twilightpony | Specialty Hay

The weather is clear and bright and will remain so for several days, the time it takes for cut timothy grass to dry. Applejack and the hay specialist farmers were out after the morning dew had evaporated, mowing the fields. Dash had her team of pegasi coax a gentle breeze over the fields to help with the sun-drying. I get a great view of the mowers transforming the sea of green into rows and parallel lanes of cut stalks, following the contours of the hills, ponds and field edges. It looks very abstract.

This third cut harvest is happening two weeks earlier than it did last year. The whole point is to give the grass time recover and build up energy reserves before winter. There are still a few warm days in the weeks ahead and that will help.

Even though the third cut has barely begun, hay is a theme in the bazaar. I picked up a few bundles of fresh cut (not dried) timothy from one stand and a couple bales of specialty hay from another stand, which I had delivered. One bale was a second cut hay with a high alfalfa and clover content, and the other was a high fiber, extra low protein first cut bale that had dried to perfection to a faded green. As we chose a spot to store them in the pantry, I joked with Starlight Glimmer that I'd bought the high fiber bale to cure the bloat we were sure to get from eating too much of the high alfalfa bale. Starlight said she thought that was a good plan. It was a joke, not an invitation. I didn't take Starlight for a mare who binge eats rich food. Maybe I should buy another high fiber bale, just in case.