The last time I bought hay was about 15 years ago. I was buying 100 bales or so a year. I would buy a mix of about 90% grass and 10% alfalfa and always tried to get a first cutting. In Montana, there are only two cuttings and the second is just not as good as the first. I was paying about $190 per ton, or about $6.75 per bale. Every bale was hand loaded onto a trailer, then unloaded by hand into my barn. I fed about 25% of the time and my kids the rest. We had 2 - 3 horses at the time, none of them mine. Every year, almost every day, I asked myself how I got into that mess.
Of course today, one of my kids now has a few cows they are raising, plus chickens and kids. Another one works on a dairy after getting her masters degree in animal genetics. I suppose I could say it was all part of their 'education'. Hand loading hay in 90 degree temps was always fun, but the real fun part was hand stacking the bales, up to six high, in the barn at 100 degrees was the real treat.
I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love.... It seems to me that Montana is a great splash of grandeur....the mountains are the kind I would create if mountains were ever put on my agenda. Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans. Montana has a spell on me. It is grandeur and warmth. Of all the states it is my favorite and my love.
John Steinbeck