Delicious hay

It's raining here at the farm. The sky is overcast and dreary. At first light we set out to feed horses in the misty drizzle. Everyone was especially antsy to get out of the stall - not sure why - my guess is the weather.
We dragged some round bales to the pastures who were getting low and did a few barn chores before the sky opened up on us. So here I am, typing a long overdue update on the farm!

Last Saturday - wow, that was already one week ago! - we finally decided on a farm to purchase our grass/legume hay. I have an enormous stack of contacts for hay; some local, some from out of state, some come with recommendations, some test their hay and some don't. So, how did we decide? I will enlighten you on this exciting topic!

(1) Cost
As a facility that strictly boards horses (we do not supplement our pockets by breeding, training, etc) we make very little moo-la. So we have to consider the cost of the hay.

(2) Quality Control
Horses can be sensitive creatures in many ways, particularly with digestion. You feed them 70% alfalfa/30% orchard, then suddenly switch it on them, they might throw a colic-hissy-fit! So of great concern to us is the consistency of the product, and consistent hay is achieved by quality control - testing hay from every batch to ensure it's protein, digestibility, moisture, etc is similar to the other product they sell. Also, as a business we have a budget and we plan ahead. If we plan on purchasing 25 100lb bales of O/A, we don't want to arrive at the distribution site and have to buy 45 60lb bales. We want the same hay every time and we need it to be available all the time (and not "sell out" before we get there).

(3) Professionalism
It is important to us that we support a hay producer that is professional. Your money and our money should go to someone who is treating their customers and employees well. We want good customer service so in the case of an issue (ie, moldy hay) we will be treated professionally. An example of a producer that is "sweet" but not professional is someone who is not punctual. Time is money and we don't have time to wait around. Someone we want to do business with understands this concept.

-- Those are the three primary qualities we searched high and low for. Who did we finally decide to do business with?

Larson's Farm

Larson's Farm came highly recommended by several credentialed individuals, including our vet, Dr. Erica Lacher.
They have a website, which is a huge step above 90% of other sellers, and their customer service was superb. The receptionist was able to answer all my crazy questions and even add her own suggestions. Their products are tested for quality control - bales from every batch are tested. The bales are all weighed when you purchase them - you only pay for the weight of hay that's put in your trailer. It's not a flat fee ($15 from a feed store could get you gray, 60lb bales today and green, 75lb bales in a week). Their hay is fresh, shipped by train or truck (this depends on cost - they choose the cheapest route to keep hay prices down) from western US.
They operate during specified business hours and their employees were very helpful.
With this high quality forage you get the most bang for your buck.

Currently only JW and Pokey are getting this awesome O/A hay. It is $20 per bale. We just started feeding it last week so we are not exactly sure how long a bale will last, but my guess is that it will last a minimum of 10 days (1 flake a day).
If you would like your stall horse to receive O/A, just let me know. If you want to purchase a bale for your pasture horse to feed when you are here (it would be too tricky to try to feed a flake to a pasture horse in the pasture), let me know.

It's still raining and the temperature will drop to 40 degrees tonight. I don't know about you, but I cannot wait until summer!