Thursday, September 15, 2011
We made hay for our alpacas
![Loading hay into our barn's loft! Loading hay into our barn's loft!](https://www.openherd.com/OhUserFiles/3441/965073/md_2011_634517111349624000.jpg)
Loading hay into our barn's loft!
Alpacas love to eat hay but boy is hay expensive these days! Hard to see my alpacas munching away those dollars sometimes! So our neighbor is a farmer and leased out a hay field to us this year, so we took on the challenge of producing our own hay for our alpaca farm this year!
Our neighbor mowed and baled the hay for us for a small fee and then we rented the bale conveyor to get it to our barn's hay loft. I'm not sure what "variety" this grass is but our alpacas seem to love it and it has saved us quite a bit of money this year.
We'll probably go out and buy our own mower next year but will likely get our neighbor to bale it, since balers are pretty expensive. It's great to have locally grown hay - literally! - and the kids had a great time helping out and seeing how hay is made. And our alpacas are very happy, which is most important. We had great fun!
![Deer in the grass before mowing! Deer in the grass before mowing!](https://www.openherd.com/OhUserFiles/3441/965073/sm_2020_637280550064035912.jpg)
Deer in the grass before mowing!