Okay … I consider myself a farm girl. I was raised on a working farm and ranch. There have always been lots of cattle on this farm. Every winter, they are fed a chopped up corn mixture known as silage. But this weekend, I learned something new. I was visiting with my uncle, Curtis Olafson, who is a rancher and a farmer on the Ólafsson Homestead.
I asked my uncle a question about the hay bales in Iceland and how the quality of hay can survive when the hay is packaged wet. He told me about Haylage.
Haylage? I had never heard that term before.
Apparently it is forage from the grass that is baled into those round bales, wrapped in layers of plastic wrap to squish the air out, and then allowed time for the grass to ferment. This has been scientifically proven to be a good way to preserve the nutritional value of the grass bale. You can see fields like this all around Iceland with the wrapped bales scattered under the rainy skies.
So, to learn more, I read many articles online including this very fascinating article from the Agricultural University of Iceland.
Thanks, Uncle Curt, for the information! This was very interesting.
Just teasing ….. He is only a few years older than me.