by Jan Fielden
As I sat watching the rain this afternoon, I thought of the hay men coming tomorrow! It never fails. The rancher wants the grass cut and prays for no rain until after it is baled and put in the pen and the men who cut it, just want to be able to cut it and they pray for the rain not to be so heavy they can’t get through the fields. Not that they want the hay to get wet. Just not too wet because it will take longer to dry out and will mess up their schedules. In the end, they both want the same thing to my way of thinking because the rancher gets bales to feed his cattle and the balers get paid for however many bales there are.
But the cows. Now the cows want enough bales that they can have as much to eat all winter long as they want. They will waste a lot of them because they lay around in them and then don’t want to eat them or maybe one doesn’t taste as good as another bale. Still, the cows will always run to the new bale you bring in because they think it must be better, even before they taste it. Sometimes it might be because not all of them run to it and so they are spread out evenly and everybody gets their fill; until the next bale shows up.
The calves are the ones that really deserve the bales. When they are little babies, they lie in the hay to stay warm. They also make interesting pictures because they look so cute lying there covered up to their noses when the wind is blowing and it is cold. Almost makes me want to wish for winter at the Red Oak Ranch.
