Its easy for you to judge looking from the outside in. You've never lived on a farm. You've never been a part of my family. So let me give you a picture of my dad's farming business.
My father has grown alfalfa for a good portion of his life. And he's dang good at it. He knows when to cut, rake, and bale in order keep the leaves on the stem inside the bale. Thats where all the nutrients come from, and its no easy task. He knows which crops are going to give the best hay (4 is usually really good, whilst 3 is pretty crappy). He's obsessive about weeds and weed control. There have been many times that I've had to go through windrows pulling out weeds that somehow made it through the control measures. Consequently the Relative Feed Value number for our alfalfa is usually in the 190's to 200's, well above the 150 cut off required for prime feed.
Our hay is so good there really isn't a market for it in Utah. So we ship to California. A man by the name of Paul Cordinez buys basically all our good hay. And its not uncommon to get anywhere from 175-210 dollars a ton depending on the hay market. Its a sweet set up.
And now you're giving me that look because I've never asked him to grow anything else. Me, the nineteen year old daughter who has never had any interest in farming, but benefited from it nonetheless. I wouldn't be here if it were for the family business. What gives you the right to look down on me from your lofty tower of ideals and judge me and my father for something you don't even understand? There is always two sides to every story, and perhaps you should take that into consideration before you start going off about how things will never be resolved if there isn't an open dialog in the home. Did it ever occur to you that this might be one dialog I don't want to open?
Have a nice day.
