A hay day for brothers

JENERA — Two Jenera-area brothers have put their hay and straw farming business on the national map with a mix of old-fashioned hard work, hustle and new technology. Miles and Caleb von Stein fetched first place in the Forage Spokesperson Competition this month with a presentation of their operation at the contest in Savannah, Georgia. But even apart from the affirmation of achievement endowed by the trophy, the von Steins have a Herculean accomplishment in their 10-year-old business. The hay business is hard work, said Gary Wilson, former Hancock County Extension agent. Wilson is also a farmer, who specializes in forages, like hay. "Lot of handling, a lot of lifting, a lot of stacking and moving bales," Wilson said. Much of that work is done in 100-degree heat in a barn in summer. "It sounds crazy (but) we always enjoyed baling, even though it's hard work and it's always hot because you're doing it in the middle of summer," Miles von Stein said. "Even if it's hard work, it pays decent if you do a good job at it." Their father, Dennis, also farms, raising corn, soybeans and wheat. "We saw that as an in, to stay on the farm," Miles said. "Farming is in our blood, so we wanted some part of it." The von Steins have made big investments to automate some of the work, ensure their hay and straw are top quality, and to grow the business. They started with just a few acres, and now have 155 acres for hay and about 800 acres for straw. The enterprise has grown from producing 5,000 bales its first year to now producing 70,000 bales of hay and straw per year. But even with automation, the enterprise involves much work — even by farming standards. "It's one thing that's just not plant and wait 'til harvest," Wilson said. "This is work and management all the way through. So that's why a lot of people don't do it anymore." Hay is cut from the field four times a year, typically in early June, July, August and September. "It consumes all of June, July, August and most of September," Miles von Stein said: Mowing, tedding (spreading out the hay so it dries faster), raking it or baling it into 50-pound units. It's done in a hurry because it's fraught with risk. "You have to make hay without any rain on it, and you know, in the world that we live in it's hard to go from spring all the way through fall without finding three days where it's not going to rain or at least bring a chance of rain. So, once they cut hay, that's their goal, is to make that three days, four days max — and they've all kinds of equipment — to get that hay dried down," Wilson said. "When you cut hay, it's going to be 80-90% moisture. You've got to get that dried down to 20% or it's going to spoil, it's going to mold. Or, it could even get hot and catch fire through spontaneous combustion. So they've got to be very, very careful." Even when the weather is dry to a casual observer, the high humidity of Ohio makes it less so by hay farming standards. "So we've invested money into trying to get any tool that we can to get the hay dry as quick as we can," Miles said. Hay dried more quickly is also greener and softer. The von Steins also invest in equipment that is gentler, saving the leaves of the alfalfa, which contain more nutrients. "The end user wants something they can feed less of, but they're able to get the same nutritional value," Miles said. The winter months are slower and less eventful, but not by a whole lot. "It seems like about every day we've got someone coming for hay or straw, or we're delivering it," Miles said. Von Stein Hay & Straw delivers to about a two-and-a-half-hour radius from Jenera. Deliveries to farther away — the von Steins have customers out of state — are hired out. That busy delivery and pickup schedule owes itself to something else that is a credit to the von Steins: the challenge of marketing hay. "Hay does not have an established market like corn, soybeans and wheat," Wilson said. "You can't just haul it to a local elevator terminal and sell it. That's not there. You have to find your market. "It's just word of mouth, how they sell their hay." The von Steins have truly found a niche market. While many hay producers are moving in the direction of producing bigger bales, weighing about 1,000 pounds, the von Steins produce smaller bales, weighing about 50 pounds. Smaller bales are more laborious and more expensive to make and sell, Wilson said. "But if you have a few horses, you're not going to want to buy the big bales. You're going to want to buy the small bales, even if you have to pay more. So they're trying to meet that market and work with that," he said. Wilin: 419-427-8413 louwilin@thecourier.com