You'd think all this rain would make the grass grow enough to allow the cows to graze without bellowing for hay. But nooooo. This morning I was trying to sleep in for the first time in months and months, and they were hollaring for hay. We went out and fed them and I looked around the field. Do we need warm weather and rain for the field grass to grow? When is summer coming anyway?

You can have a farm on limited acreage, but if you plan to raise large animals, expect to buy hay year round. Hay is $4.50 a bale here and each of the adult cows eat a bale a day. Right now, we are raising two cows for milking and calves, and one for meat, and we have the two new calves. We'll have a bull staying here in a month, but before that the beefer will be processed and the calves moved or sold. I don't think it is safe to have calves here when the bull is here, and if I don't wean the calves at 3 months, I don't get to milk the cows.

Even with 3 adult cows our fields are full. Five acres isn't enough. We have 22 total, but much of it is covered with a maple wood lot, our sugar woods. We need to create more meadow, or have less cows, or get more out of the use of those woods!