At hay farms across Colorado, farmers and ranchers are preparing for their annual harvest. But with the risk of summer rains posing a constant threat, hay growers must work tirelessly to—as the old saying goes—make hay while the sun shines.
Hay doesn’t like to be wet. At a moisture content of 15 percent, hay bales can experience dangerous heating. Exploding bales from spontaneous combustion can trigger devastating fires, capable of burning down entire barns and everything inside. To manage this threat, hay growers must work quickly to mow their fields, dry their hay, pack it into bales, and ready it for distribution before the next round of rainy weather moves in. It’s a balancing act that demands resilience.
Fortunately, farmers and ranchers maintain a stable of modern equipment to help get the job done. Their historic counterparts, however, did not enjoy such luxuries. In the early days of haying, fields were cut by hand with sickles and scythes. The hay was manually dried, bunched, and stacked. It was labor-intensive work begging for improvement.
Primitive mowers were developed, along with contraptions like stackers, sleds, and cages filled by giant forks. Workhorses leant their strength to operating the new equipment, but large numbers of hardy laborers were still required to round out the hay bales with pitchforks to allow the bales to shed water.
Additional improvements continued to spread throughout hay farms over the decades that followed. The biggest advancement came in 1971, when a transformational invention called the Vermeer big round baler was unveiled.
The idea for the big round baler came in 1936, when a farmer from Iowa invented its precursor: a square baler that didn’t work very well. Decades later, a different Iowa farmer named Gary Vermeer fashioned a critical redesign to turn that early prototype into an efficient one-man baling system.
A new level of productivity was unlocked. The job of baling hay, which once required the labor of several men, could now be completed by a single person operating the Vermeer big round baler.
Hay is a major industry in Colorado. According to a 2024 Agricultural Yield Survey, conducted by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Colorado farmers and ranchers estimate the year 2024 will yield a harvest of over three million tons of hay across 1.3 million harvested acres.
That’s a lot of hay.
In Colorado’s south-central San Luis Valley, the most expansive alpine valley in the world, alfalfa hay is the second-largest crop behind potatoes. But due to the area’s low precipitation, which averages only seven to ten inches a year, irrigation systems are a necessity. Without them, the rolling hay fields situated between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the San Juan Mountains wouldn’t exist.
Hay farms in Colorado’s high country face a different challenge. In the high-elevation mountain basins of North Park, Middle Park, and South Park, naturally high precipitation shortens the haying season. In wet years, delays can extend into September. That doesn’t leave farmers and ranchers much time to process their crops before the snow flies.
In Colorado’s eastern plains, the agricultural heartland of the state, the conditions for growing hay are favorable. Hot days combined with snowmelt irrigation, bolstered by irrigation systems, make for good harvests. But producers face unique challenges that vary from season to season. These challenges range from drought, fires, and hail to tornadoes that can cripple entire irrigation systems in a matter of minutes.
When it comes to the land, some farmers own their acreage, while others lease from the government. In Boulder County, multigenerational farms benefit from long-term leases of open space agricultural land offered by Boulder County Parks & Open Space (BCPOS). Even homesteads dating back to the 1850s make use of these leases.
In true “Colorado proud” fashion, people across the state celebrate Colorado’s hay baling season at a variety of festivals and events.
On the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the town of Westcliffe puts on their annual High Mountain Hay Fever Bluegrass Festival every July. Over the course of four days, bluegrass bands from across the country take the stage to perform for thousands of festival-goers. A youth music group called High Mountain Hayseeds shares their best material with audiences as well.
At the Routt County Fair in the heart of the Yampa Valley, a baled-hay contest focuses on the scientific aspects of growing hay. Farmers who enter the competition submit chemical analyses of their alfalfa and grass cuttings to be evaluated by seasoned judges. The winners in each category take home bragging rights.
Come fall, hayrides and straw-bale mazes are omnipresent at pumpkin patches across the state. At the annual Studt Farms Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze in Grand Junction, people of all ages are encouraged to climb up, then slide back down, an enormous mound of hay bales called Hay Mountain.
