than you might expect. Each year at the beginning of June, Vollinger watches his fields of Timothy Grass, Orchard Grass, and Reed Canarygrass carefully. “You look out and if the grass is starting to head out a little, that means it’s ready.” But Vollinger needs to be sure that the grass is mature enough to harvest. “If there’s too much moisture in the hay, if it’s baled when it’s too green, it will mold,” he explained. “If you put it in a bale and it’s way too green, there’s a danger of self-combustion. Barns have burned down because of that.” While harvesting hay too young risks mold, or even a fire, waiting too long carries its own risks. If it’s too mature, its nutritional value dips and its texture becomes coarse.
Beyond the challenge of harvesting the grass during the right moment in its life cycle, Vollinger’s work is dependent on the weather. “You need a good three-day stretch to get the hay off the field,” he said. Three days is how long it takes to mow the field, let the hay dry after mowing, then bale it. Any rain during that period, or even too much humidity, can ruin the entire harvest. “You’re trying to get the moisture content out of the hay,” Vollinger said. “When there’s too much moisture in the air, it makes it really hard to dry it and make a good product.”
Vollinger aims to harvest his hay in three rounds of cuts each year between June and October. But sometimes the weather makes that nearly impossible. “Last year in August when it started to rain every other day, I never was able to get half of my second cut out of the fields,” he said. Three dry days without rain in a row were a rare commodity. When the precipitation did take a break, the fields remained saturated. “When you’re baling hay and there’s so much moisture that the water’s dripping off your tractor tires as you’re going, it’s hard to make a good quality hay that’s not going to dust or mold.” This year, a mid-summer dry spell stunted the growth of his grasses leaving him with another lackluster second cut.
Local meat and dairy would be impossible without local hay. Fortunately for us, farmers across the Valley have barns stacked high with hay bales to sustain livestock herds throughout the coming winter. This time of year, Vollinger recommends a hearty meal amidst the cooling weather. Fire up your grill on an autumn evening and toss a local steak on the grill. He prefers his straight up, without seasoning. Next to the steak, cook up a halved butternut squash, then sprinkle on some brown sugar when it’s done.
Noah Baustin is the Communications Coordinator at CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture).