We buy the beautiful alfalfa hay that we feed the girls from a family here in Richmond. We’ve been buying our hay from the same family for several years now. When we first started, they had a small bale wagon that they would deliver hay to us with. Then they upgraded to a larger self-propelled bale wagon. We modified our barn slightly to allow for the larger wagon to stack the bales.
Then a couple of years ago they switched to 900 lb mid-size bales. We modified our feed area at the cow corral for that size and really loved the switch…moving and stacking hay bales with a tractor is way better than doing it by hand!
We bought second crop from them last year, and although it was very good quality hay, second crop hay just doesn’t produce as much milk as first crop. But it usually doesn’t get rained on. But this year, the Christensens baled their first crop at the perfect time…no rain, nice an early so the feed value is through the roof.
So this week, we just finished loading our barn with 50 tons of the nicest first crop hay we have ever had. In the first week that we have been feeding it, our milk production increased by more than 5 lbs per cow per day…and it’s still rising. So, thanks to Timothy, Vivian, Zane, Bart and the rest of the family for all the hard work they do to raise such beautiful hay. It’s one of the keys to great cheese! Remember them when you are eating our cheese in 2008 and 2009.
