Rural/Farm Life

5 is an exceptional year for alfalfa. With grass its 2 or 3. There was a lot of hay out there, just couldn't get it out of the field. When they did, there's a lot, but its stemmy of course because overgrown and not the leafy stuff the dairy and horse guys want. It varies obviously even a county over or 2 because hay has to be dry to cut then lay on the ground to dry a couple of days before you can roll it up so it takes 4 or 5 sunny days with no rain depending on what type of hay it is. Here in southwest Illinois, it took most people forever to get out the first cutting... it was ready to cut in late May but most couldn't cut for a month because there was no window in the forecast between storms. Once we got that out the rest has been normal... it might cost a cutting in September or something, but it will somewhat balance out because its still raining and growing fast into 3rd cutting... many years its started to dry out by now but we had 3" from the ghost of hurricane barry all the way up into the Midwest... that's very uncommon in late July here.