Anyone traveling around Guemes Island can't help but notice the huge round bales of hay in many fields, including the Veal farm.

Glen and Arn Veal have been baling hay on Guemes Island for more than fifty years.

Glen started baling as a youngster of thirteen. His dad had the first baler on Guemes Island. It was a John Deere wire baler. Those square bales weighed in at about 70 pounds and each had to be man (boy) handled. He did haying for other farmers on the island as a young man, baling countless tons of hay for Guemes Island cattle.

Baling hay is weather related. The sun needs to shine during the entire process of cutting, curing, raking and baling. This year has been a good year and there is enough hay to feed the entire Veal herd.

The John Deere wire baler his dad bought was replaced by a twine baler and as recent as 1993 (seventeen years ago) was replaced by round hay baler. Now loading the bales is done with a front end loader using hydraulics. This is a good thing because each of those round bales you see from the road weigh about 1000 pounds.

The Veal's have the last remaining herd of any significicant size on Guemes. Almost 100 head of cattle, including cows and calves from 2009 and 2010. They will be well fed this year.

I asked Glen how many tons of hay he put up this year. He doesn't know. Perhaps we can help. Count the bales, multiply by 1000 and divide by two to calculate the tonnage.

- MJ Andrak