Hay! We'll Take Some Rain

 

I don't know who first said,  "Rain, rain, go away! Come again some other day!" But I guarantee it wasn't a farmer ...

Even if the farmer has hay down.

We heard a sprinkle on the roof during the night, but it didn't last long. We're hoping that wasn't our only shot for rain today. With the 2014 wheat crop in the ground, we could use a nice, gentle rain right about now.

Yes, we do have some hay down. Its quality is adversely affected when it's rained upon. But this bonus fourth cutting of alfalfa will survive getting wet. Some well-timed moisture is much more critical for the emerging wheat crop.

After finishing up with wheat last Wednesday, Randy swathed some alfalfa fields on Friday. 

This is the first year since 2010 that we've been able to swath a fourth cutting. For the past two summers, we were in an exceptional drought, so there wasn't much hay to swath for a first or second cutting, much less a fourth cutting. It already feels like a bonus.

The windrows aren't as plentiful as they were earlier in the summer. But, I'm sure a farmer did say that other old adage: "Make hay while the sun shines."

The past two years, we've sold off our feeder calves before the winter because we didn't have enough hay or feed to nourish both the mama cows and the feeder cattle.

Randy was able to put up another 29 bales yesterday. It's like putting away a few extra dollars in the bank account for a rainy day.

Oops! There's another one of those sayings that a farmer didn't come up with. We'll be glad to take a rainy day rather than a drought-stricken one. Bring on the rain!