Meadow Grass Hay at Sweetgrass

Twelve tons of Crump Ranch Meadow Grass Hay arrived on the big G & G Hay truck this morning. Seeing that huge load of hay pull in was a little like coming home with lots of bags of groceries. I'm feeling a lot more ready for winter now...

For the most part, the Meadow Grass Hay is beautiful and aromatic, too. Here's a snapshot of the truck being unloaded.

Unfortunately, there are around thirty bales -- you can see them in the lower level at the back of the truck -- that look as if they may have been the bottoms on the hay storage stacks. Several of these bales appeared moldy on at least one side. The degree of the problem is unclear and I won't know what I'm dealing with until I crack the problem bales open and take a look.

Moldy hay definitely isn't what I paid for, so I alerted Crump Ranch owner Ed Stabb to the problem and let him know that I may be asking for a credit. I've never met a hay farmer who wasn't honorable and I fully expect Ed to make any loss right.

All of the horses approve of the new hay, even though the protein, carbohydrate, and starch levels are significantly lower. Our Orchard Grass Hay runs about 18% protein and the Meadow Grass Hay is 8%, which means we'll have to supplement the horses with either alfalfa or soybean meal in order to meet their nutritional requirements. On the plus side, the Adel Meadow Grass is significantly lower carbohydrates, the suspected cause of our filly, Jetblue's, colics.

Will keep you posted.