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Brosnan Farms

We are often asked
“How in the world can you put up 3500 acres of alfalfa, and why would you do it?”

One thing you need to know, this is dry land alfalfa, it is not irrigated alfalfa. Our alfalfa, grows slow and usually stays fine stemmed.  So, having 3500 of dry land is not the same as irrigated alfalfa. I will only get 3 to 4 ton of yield in 3 to 4 cuttings.

How do we get it all done?

To be real honest it is impossible to get all of the first crop done on time.  We try to start any time after the 15th of May and it will take about a month to do the first cutting. But on the 2nd cutting, everything is spaced out perfectly and there always seems to be a market for the mature first crop anyway. 

How do we do our Hay?

We use 2 HW340 New Holland Discbines.  We can cut 25-30 acres per hour together so on a typical day it is easy to cut around 200 acres. We usually lay the hay in swaths, 84” wide, by doing so the hay dries quickly and evenly. After 3-5 days, depending on the temperature and what the wind has done, we will rake 2 swaths together into 1 windrow, a day ahead of baling.  We use 6 V rakes, so when the hay is perfect for raking and will not rope, we can rake almost all of it (200 acres) in one hour - not to wet and not to dry.  If conditions are right, we will bale the hay the following day. We use 5 mid-sized square balers with accumulators.  With 5 balers we can bale about 200 acres in about 2 hours, so we end up with very consistent hay.  With our balers and accumulators, we drop everything into rows in the field to speed up picking up the bales. We pick up bales as we are baling. Usually within an hour or 2 of baling everything is into storage.

Making hay in South Dakota can be a challenge sometimes, but most summers we can easily get 2-3 weeks at a time with no rain.  When you get big stretches of dry weather like that, you can put up of alot of very nice hay.

Who buys our hay?

We sell our alfalfa to lots of different people. Most of it is sold to the end user.  Some people buy 40 semi-loads a year, some only buy 1 load a year. Others only buy our alfalfa when a weather problem causes them to be short of high quality hay, maybe every other year. Check out our customer testimonial page for their comments.

We welcome everyone to give us a try whether you are a dairy farmer, beef producer, raise sheep, goats or horses or even buy our hay for resale to others. We probably have just what you are looking for and if we don’t we will tell you.  We will never claim to have something we don’t have. 

“I have been told by many of my customers, “This hay is exactly the way you described it.” My father always told me, if you tell the truth, you never have to remember what you said.

To contact us, please don’t E-mail, we still do things kind of old fashioned, and use the telephone for orders.  I would rather talk to people than type. Call us anytime or you can come out and visit and pick out your hay for the year.  Thanks!  The Brosnans at Brosnan Farms, Huron, SD.
605-352-7728.

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