Monday, April 29, 2013

More Hay Adventures


We are still experiencing hay issues, but at least today we are not feeding the labor intensive square bales.

Today we got a nice load of wrapped bales. Hopefully these will last at least 2 weeks.

They were unloaded way out in the field by a secondary road.

So a different method would be used to feed them to the herd.

Without the use of the tractor......


Step 1 --go to the barn and SHUT OFF the electric fence.

Did I mention that sometimes I forgets to do this ?

Step 2- drive out to the secondary road where the bales are. .

Step 3-- jump over the electric fence (this is where I always am zapped into remembering that I forgot to shut the fence off..)

Step 4--cut off white plastic wrap with sharp knife or box cutters.


By now the herd has walked up to the side road and is watching me prepare their breakfast.


 Step 5 - pull off the white plastic.

This roll of hay was DRY and smelled delicious.



Step 6-- cut off the green plastic netting that holds the entire bale together.


Step 7-  Roll the bale closer to the electric fence.

Step 8- drop the electric fence to the ground and proceed to roll the bale over the line and into the field and KEEP UNROLLING IT in a straight line.


As I unrolled the hay I glimpsed behind me to make sure the roll was leaving a nice carpet of hay for the herd to eat.



 I was slow rolling the hay over the crevices and small potholes in the field.

Good ole Red Sox Faith decided I was going TOO slow and decided to jump on the bale and show me how to unroll it......cow style:


She put her head to it and pushed, while her rear legs dug in and moved that roll about 5 miles per hour!


She took it down the field like a pro and unrolled it in a very unique "S" shape.

S for Simmental, S for AnguS!  Who says cows can't spell ??


 With Faith's help I was able to get the hay unrolled in half the time.   Good helper Cow!!

The herd really liked the way it was spread out over the entire field.

I did too.


Plenty of room for everyone to graze.


Gouda came over to see what I was doing.

She will be a year old next month.


All that was left for me to do was:

Step 9- pick up green netting and wrap it up tight.

Step 10- pick up the white plastic and wrap it carefully and tightly into a submarine shape to be recycled later.

Step 11 - jump over fence, get into truck and head back to the barn.

Step 12- Plug the electric fence back in.

Step 13 - put white plastic in the pile near the steps to be recycled and throw the green net wrap in the dumpster.


Step 14- go buy some more mineral salt blocks.

Its a sunny, cool day here.    

How has your day been  ?
~

6 comments:

  1. wow...what a helpful cow! that is too cute! i have been zapped by the fence once too often!

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  2. Love the cow helper! We roll our bales out like that sometimes, but the cows like to lie in it, and wee in it, i'm not sure if they waste more than usual...

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  3. What a cow--maybe you could hire her out!

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  4. That was pretty funny about your "helper" cow! I guess she's seen it done enough times to know what to do! LOL!!
    It was a sunny, HOT day here yesterday, made it all the way up to 90.

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  5. Oh my gosh, I am loving your sweet cows! Faith is the best! I can't wait to read more :) Thanks for linking up at One Organic Mama! Hope to see you back on Thursday morning <3

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