Bison Farm Diary

The 1 to 2 foot alfalfa is cut above the plant's crown when the crop is blooming with its purple flowers. It is raked into windrows and sometimes raked again to allow air to dry the plants out. The baler drives over the windrow, picking it up and rolling the dry plants into a tight round bale, and automatically tying baling twine around the whole bale to keep it together.

When the bale is finished, the back end of the baler hydraulically opens up and kicks the bale out. Alfalfa bales usually weigh around 1500 lbs. This dried alfalfa is a perennial plant that can be cut three to five times during the growing season, depending on the rain fall, and it will be used as winter protein feed for livestock.

Our bison like to eat these bales too because they eat the fresh version in their pasture.

Here's a snapshot of our growing calves coming up to the water tank. Except for the two younger calves, they look like 8-10 year old kids- and act like it too. They now eat grass and drink water from the tank, and play as a group- but run to mom when she calls, and to raid her for a satisfying chug of milk.

It's been a while since I mentioned the pumpkin patch, so here's a snapshot of the first blossom I noticed this morning when I turned on the drip tape system on zone 1. The plants are growing vines and slowly taking over the alleys between the rows. We'll be into fall harvest before we know it.