Hay Alabama

Who Are We?

About Hay Alabama

          Hay Alabama has over 75 years of combined experience in the high quality hay market. We strive to deliver the best product available to the consumers who are disenchanted with the average low quality, chemically saturated hay. Our management is the core of our product, which is closely monitored to achieve top quality for your horses or livestock. We have searched the world over for revolutionary ways to produce high quality hay at a price that is still affordable.

           Our whole approach to producing high quality hay is not just “wait for no rain and cut it” like most operations who say they “fertilize” their hay, but is by a total systems approach.

          First, to achieve high quality hay you must have high quality nutrition available for the plant to feed on, which chemicals cannot provide. Our whole process is based on balancing the soil and bringing it to life with uncountable trillions of natural microbes and bacteria that turn dead soil into biologically live soil. These microbes can be easily killed with chemicals. Your hay nutrition is affected by soil conditions more than any other controllable variable. It may seem like an obvious fact, but this important aspect of complete hay management is often overlooked or altogether misjudged.

One of our hay fields in Shelby County.

Kings used to have their cooks come out and taste the food from the kings' plate to insure the food was not poisoned. Our food chain has become contaminated with so many chemicals that each progression up the food chain brings about more and more disease. Most cattle producers today don't even eat their own beef, but rather buy it at the grocery store; somehow it helps hide the truth. We at Hay Alabama eat our own beef, drink our cow's milk, and use our horses for work. Therefore we have a personal interest in producing quality hay, because it has a direct effect to our own personal health through our food.

          Here’s an illustration of the concept anyone can identify with…if you had a truck for five years that you washed and waxed every week but never once changed the oil, would you expect it to perform? If you purchased a brand new tractor, would you expect it to run with no fuel in the tank? No. The same applies to your soil, which feeds your hay, which feeds your horse. Although some hay looks good in appearance, its true nutritional value is equal to that of cardboard. This is even true for commercially fertilized hay because commercial fertilizers are just chemicals that do not improve the soil. Chemical nitrogen will give a false higher protein count in hay, but in reality it is producing quantity not quality. The roots of the grass are below the soil; therefore, it is crucial that conditions “under the hood” are managed properly. We strive to have our soils in optimum condition with liming, aerating, sub-soiling, and fertilizing with our own biologically rich soil and plant food fertilizer. Therefore, a high quality grass is just the byproduct of a very fertile soil. When you have good biological soil, your hay is biologically good for your animals.

          Second, our hay is cut in the optimum stage of maturity for nutrition. With specialized, state-of-the-art equipment, our hay is mower-conditioned. This is obtained by a machine, which makes the hay dry more rapidly in order to get it out of the field more quickly and away from the harmful rays of the sun, which cause discoloration and nutrition loss. The moment our hay is dried to the right moisture content percentage, it is raked and baled and loaded on semi trucks to be put away only hours after it is harvested, and never left in the field to get wet overnight.

          Most hay operations consist of one or two men, and it is nearly impossible to perform all the tasks without sacrificing the quality in the allotted amount of time to produce quality hay. The conventional mentality of “cut and leave it to dry for 3, 4, or 5 days” just causes catastrophic nutrition loss and discoloration, destroying the hay’s overall quality. Plus, in addition to putting hay up too dry or wet, dust and mold are also byproducts of poor management. Not to mention how many nights your hay bales sit outside, allowing dew to absorb into them before they are picked up and loaded into the barn.

           In 2009, we invested several hundred thousand dollars into improving our operation for even higher quality hay. We produce our own biologically rich organic fertilizer, which is sprayed on the fields prior to every hay cutting. In one season, we’ll apply over half a million pounds of this special biologically rich soil and plant food. Does your hay supplier really fertilize his hay? You decide.

Good rich grass fields are of no avail without good equipment to move the product quickly to storage. Up to 710 bales per trailer, and as many as three trailers a day are harvested and brought back to the barn before the day's end, to prevent any unwanted moisture from damaging the quality of our hay.

          In addition, we have the only hay rake in the state of Alabama of its kind, which costs more than most operations would spend on their tractors. This specialized implement is only used in the big western states where quality really is the driving force for large commercial dairies and equine hay producers who truly know what quality hay is. This tool enables us to gather hay more quickly, allowing us to get the crop up faster than any other operation around. The rake also floats above the ground without touching the dirt, preventing dust, dirt, sticks and other foreign materials, from being dragged in with the hay.

          Although we have not re-invented the wheel, we have improved the face of organically produced hay. Just as conventionally grown tomatoes at the grocery store taste like water compared to that of what could be grown naturally in your own garden, our hay has more digestible nutrients for your horses or livestock than any conventionally grown hay at your local store or farmer’s barn.

          With higher quality hay, your animals’ body condition will improve more than if you fed a lower quality hay with feed, and sometimes even feed costs are greatly reduced. Chemical companies continue to hide the side effects of their products, but enough has been seen with the cancers and other diseases we see today. If you would feed yourself nutritious food, why would you not want your livestock or horses to have the same? Why settle for less quality hay when you now have the option of nutrient-dense hay at an affordable price?

          We, at Hay Alabama, are always looking for ways to improve our products available to the consumer. Throughout the years, hundreds of hours have been dedicated to research to find ways to work in union with the way God intended things, which is what has catapulted us so far ahead of other producers. In the course of all this research, we have discovered that quality is not limited to “Coastal Bermuda” or particular varieties of hay, but rather quality depends upon how it is produced. Evidence shows that hays such as Bermuda and Fescue that are high in iron, tie up other nutrients. Especially Bermuda which has a very high lignin (fiber) content which causes digestibility problems. For instance, look at the manure of a horse that eats Coastal Bermuda. You will notice a bright green color and large fibers within the manure. This is due to poor digestibility. Most of the nutrition is going in and coming right out the back door of the horse. However, grasses native to your area are better because of their digestibility. Would you buy hay just because it looks good? Back to the truck analogy, does it perform, or is most of your money being “wasted?”

Late model and efficient equipment are key to high quality hay. Our equipment plays a large part in the foundation of quality hay, in order to make excellent square and round bales in a timely manner; reducing the time that hay could be exposed to unnecessary elements of weathering, and other damaging factors.

          We, at Hay Alabama, grow hay for ourselves foremost, that’s why we learned what we know. The organic beef industry knows how to be profitable. Beef producers have come to the conclusion that they are not raising beef but rather grass. To go a step further, we, at Hay Alabama, are not raising grass but are creating a fertile soil, because good nutrient dense soil produces good nutrient dense grass, which produces good nutrient dense beef (or for horses, good muscle tone).

          Native grasses are what God intended for the animals to eat, so why would we try to do better than what God has already done? Look at the wild mustang, for example, they thrive on no grain and are fit in the toughest conditions. They are created to eat what is provided to them, which is native grasses. Studies are showing that locally produced foods contain nutrients beneficial to the consumer. Native grasses are proving the same. With all the ailments we see in horses and livestock, it’s obvious that they are not getting the nutrition they need. It is our goal to naturally obtain this nutrition through the biological process of our biologically rich soil and plant food fertilizers. Although the color of Bermuda may seem better, in terms of digestibility, it is not.

          Our hay is used in our own dairy, beef and horse operations first, thus we have discovered all of this for ourselves and are now able to offer such quality to others. Friends of Hay Alabama in the state of Texas only feed their horses quality hay such as ours without the use of feed, and it’s obvious that they are getting the nutrition to perform in the shows and rodeos by the looks of their muscle tone, overall body condition and well-being.

          The ultimate goal would be to eliminate the need for all grain, although it would be difficult. We strive to have quality hay to reduce the amount of grain, and that way save you more of your hard-earned money.

In the Richness of God’s Blessings,

Hay Alabama
205-672-8116

©2009 TLC