the summer has been a very wet one, and while this is good for the backyard tomato crop, it is really bad for the hay crop. the old saying 'make hay while the sun shines' really should read 'make hay while the sun shines for three days in a row.' you need the first sunny day to cut it, the next to turn it in the field to dry it out, and the third to bale it and get it under cover. our ten-acre field is planted with a mix of alfalfa and orchard grass, the right balance for most horses. for our european and british readers, alfalfa is called lucerne. and it is interesting to know that the word comes from the arabic "alfacfacah,' meaning 'the best kind of fodder'and came into american english from spanish. the plant itself originated on the iranian plateau, and while well appreciated by the greeks and romans as animal feed, its cultivation was lost in the middle ages.
yesterday our neighbor and farmer jack briggs drove his tractor to our field, and started to bale the hay he'd turned the day before. but it had rained in the night and the hay was a little too wet and kept jamming up in the baler, so he had to quit.
in spite of this and other weather-related setbacks to harvesting, jack flashed his great smile as he was heading home. he's come back to turn the hay twice today, and if it doesn't rain tonight, he should be able to bale it tomorrow. a horse might eat half a bale a day in addition to some grain or 'sweet feed. like everything else, the price of hay has gone way up to over $7 a bale, so it is a very valuable crop.
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