It’s amazing how many large rolls of hay are lying in the fields and on the perimeters in the fields around our county. I don’t get it…why go to the labor, expense, trouble, sweat when you’re just going to stack it up to decay? Do these farmers know that haying is one of the worst things you can do to the soil? Nutrients are “robbed” in the form of the hay, and around here, not too many folks worry about adding anything back for what was taken. Not even the poop piles lying out behind the barn! That’s kinda like having a bank account you withdraw from and never put anything in.
How long can you do that? What should be done? Well, if you’re not going to feed it to your livestock or sell it, mow it back onto the ground to feed the soil and cover the ground. What do you do with all the old bales that have been laying there for several years? Do you have a particular piece of ground that’s “poor”? Roll the hay onto it and watch what happens. That hay is FULL of nutrients that the ground is starving for. Tear it up, push it, and scatter it any way you can, but get it back down into the ground.
I feel like a hypocrite when I use hay…as far as my regenerative beliefs go. I won’t hay because of what it does to the ground longterm…but I buy hay. That means I’m encouraging/enabling farmers to continue to practice something I don’t believe should be done. That’s plain crazy! In a perfect farming world, all ruminants would be rotated properly, pastures would be correctly maintained, and there’d be standing forage for them in the winter. Dang it! It’s not perfect! And I have to have hay to feed my critters. I’m looking hard for an answer here. I’ve reached out to several “regenerative gurus” and either gotten no response, or “I really don’t know what to tell you”. How can I preach, practice, be passionate about something I violate regularly? I’m stuck here.
Back to the old bales of hay…what to do with them other than let them lay there in a muck-hole and rot? First and foremost, find out if there’s been ANY overspray or chemicals used on it. I will pass that on by. I look for farmers that I know haven’t done anything to the hayfields (More hypocrisy on my part!) A lot of farmers in our area will give them to you, or sell them really cheap. We have friends who had some that was a couple years old and they weren’t going to use it, so we brought them home. The hay, not the friends. They were BIG rolls! We’ve had them here for a year and have used them in the chicken house, the goat stall, the paddock walkways, the garden, on bare spots, and the ducks even used them for nesting spots. The chickens LOVE to scratch and dig around the edges for bugs. We have a roll left and will use it to do the spring cover for the vegetable garden. With it being already in the decomposition phase, it won’t take long to get down to business with the hungry fungi and microbes. The earthworms will have a party!
If you’re a farmer with a bunch of old rolls of hay and you’re not going to feed it back to your fields, let it be known that you’ll sell it or give it away for the hauling. Don’t just let the nutrients waste. Did you know you can roll it out nice and thick on top of a potato patch? It’ll regulate soil temperature and moisture, and feed the ground that feeds the potatoes…that feeds you! It can be fluffed and piled around blueberry bushes and bramble fruits, asparagus beds, and fed to the compost regularly…or even be the beginning of awesome compost because hay is PERFECT soil-food! That’s what it was designed for, whether in the growing/rotting stage or in the been-thru-the-cow-and-pooped-out stage. The nutrients that grew it should be returned to the soil. Remember: SOURCESOURCESOURCE! Know how it was grown and if anything was used on it. Sprays have a residual, and can kill every plant it comes into contact with. Just don’t let it lay and do nothing!
I’m still looking for an answer to my hypocrisy. Is there a regenerative way to hay? Can it be done it such a way that life is returned at least to the degree it was removed? Where there are no grazing animals? I’ve considered rotational haying, where a field wouldn’t be hayed for 2-3 years, but mowed or bush hogged back onto itself, and generously dosed with compost or manure. What about strip-haying where only sections would be hayed each year while other sections are rested and fed. I have to believe there’s a good solution out there…. I just haven’t come upon it yet.
By Sherrie Ottinger
