With the unusually cold spring, there’s still not enough vegetation in our fields for the goats to browse on, so we supplement their diet with hay. Last fall, we bought four tons for the winter, but that’s now mostly gone.
Fortunately, we made it through until summer. In the past, we’ve had to drive south 70 miles or more for early-season hay. (Leeds and Hurricane, both at lower altitudes, harvest weeks earlier than the Parowan Valley.)
We prefer to buy our hay locally. Today, our hay came from two farms, both less than four miles away.
Buying from local hay farmers provides numerous benefits:
- Hay weighs a lot, and the closer to home we buy it the less gas we use. That not only saves money, it’s better for the environment.
- Buying in our own community helps keep our local economy strong– especially when they know we’ll be back for more next season. If we don’t buy from our neighbors, how will they buy from us?
- When we know the farmers who produce the hay, we know whether they use pesticides or herbicides. We choose farmers who don’t spray their fields.
