The incredible amount of rain that much of the East Coast and certainly Upstate New York has received, has made the grass grow rapidly, which is wonderful for folks like us who produce our own organically grown horse hay and market thousands of small square bales to horse owners.
However, as we hit the middle of August, with no clear 3 day minimum dry weather pattern and above 80 degree temperatures in the forecast, you do begin to wonder if you'll ever be able to harvest all that beautiful grass that is presently being enjoyed by a healthy sized deer population.
My husband, being the mathematician he is, figured out that the deer population on our South facing tillable land gobbles up the equivalent of approximately 10 bales of hay a day, while the grass is standing. While sharing our crop with herds of deer is fine, it would be neat to know that we will have an opportunity before the end of August to work the fields ourselves and get that 2nd crop in the barn!
When you see all the devastation that flooding has caused in the area and the fires and scorching weather that the Western USA and Europe is experiencing, I do reflect on how lucky we are to live where we live, and am grateful that we have had plenty of rain. Fortunately, our '100 year' rain swales that the Catskill Watershed folks put in over 20 years ago, keep our property free of flooding and send that water to the NYC watershed pipeline for use by our neighbors to the South.
The 1st cut hay season was exceptionally good for most hay farmers like ourselves, so if 2nd cut does become a problem, at least we won't be stuck like the Australian farmers paying $10,000 for a 20 ft ocean container of hay. Even if you don't usually feed 1st cut horse hay, it might be prudent at this point to stock up on some 1st cut, just in case the 2nd cut does show a shortage this year.
Counting our blessings for sure. But Mother Nature if you are listening, could we please see 6-7 days of dry, warm weather before September so we can get to work!
