Thought that headline might spark your curiosity. After I posted those shots of Silvia’s canning results, I couldn’t resist posting something about my own preserving exploits. We finished second-cut hay yesterday by making 270 big “wet” bales or baleage. Essentially, you bale the hay at between 25% and 50% moisture (dry hay is 14.5%) and put it in an oxygen limited environment so that it naturally undergoes lacto-fermentation to preserve the hay. Exactly the same process as true pickles. The baleage is more palatable for the cattle and we can keep better condition on the animals through the winter using a combination of dry hay and wet bales. The wet bales are a key component of our winter feeding regimen since we don’t feed any grain. The wet bales are less weather sensitive since you don’t need 3 or 4 consecutive dry sunny days to get the hay dry enough to bale. However, you have to wrap the bales within 12-24 hours of baling to ensure proper fermentation without overheating. Harrison and I had a long day getting all these bales gathered up on time. I had cut the hay over two days intending to bale and gather half and then bale and gather the other half but the weather forecast changed so we changed plans and baled and gathered it all in one day.

The picture below is all the bales stacked up ready to be wrapped. The colours look a little off because it was taken during twilight after the sun went down.