Photo Story - "A day in the life of Dan"

Dan Swanson (red shirt) and Jerry Newsome (blue flannel) run a hay business going on 20 years.  Dan and Jerry have been friends for over 20 years and quickly fell in love with the hay industry from year 1. Both men love the equipment and say doing hay "keeps them young at heart."

In the Spring (May), Dan (left) and Jerry (right) get out all of the equipment and tractors to check them over, making sure they are ready for use. Dan says, "sometimes it's a boat you just keep dropping money into." As well as checking their equipment, they also cut the edges of the fields and fertilize so there's no weeds.

The whole month of June, Dan and Jerry are in the hay fields. An average day  lasts about 10-12 hours. Pictured here,  Jerry is baling the hay, and Dan checks the moisture of the bales. The moisture should be between 13 and 10, however Dan and his crew shoot for a moisture content of about 11. If the moisture content is too high, it could start a fire once put away in the barn.

Brothers Caleb Finneman (left) and Luke Finneman are two of Dan's best workers. Caleb has worked for Dan for over 5 years and stacks the hay while Luke, who has worked with them for 2 years,  throws the bales up to him. On average, Dan can get about 20 tons of hay off his field, which is 600 bales, weighing in at 65 pounds each.

Alan Murphy (left) has been a client and good friend of Dan's for over 10 years.  Dan has about 8-10 clients that buy from him and another 8 people that hire him and Jerry to cut and bale their fields. The whole process of cutting and baling hay usually takes a week, if weather permits. This year, they had to scramble to get everything done in 5 days because of rain threats.