Outstanding Young Farm Family—Hay & Forage
It was a kind of hay fever Brad Johnson doesn’t want to experience again — that year when an extended dry spell made hay as scarce as hen’s teeth, when he had to beg and borrow every scrap just to feed his cattle through the winter.”It was bad,” he recalled with a shudder. “I ran out of hay in February. I bought hay and borrowed hay, and bought cotton scraps. I fertilized early that year with commercial fertilizer, and I actually started grazing in March. If it hadn’t have been a good spring, I would’ve had to sell some cows. That pretty much taught me a lesson — I’d much rather have too much hay than not enough.”Nowadays, Johnson prefers to start his winters with 270 to 300 tons of hay. “That’s about 550 to 600 rolls of our hay,” he said. “That’s an excess, but I’ve seen years when I ran out of hay, and I never want that to happen again. I want extra hay sitting there just in case. I guess it’s a security kind of thing.”Nevertheless, Johnson, who along with wife Ashley, has been recognized as the Alabama Farmers Federation’s Outstanding Young Farm Family in the Hay and Forage Division, could very well head into this winter without that hay-filled security blanket.Because of the drought, Brad was only able to get a “half cutting” off of his 80 acres earlier in the year. He normally gets three cuttings of Bermuda grass hay, but it looks as if he’ll be lucky to get two this year. At last count, he only had 300 bales — about half of what he would prefer.So when a neighbor who had gotten out of the cattle business offered a 50-acre fescue field, Brad jumped at the chance. “He just pretty much gave it me to cut just so he wouldn’t have to Bush Hog it,” he said. “It hadn’t been fertilized or anything — it’s low-quality forage, but at this point I was kind of scared not to take it.”Even then, the yield wasn’t what he expected — only 130 rolls on 50 acres. “The man who cuts our hay thought he’d get at least 300 rolls before he started cutting,” said Brad. “He started cutting on Monday and by Tuesday afternoon, he was finished. It was that dry. Finished in less than 48 hours!”Fortunately, the Johnsons don’t rely on selling hay for their livelihood. Instead, it is more of a supporting player in the overall farm operation. It serves, of course, as winter forage for his 110 head of brood cows, and it plays a major role in the farm’s nutrient management program. Litter from six breeder hen houses, in combination with commercial fertilizer, nurtures the hayfields that, in turn, nurture the cows. Despite the drought and other challenges, Brad doesn’t regret his decision to leave the security of a fulltime job as a poultry company field man two years ago to go into farming a 370-acre spread with his father. “It was a tough decision to leave a good job,” he said. “Everybody I worked with was like family, but so far I’ve enjoyed it.””I was glad for him to do it because, for awhile, he was doing both his job and farming, and it was a lot of stress on him,” said Ashley, who works as a pharmacist for H&M Drugs and Wedowee Hospital. “It was something he always wanted to try, and I always felt that if he didn’t try it, he would regret not taking the opportunity.”Recent scattered rains at their Randolph County farm helped break the drought’s grip, and Brad and Ashley think they know why: “We’ve got a theory,” said Brad. “It’s because we’re building a new house.” At 4,500 to 5,000 square feet, the new home will be considerably bigger, but the Johnsons will soon need the extra space — they’re expecting their first child, a daughter, Nov. 11.”The only farm that I was ever associated with growing up was my grandparents’ farm, but I always liked being out in the country, and we definitely want our little girl to grow up that way as well,” said Ashley. “I talked to a girl about my age just a couple of weeks ago, and she didn’t know what hay was or what it was used for. I would like or our little girl to know a little more about it than that!”