how to make your own hay??

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horserider0912

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hi ya!

how do you make your own hay? how do you grow it and what time of year? etc


Someone grows their own up my yard and it is really nice and really soft. I really want to grow my own so how? lol

thanks! :)
 
Set aside a gaurenteed ragwort and other noxious weed free field. Top it. Fertalise it if you need to. Let the grass grow. Hire a farmer with a harvester / bailer. The time of year you cut it will depend if you want early cut, late cut or haylage. To an extent that will depend on local conditions and weather conditions at the time. You'll need to take local advice.

But that start point is a clear weed free feild.
 
"Someone grows their own up my yard and it is really nice and really soft. I really want to grow my own so how? lol"
Ask them lol. Seriously if you want 'soft' hay you will need to find a lovely 'meadow' preferably an old one.

Making hay isn't easy with the wet weather we've been having over the last few years and unless you have equipment I'd employ a contractor tbh. If you search the net there's tons of advice on how to make hay.
 
I have a huge garden as i live in wales. My family does not use it though so i could easily grow it there but i just don't know how.
I have a green house but i don't think it would grow. ( i dont know alot about hay! lol)
 
pmsl sorry but you have no idea do you...a greenhouse????? yeah if you are growing tomatoes...you need at least a good acreage of field - pref weed free - and definately no ragwort....you will need a tractor to start with - OH has a john deere - the best IMO.
you will need certain implements eg - a mower (and no not a lawnmower, this one goes on back on tractor), you will need a baler - small baler or big square or round baler depending on what you want - we have a claas rollant - round baler...also you will need a wrapper depending if you want to wrap it or not or haylage etcetcetc....
also you need good dry conditions to make hay.....if you want you can have my O/H's number he is a farmer perhaps he could give you some advice...but seriously do not think he will advise you to grow it in a greenhouse...hahaha that has made me giggle...
 
I think that you will find that it is best to buy your hay in. Apart from the practicalities of making it, which is a skill in itself, the cost of the machines which is expensive, stuff always breaks down when you need it. The weather. An acerage large enough to make it all worth while.

If you buy it you can buy the best you can find, if you make it and it all goes wrong, your stuck with a load of old rubbish, and then,you have to buy some.
 
A troll is someone who makes disparaging remarks on forums or tries to start fights, stir up jealousies. Basically an unplesant poster. It can also be used for someone who is a bit "know it all" in a nasty sort of way.

Curiously - you can in fact grow hay - alfalfa hay - both indoors and under glass. It is quite a techincal and expensive process. But possible. It was in H&H a few months back. A rescue centre somewere had invested in an alfalfa cultivation system.

Complex though meadow grown hay can be - I suspect that is worse!
 
I'm really sorry but I'm PMSL at this post. I think it might be a good idea to buy your hay, because you definitely wouldn't get much out of a green house LOL !!
 
It is a well known fact that if you put some hay seeds in a little terracotta pot by your front door, put lots of horse poop and sugar cubes in it eeeevery day, and brush it with a nice soft body brush you can grow a shetland pony.

Fact.
 
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do i seem like the type of person that knows about what grows in a greenhouse! lol!!!!
I don't think this person has a tractor. She grows it in her garden. have not seen her in ages but might ask her when i do as this is clearly not what she has been doing!
thanks for the help anyway!
 
thelwell_girl said:
It is a well known fact that if you put some hay seeds in a little terracotta pot by your front door, put lots of horse poop and sugar cubes in it eeeevery day, and brush it with a nice soft body brush you can grow a shetland pony.

Fact.
Click to expand...

I got one took a while and it didnt turn out the colour i wanted though! :(
 
Shay said:
A troll is someone who makes disparaging remarks on forums or tries to start fights, stir up jealousies. Basically an unplesant poster. It can also be used for someone who is a bit "know it all" in a nasty sort of way.

!
Click to expand...

This can't be a troll then. Theres no stiring or nastiness, just pure comedy!
 
horserider0912 said:
do i seem like the type of person that knows about what grows in a greenhouse! lol!!!!
I don't think this person has a tractor. She grows it in her garden. have not seen her in ages but might ask her when i do as this is clearly not what she has been doing!
thanks for the help anyway!
Click to expand...

*trying to put this nicely and educatively*

OK, you may not know what grows in a greenhouse but if you think for a little while about how big a greenhouse is - since you were talking about gardens here assume a garden-sized greenhouse - and how big a bale of hay is and how tightly packed that bale is, just how many bales of hay could you possibly grow in a greenhouse? (The answer is about enough to fill one of the medium-sized plastic bags of hay you can buy for rabbits in pet stores!)

We used to grow hay in our field. The first year of cutting we got 40 big round bales, next year we got 34, the year after that the weather was awful and we got about 16, this year we have given the field a year off because the grass just didn't grow as we had no rain for a couple of months. We sectioned the field off and grazed the horses on each part once only. The grass is looking good and we are hoping that next year we may get hay again, weather permitting - assuming we can find someone to cut it, certainly there is no-one locally who has a small baler so it will have to be large rounds again and handling them is a nightmare.

Making hay is not a trivial task!
 
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