Cross-Road Farms Hay Production 2021 HD

Cross-Road Farms & Lima Elevator. This is a combination of the many steps to be a hay producer but not nearly all of them! We are not the biggest or baddest in hay production but do a fair amount and do our best to turn out the highest quality product for our many customers. To start off with we’re operating a mower conditioner in some very thick 1st cutting alfalfa orchard grass blend that has been blown over in wind and rain. This is the first step in the process and can make or break a crop. Not only does it cut the crop but also conditions & spreads it to dry in the heat and sunshine. The next step in the process is tedding not everyone gets lucky enough to do this step. But in northeast Indiana with our lovely humidity it’s a essential step in the process. It flips the hay over along with fluffing to aid in the curing process. Next is raking this gathers the hay into a windrow that allows the baler to pick the hay up and process it into a bale. Then next comes baling we make 4’ wide 5’ diameter round bales they weigh anywhere from 800-900lbs we try and bale at 13-14% moisture so the hay will keep long term the baler processes the hay and rolls it up where it is then net wrapped so it stays in place and retains its shape. Bales are then loaded onto wagons, pickup and semi trailers to be hauled to storage until customers are in need. We core sample the bales to send in for forage testing which tells our customers the nutritional value of our product along with getting the hay non gmo certification. After every cutting we then fertilize utilizing our partners at Lima elevator doing both a liquid and granular fertilizer to maximize yield and reduce pest pressure we generally get 3 cuttings per field per year and aim to cut every 30 days dependent on the weather. if we are lucky we can squeeze in a 4th which is difficult with all the other activities that time of year.