What do grass-fed cows eat in the winter

 Q. Farmstead Acres cows are 100% grass-fed, right? But it's winter time, so how can they eat grass when the grass isn't growing?    A. In the summer, we make hay and feed it to the cows in the winter.   Hay is grass that we mow off and store in bales. If you visit the Farm, you will notice the oversized marshmallow loafs behind the Farm Store. Each of these hay bales weigh almost a ton. Cutting back the white wrap reveals dried summer grass that is slightly caramelized from the lacto-fermentation that occurs after the grass is wrapped in the bale. (This can be compared to harvesting vegetables in the summer and canning for the winter time.)     During the day we let the cows out on pasture to exercise and we unroll a hay bale for the cows to eat since there is no grass growing. This method is called bale grazing. Any hay that the cows do not eat gets trampled into the ground feeding the earth at the same time that we are feeding the cows. Along with their excrement, this is a wonderful fertilizer. When spring time comes you can tell exactly where the cows were bale grazing because the grass is thicker and greener!  During the night our cows prefer the warmth and comfort of our new loafing barn, bedded down on a nice clean layer of straw for the night.  Here in the loafing barn we also unroll hay in the feed aisle for any cow that wants a midnight snack.  If you were a cow, would you want to live at Farmstead Acres?  Thanks for joining our mission of being true stewards of the land and providing Real Food.

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A day of haymaking

During the summer, a lot of a Farmer's work revolves around preparing for winter? As fourth generation Farmers, the art of making hay has been handed down to us, and though simple, it is so critical to do it correctly to lock in freshness and ensure that our cows will have high quality summer grasses to eat in the winter time. Join me on a day of haymaking.   The sun is out and the birds are singing, it is a beautiful morning and a great day to be a Farmer. The hay mower is pulled out of the equipment shed and a team of four Belgian horses are being hitched to the mower. With no rain in sight for the day, today we make hay!   Out in the fields, the grass is cut off in swaths as the 9 foot wide mower makes pass after pass through the field. It is very important that we mow the grass at the right stage of maturity to ensure quality hay. By lunchtime we have cut off nearly 10 acres.   After a quick lunch we are back out in the field, this time with the hay rake. This machine rakes the grass together in windrows, getting it ready for the baler. This grass has been dehydrating in the summer sun and is near the correct moisture for quality hay. We start raking where we first mowed, giving the last cut grass more time to dry.  It's now 5:00pm and we are ready to bale the hay. Since we don't own the baler we are waiting on the custom operator to arrive. He arrives and we direct him out to the fields and the hay baler starts eating up the windrows and is leaving behind large round hay bales, each one weighing nearly a ton.   One final step. We need to wrap the hay bales with white plastic film to seal all the nutrients in and keep the grass from spoiling. Driving along-side the first bale, the lift arm sets the bale on top of the wrapper which slowly rotates the bale as the plastic is wrapped tight around the bale making a large white marshmallow! Each of the 60 bales are then neatly stacked near the barn, waiting till winter time.  By the time we are done it is nearly Midnight and Bedtime!  The next morning a soft, gentle rain is falling, and am I glad we worked late to get the hay stored safely for winter.  Come winter time the cows are thankful too and enjoy the stored summer grass. They thank us by giving us delicious raw milk..

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