Fields Of Hay
Jun. 17th, 2016 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twilightponyThe first cut hay harvest has begun! All around the castle there is a heady smell of fresh cut hay drying in the sun. I still feel stuffed with hay from last night's surprise feast so mostly I'm just enjoying the lovely smell. I don't have the urge to run out into the nearest field and make hay alicorns, yet. Unlike a few mischievous foals. Every year some foals have fun plowing through the hay, making hay forts and generally rolling in the fresh cut hay. And every year the hay farmer ponies grumble.
Not all of this cut is to be processed into dry bales. We expanded our productivity in order to meet Yakyakistan demand for our second and third cut hay, and that means that our first cut productivity has increased as well. We will of course be producing hay to give to the Crystal Empire should their hay stores fail, but that still leaves us with a surplus. Last year we had demand for more silage than we could supply, so our excess is getting made into silage. From my balcony I can see a few mowed fields dotted with big white marshmallows. Those are fermented bales in air-tight starch polymer bags. It's something new this year that the Hay Board wanted to try. The Hay Board expects them to sell well since they're transportable and keep well (so long as you don't break the seal).
The harvest is earlier this year than it was last year. We're trying to push all three cuts to an earlier date so our fields will have longer to recover in the fall between the third cut and winter. As a result, I think our first cut may be a bit greener than we're used to. But letting our fields recover longer in the fall should give us faster growth next spring, and next year our first cut will be as starchy as always. Unless we push the first cut even earlier. It is overlapping with the Summer Sun Celebration this year, so I suspect that if all goes well, we'll try to harvest a few days earlier.
Not all of this cut is to be processed into dry bales. We expanded our productivity in order to meet Yakyakistan demand for our second and third cut hay, and that means that our first cut productivity has increased as well. We will of course be producing hay to give to the Crystal Empire should their hay stores fail, but that still leaves us with a surplus. Last year we had demand for more silage than we could supply, so our excess is getting made into silage. From my balcony I can see a few mowed fields dotted with big white marshmallows. Those are fermented bales in air-tight starch polymer bags. It's something new this year that the Hay Board wanted to try. The Hay Board expects them to sell well since they're transportable and keep well (so long as you don't break the seal).
The harvest is earlier this year than it was last year. We're trying to push all three cuts to an earlier date so our fields will have longer to recover in the fall between the third cut and winter. As a result, I think our first cut may be a bit greener than we're used to. But letting our fields recover longer in the fall should give us faster growth next spring, and next year our first cut will be as starchy as always. Unless we push the first cut even earlier. It is overlapping with the Summer Sun Celebration this year, so I suspect that if all goes well, we'll try to harvest a few days earlier.
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Date: 2016-06-18 08:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-19 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-06-19 08:00 am (UTC)