A Field of Marshmallows?

I blogged a week ago about how depressing it was that our beautiful second crop of alfalfa was getting rained on. We really depend on making enough hay to feed our cows all winter because if we have to buy hay it is expensive and really increases our inputs costs. We need quantity, so we have enough hay to last us throughout the winter, but also we need quality hay especially for the heifers who are having their first calf. We were not sure what we were going to do with all our brown hay in the field (when the hay is almost dry and gets rained on it turns brown, and also loses a lot of its nutritional value). Then we had a great idea, our neighnour has a fancy baler that wraps bales. This allows the bales to be baled at about 30% moisture and then the baler wraps the bales with plastic, so no air can get in and rot the hay. This is super beneficial and saved us because it meant that our brown wet hay did not have to dry again (each time it dries it loses nutrient value). We got lucky and are really thankful that we have such a great neighbour because we were able to salvage the hay and get it off the field and still have some nutrient value in the hay for our cows this winter. So next time you see those white bales in a field you know what they are and maybe they were a ranchers saviour!