Bermuda Grass Hay by Default

The dogs are fed, horses are eating, chicken eggs collected, steel cut oats simmering, and the running list of things to attempt above and beyond the day's obligations has been compiled.
The turkeys, ducks, chickens, and emu still have to be fed, but Emma will take care of that. The turkeys will get to wander and eat some of the weeds that have sprung from last month's rains. Emma has new hatchlings in the brooder with new lovies hatching throughout the week. All of that project is Emma's creation and responsiblility.
At this point in time, Generations Ranch has primarily become a haying operation. We have spent the last four years regrouping, researching, and implementing our newly laid plans. We currently have 30 acres actively producing Bermuda grass for hay. We will continue to plant acreage as we are able in order to increase our productivity. We have developed a very nice clientele that have been pretty loyal. We try to go out of our way to grow a very good product, testing our hay for protein content, and delivering.
When we started growing our hay, we were growing for our own use. We had show horses and a few with special dietary needs...not "easy keepers." We needed good quality grass hay that would provide the nutrients they needed. Alfalfa hay was not an option. For those unfamiliar, alfalfa is a legume and is not the easiest on a horse's digestive system.
We had taken the horses to Oregon our first summer as an official LLC. There they were introduced to grazing on the 120 acres of pasture. They had never experienced grazing like this. We had to halter them and stand with them in the pasture for increasing increments of time, so that firstly when the time was up we could easily remove them and secondly control their introduction. If left to graze in this huge space, we would have spent hours trying to recapture them once they realized their huge boundaries. We were concerned that the transition be made slowly as to not cause them any problems such as founder.
So they were grazed on some of the best grasses available to horses; Timothy, Orchard, and some others including a little clover. They thrived and our "not-so easy keepers" stayed sound on their new diet. When we hauled back to Arizona we took a good amount of our Oregon hay to hold us over for our Arizona winter.
When we returned we got started planting 10 acres Timothy and 10 acres Orchard for a winter crop. Donald contacted the University of Arizona Ag dept. and worked closely with them on providing the right conditions to grow these grasses in the Arizona climate. We conceded that they would require replanting annually, but wanted to provide the best for our horses and sell the surplus.
In the meantime, we had 10 acres of Bermuda left from the previous owner that was struggling to gain a foothold after years of neglect. We contacted the local irrigation district and began the process of ordering our metered water to grow our grasses.
I feel like I have to explain what happened to the Timothy and Orchard grasses. We had incredibly good fortune with the longevity of our non-native grasses. We produced enough to feed our horses and sell the surplus. But after 3 years the Timothy and Orchard weren't able to hold fast against the spring weeds and we plowed it under.
The first of our hay business obstacles presented itself to us that first year; lack of shelter. We had no out building to protect our hay. So we did like so many attempt to do out here in the desert, we strapped tarps over our hay. Well let me tell you this is a hopeless exercise. The winds that we get here can exceed 80 mph, the sun exposure can literally turned items to powder, and once you have a tarp strapped down you can never remove it because it will never stay in place again. We spent a fortune on tarps only to have them crumble in our hands after exposure. The winds would whip the tarps off the hay in the middle of a monsoon storm so that there was no way the top layer of hay would ever be consumable for horses again. So we began the second phase of our hay production, cattle hay. Anything that got rained on became cattle hay and went for a discounted price. After 6 years of this ongoing battle, we finally have a hay barn this season.
I'll talk more about the learing process of irrigation another time. It is rather an engineering feat as well as an art form.
This spring we will add another 20 acres of Bermuda grass, with the possiblity of another 10. I will settle for the 20 myself. Donald has a different pair of rose-colored glasses than myself. We spent a great deal of time hauling organic manure from the local Shamrock Farms Dairy farm's organic section. We chose to use manure for a slow nitrogen release as opposed to the liquid fertilizer. We are really trying to stay away from synthetics and opt for a progressively more organic operation in the end. I spent days pushing the manure piles around the fields. I will plow the fields next.
So we have become a Bermuda grass hay emphasis at this time. But we have some plans to diversify for the future. But I'll get to that as I fill in the missing time in our progression.
Of course, we are a family and have all of the obligations of the kids' activities as well as our commitments to the community that are priority over the ranch for the most part. I guess I wear two hats as many moms do today. One of mine just happens to be a beat up straw hat.
Tonight after I make a few more calls to rally the neighbors in the vicinity, I will attend a meeting regarding a prison that someone is wanting to build down the road a few miles. Needless to say, we are not in favor of this. As Donald is out of town for work, I will represent our family at the meeting tonight.
Time for more chores.