For those living in Missouri and several other states I wanted to let you know about a great way to feed your cattle, especially if you don’t have hundreds of acres. Missouri and many other states have a simple and completely free permit system to cut hay from the roadsides.

Often times while travelling down a highway I think to myself about the appalling waste of land that the highway system is. I have nothing against nice wide roads to get to your destination in a timely manner but often times there are acres of wasted land between these roads. The good news for those living in thinking states is that you can capitalize on this otherwise wasted land through permits to cut hay from that land.

In Missouri the process is very simple. The permit system is ran on a first come first served way with one twist. The former land owner has first dibs, which is pretty fair in my opinion as it was originally their land that was taken to build the highway. Most areas in Missouri begin giving permits in May and the permits are usually good till the fall. The hay is to be used for personal use on your farm and not for resell. You cannot interfere with traffic and must enter the area you are going to mow from secondary road. You also cannot load hay on the shoulder of the highway, this too must be done on secondary or county roads.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is the agency in charge of the state highway system in Missouri. County and secondary roads are the responsibility of the county and MoDOT does not have authority over these roads and cannot give permits. Most county roads don’t have the big wide ditches that provide the best hay ground anyway. MoDOT divides the state into seven districts across the state. Each district runs semi-autonomously.

To get my mowing permit I called the district office to find out who I had to talk with. I got the number for the manager of my area and talked with him on the phone to get a permit for Highway 63 which is the closest state highway to my homestead. I live 3/4 of a mile off hwy 63. Unfortunately the median or land between the lanes of highway 63 closest to my place was planted in native grasses and was managed as a no mow area. They did however give me a permit for the shoulder ditch from my road to five miles north. This had some nice areas and plenty of ground that was too hilly to hay.

I baled just under 400 bales of hay from the shoulder of highway 63. That saves a lot of money, and is one way to really stretch your land. Any hay coming from the ditch is hay ground I don’t have to find on my place or cut on shares off somebody else’s place. The grass that I baled was brome, which is good feed. There were some sections that had less weeds than my own place and others that were weedy.

The worst drawback to this hay is trash. This can be overcome with some work, and because I am baling the same land again this year it will be cleaner the second time around. I went through and picked up all the larger trash before mowing. After I had mowed the grass I went back through and picked up everything I could find. After I raked I went along the windrow and picked up anything that I missed. To make the job faster I bun-geed two buckets to and ATC and used a grabber tool so I didn’t have to dismount for every piece of trash. Since this area of highway isn’t adopted by a litter crew and had not been hayed there was a lot of trash. I plan on haying the ditch every year and it will stay much cleaner from now on.

All things considered the trash was a small price to pay for free hay. I have baled fields along highways that have just as much trash. I have seen others not even bother with picking out the trash, but I prefer to keep it out of my hay.

Being as Missouri was in a severe drought last year I would have had to spend $6 a bale for equivalent hay. You can see how this can save some serious money and is well worth it for small farmers who are not independently wealthy.

So if you are currently buying your hay I would look into this as a potential way to save some money. With hay not coming off your property you could even expand your herd. I am surprised more people don’t do this, but it may be because they are not aware of it as a possibility.