Hay for horses moves out of the field fast
Horses fed hay grown by Pinnacle Farms probably don’t care that they have been given hay untouched by human hands. Their owners, more concerned about color and smell, certainly don’t buy hay simply because it has never been touched.
Nevertheless, there is a reason the alfalfa hay grown by Pinnacle Farms, near Milan, Illinois, is handled only by mechanical means from the moment it is cut until it is delivered to Florida horse farms more than a thousand miles away. For Pinnacle’s management, fast, mechanical haymaking is a matter of both efficiency and product quality.
“Everyone knows alfalfa creates a lot of dust when bales are loaded or stacked by hand,” said Vince Heyer, the hands-on executive vice president of Pinnacle. “That dust is actually dry leaves falling off, and that‘s where the nutrition is,” he said. “We want to retain those leaves, so our equipment moves the bales quickly from the field to storage and gets them out of the sunlight without ever having to lift even one of them by hand.”
The farm’s enclosed 53-foot semi trailers that deliver the hay to Florida are also loaded by equipment that handles units of 21 steel-banded bales at a time.
“We want to produce the highest quality feed product we possibly can,” Heyer said. “That means using every available tool to retain the nutrition that is in the crop when it is cut.”
Pinnacle grows 400 acres of alfalfa, orchard grass, and mixed hay, most of which is sold at the company’s feed store near Ocala, Florida. Known as “Little Kentucky,” that area overwinters more than 15,000 horses each year from all over the U.S., making it a strong hay market.
Horse nutrition is a business familiar to Thomas J. Miller, the owner of Pinnacle Farms. He has been growing and feeding hay to his own draft horses for over 40 years…Belgians, Percherons, and Clydesdales. Just one year ago his Clydesdale six-horse hitch was named World Reserve Grand Champion at the World Clydesdale Show.
For 18 years, Pinnacle operated a 400-employee parts packaging business for a large Midwest equipment manufacturer. When that business came to an end, Heyer and Pinnacle Farms manager Brian Johnson saw an opportunity emerging in the hay market as thousands of crop acres in the country were taken out of hay to grow corn for ethanol. They presented a business plan to Miller, who liked their idea, and Pinnacle was soon producing high quality hay for horses.
“After employing over 400 people in our packaging business, we knew the challenges of finding good labor. So we researched the hay market, came up with a plan, and chose to purchase equipment that took the hand labor out of making hay,” Heyer said.
With the right equipment in place, the work of growing and harvesting 400 acres of hay is done by just three people. Heyer also manages the business end of Pinnacle, including the feed store in Florida. Johnson is also the team driver and manager of Pinnacle Farms Clydesdales.
Pinnacle’s first hay crop was planted in 2007, after the fields were mapped using GPS (global positioning system) for precision application of lime and fertilizers. “We had thorough preparation for launching our hay business,” Heyer said. “It’s like the way you would prep a house for painting. If you do it right, the job will last for years.
“We use standard pesticide and fertilizer practices to insure quality product, and we know it’s always helpful to start with the best seed,” he said. After that, the crop is in the hands of the weather until it can be cut.
When the crop is ready, a self-propelled disc mower is put into service, cutting 10 to 12 acres of hay an hour. After drying and being raked into windrows, first cutting hay may be put up in large 3x3x8-foot bales. Second, third, and fourth cuttings are usually put up in small square bales weighing 60 to 65 pounds each, the size most horse customers request.
Bales are accumulated as they exit the baler, and groups of 21 bales are automatically bundled into one large unit held together tightly with a metal banding, then placed on the field. The seven bales on the bottom of each unit are the only ones that ever touch the ground. Forks or clamps attached to tractors or skid-steers quickly move the bale units out of the field and out of the sun to keep them in “fresh-out-of-the-field” shape.
Once stored, the bales never again see sunshine or sit outside. They are eventually moved to Pinnacle’s Florida store in closed semitrailers. Using the same equipment that moved the bales out of the field, one person can load a 53-foot trailer in less than an hour. A trailer holds 630 small square bales, making a 20-ton load.
The New Holland brand is well represented among Pinnacle’s line up of equipment to make hay fast and efficiently, including two tractors, two balers, a self-propelled rotary mower, and two skid steers.
“Our first goal has been to produce the best product we can and to find the market with the greatest returns,” Heyer said.
“Our second goal is customer satisfaction, which involves not only the quality products we sell, but also strong customer service. In Florida, customers are often pleasantly surprised when we deliver their hay and bring our own skid steer along to unload it and stack it in their barn. It takes just a few minutes. That’s customer service,” he said.
For more information see www.thishayisforyou.com.
Photos by Rick Mooney and Pinnacle Farms