The Rural Voice, 2005-04, Page 34Getting the
green
from green
Hag can be a
profitable cash crop
but you have to take
great care to keep
the qualitg up both
in harvesting and
in storage
Story and photo by
Keith Roulston
30 THE RURAL VOICE
Ken Scott of River Lodge Farms in Teeswater checks the quality of some of
the hay awaiting shipment in one of his storage areas.
The crop comes up year after
year without planting,
produces two crops a year and
can gross $525 per acre. It may
sound like a new miracle crop but it's
an old farm favourite: hay.
Of course turning hay into a
valuable cash crop is not so easy, as
two hay producers speaking at the
crops day of Grey -Bruce Farmers
Week pointed out.
Ken Scott, who operates River
Lodge Farms at Teeswater, estimated
the $525/acre revenue based on
harvesting nine first -cut and six
second -cut big square bales per acre.
But getting good prices requires
beating the weather to get quality
hay, then storing the bales properly
to retain the quality, and finding the
right market to get the best prices.
The best prices for hay still come
for small square bales, selling to the
horse trade, he said, but the labour
required is so much higher that he
switched to large round bales, then to
square bales. They're easy to stack,
store and truck and require less
labour.
Getting the bales off the field with
good quality is the most important
factor, he said. He uses a high-
capacity baler to get the hay off fast.
When conditions are such that it's
hard to get the hay to dry down, he
uses treatments above 16 per cent
moisture and up to 18 to 20.
Precutters are being added to
some balers but Scott isn't a fan.
"I'm not excited in going there, but I
think that's the way things are
going," he says. He worried that pre-
cut hay may not keep as well but
acknowledges it is easier to use in
total mix ration mixers. Still, he says,
it's making a forage harvester out of
a baler.
To retain quality, the storage
facility must have good air
circulation. Scott's preferred storage
is a Coverall structure with the bales
stacked on pallets so they're off the
ground and don't take on moisture.
He also uses a covered pit silo but
this has caused more problems. He's
also used an old bank barn which