Got up froggy-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to give ya'll a glimpse of a typical day in our hay-hauling lives - grabbed the camera, my coffee cup and out the door we went! It's a twenty mile drive from our house at the ranch to East Grand Plains, a farming community east of Roswell. We park our hay trucks at a farmer friend's barn so they'll be handy. Thought I'd snap a picture of a hayfield to start this adventure. Lo and behold - no battteries- I literally asked the Lord to please "show up" with some batteries - AA to be exact. After searching high and low in the other trucks, I jumped into my truck disgusted at the thought of no batteries, no pictures and no blog. Well ain't that a cottonpicker! No kidding - I looked on the dashboard of the truck - and there's two AA bateries sitting there.....no way.... crazy awesome thing to happen. Never saw them before. Didn't look a gift horse in the mouth - thanked the Good Lord for my batteries, loaded 'em up and headed to the field.
Our family started Carpenter Custom Hauling over ten years ago. We started off with two trucks, hauling triticale silage in the spring and corn silage in the fall with a cow haul and a little hay hauling mixed in there for good measure. With the passing of each year, our hay acreage increased to the point that after nine years of "chop hauling" we decided to sell our silage rigs and focus on hay hauling. We now haul hay and oats for twelve different farmers in the East Grand Plains and Dexter area, delivering these loads to several of the thirteen dairies in our area. There are generally six cuttings of hay each year and we've hauled up to thirty-one loads in one day. Alfalfa hay is New Mexico's #1 cash crop and averages $200.00 per ton.
Today we're hauling hay to Three Amigos Dairy in Dexter. It is one of of the largest dairies in the area, milking 4,600 cows each day. They feed 66 bales a day of hay, barley and oats, along with corn silage, and all the goodies from the commodity barn. Most of the milk in the valley goes to Laprino Foods, one of the largest mozzarella cheese factories. They receive 90 to 120 tanker loads of milk each day, and each tanker carries 6,000 gallons of milk. Leprino is also the largest US exporter of whey products.
Well, there you have it folks! Next time you pour yourself a tall glass of cold milk, remember somehow, it all started in a hayfield! Till next time, adios!
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5 comments:
Howdy, Cottonpicker! Looks like you've been one busy lady. I enjoyed your information about the hauling, and the photos of the hay trucks. Way back in my past, somewhere, I learned to 'make a wish on a load of hay' if you passed it on the road, but once the wish was made, you could not look back at the hay or your wish would not come true. Odd, huh?
Didn't know that hay was the #1 cash crop; I always thought it was pinto beans and chilis! LOL Hope you'll have a great week ahead.
BTW, that's a great photo of the young'un.
Thanks Pat - didn't know about the hay wishing - yep that young'un is pretty special! Need to get a "truck seat" for her so she can go trucking with me!
Wow - The LaPar Dairy in Lathem, KS - My Brother-in-law & sister's place milks approx. 400 head - we thought that was a massive operation!
Yeah the owner of this dairy has two others and between the three dairies, they milk 11,000 head of cows. Can't imagine that!
Good Lord...that's a lot of milkin! Thanks for the info...nothing smells any sweeter than a fresh cut field of alfalfa. I love it! Too bad my dad's got hailed out...going to be a bit before he can cut it.
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