a medley of meadow grasses
Hay Sales
Affordable Premium Grass Hay
At the McCleary Ranch in Washoe Valley, Nevada we've been having fun putting up grass hay since 2000. Yes, that's right—we have fun making our hay! (Forrest Gump never had it so good, just cutting grass!)
Our hay is a tasty mixture of adapted, native and also designer grasses that have been added into certain areas via overseeding through the years. We make all of our bales with what Gary Berrington, a decades-long custom hay grower in the Smith Valley, once called a "shekin baler" when he came to the McCleary Ranch to give us some advice regarding our irrigation system.
"What is a 'shekin baler'?" I asked him, ready to learn something new and important from this esteemed expert in the industry.
He looked at me quite seriously and said, "It makes shekin bales."
Still mystified, and never one to try to hide my ignorance, I asked, "Well, what is a shekin bale?"
With a big grin he clapped his hand on my shoulder and said, "She-kin heft'em!"
...Har!...
And he was right, technically; our awesome little New Holland 525 makes two-twine bales that weigh on average between 70-80 pounds. So the Lady of the House (or rather, Lady of the Barn), can heft them without assistance...And you fellows won't have to strain your backs to move them, either.
Additionally, we feel it's important to let you know that we fertilize with the manure from rotationally grazed livestock, and we spot remove-and-treat the serious types of weeds when and where they appear—rather than treating our fields with a boom sprayer that spews herbicides. We know that our fate is linked to the fate of the pollinators, and we are grateful to them, so we do all we can to keep our portion of their planetary habitat extremely hospitable.
Depending each year on the availability of water from McEwen Creek which runs across the ranch property, we harvest this medley of meadow grasses on anywhere from 45 to 90 acres. Because of our variable production from year to year, and our need to store a certain minimum of what we produce for our own animals here at the farm, some years we have more hay available for sale than others. We invite you to check with us in July-August or February-March to see if we have enough for outside sales and to check on pricing.