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Colorado Farmers Make Hay While The Sun Shines

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Jul 4, 2009 4:48 pm US/Mountain

Colorado Farmers Make Hay While The Sun Shines

Written by Paul Day
Reporting
Paul Day
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) ― Farm equipment moves with the speed of a snail but the man at the controls of a hay bailing machine in Douglas County on Wednesday is in a race with Mother Nature.

"You know that old saw about you gotta make hay while the sun shines? You don't know how true it is," said a sweating John Vierthaler.

Vierthaler is trying to put up good horse hay. The weather hasn't been cooperating. The feed for horses must dry in the sun at least two days before it's bailed. It can't be put up wet. But that's no easy task in the Denver area this summer with the unusual frequency of rain showers.

"It's been a tough year," said horse owner Bob Evans.

Evans' brought his own trailer to buy and load 600 bales of hay from Vierthaler.

"Some of this is fresh cut, some got rained on once," explained Evans as he eyes the latest bails to hit the ground from Vierthaler's machine.

But nobody is really complaining. Last year, the grass in the field at the corner of Wadsworth and Deer Creek Canyon was about knee high the end of June. There's been so much moisture this year, the same field is now chest high in time for the Fourth of July.

"This year, we're four times as much hay as last year, so it's quadrupled because of this moisture." said Vierthaler.

He harvests about 150 acres of hay at his own expense under an agreement with Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield. The Gardens benefits because weeds are controlled and wildfire danger is reduced for free. Additionally, the Gardens gets a certain percentage of this year's bountiful crop.

"I'm really a share cropper," explained Verthaler.

He boasted about the high nutrition value of the dryland grass.

Sixty-pound bales are priced at between $5 and $7 depending on how much a customer buys.

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