Carnesville, GA |
In Franklin County recently, hard work and dedication were getting their due reward. Garren Hall, winner of the Georgia Farm Bureau Hay Contest, was being shown the ropes of his new Vermeer rake — the grand prize for a competition that has long encouraged friendly rivalry and high-quality forage production across the state.
“The Georgia Farm Bureau Hay Contest really helps farmers lean on each other and develop the best management practices for forage production in Georgia. Farmers submit samples and get back the nutritional value of their hay — that way they can see what management practices are working well for them and what they can do to improve quality. Better hay leads to better animals,” said Eliza Jane Glover, Agricultural Programs Specialist with Georgia Farm Bureau.
Hall has been entering the contest for years, coming close multiple times without taking the top prize. But through it all, quality has remained at the center of every decision made on his operation — and this year, that commitment finally paid off.
“We’ve had a lot of second and third place finishes. I think we’ve got three of the Farm Bureau coolers, but this is the first year we’ve actually topped out and got the grand prize,” Hall said. “High quality hay is really important to us. We’ll even cut our hay a little bit earlier before a rain rather than waiting until after — even though we get a little more quantity by waiting, we don’t have quite the quality. We prefer to cut every twenty-eight days, and it takes two inches of rain to make a cutting every twenty-eight days.”
Along with the title, Hall took home the use of a Vermeer high-capacity rake for one year — a piece of equipment that reflects everything the Vermeer brand has stood for since its founding.
“Vermeer was started to make things easier for the farmer. In the late seventies, Gary Vermeer invented the round bale after hearing a farmer talk about how hard it was getting their hay up. His iconic saying was that ‘we’ve got to make this easier’ — and that is one of our driving pillars: making things simpler for the farmer,” said Daniel Elliott, Territory Manager for Vermeer.
That philosophy is built into the design of this rake, which stretches to a twenty-eight-foot working width — allowing operators to cover more ground with fewer passes through the field.
“That wide width means traveling through the field fewer times, which is better for fuel costs and better for your grass — less tracking means it recovers a lot faster after the cut,” Elliott said. “And the hydraulic suspension adjusts to the terrain as it goes, so it really doesn’t miss any spaces even at that width.”
For Hall, the win is validation of years of consistent management and a commitment to doing things right — even when cutting a little early costs a little yield. For Georgia’s hay producers, it’s a reminder that in forage, quality and consistency almost always win in the end.