In what may be the quietest nook of the State Fair, a walled-off corner of the Jim Graham Building, sit 24 squares of hay, each with a prize ribbon.
Who knew that hay can be superlative? Heck, who knew there were different kinds?
Hay seems like a timeless crop, one that would change — if at all — at a Darwinian pace. There’s hot news from the hay front, though: There is a growing locavore movement for, uh, herbivores.
North Carolina can produce fabulous hay, and people rally should try to buy local, said Sue Ellen Johnson, a forage specialist with the Department of Crop Science at N.C. State University, one of the two contest judges.
The N.C. Cooperative Extension and the North Carolina Forage and Grassland Council — which sponsor the contest — are promoting the growth of high-quality hay in the state. Indeed, the winning entries at the fair are often used for demonstrations. The sponsors also are hoping to persuade more horse owners and cattle farmers to buy local hay.
There are nine potential types of hay that can be entered — though only entries in eight categories this year. They are graded on a range of qualities. Weeks before the fair, entrants have to submit samples of their hay for analysis in a lab. It’s checked for protein and fiber content — less fiber means more useful mass — and nitrates, which can be harmful.
Early on the first day of the fair, the judges examined each entry again and again, checking for impurities such as rocks, mustiness that would signify mold, leafiness and “excessive leaf shatter” — meaning leaves that are so dry they are likely to crumble and fall away as the hay is handled.
If the cows and horses knew about the contest, they might well break out of their pens. Some of this stuff — the best alfalfa entries for example — smell almost good enough for a human to eat.
Thad Ogburn is The N&O's Metro Editor, overseeing most local news reporting. His previous jobs have included editor of North Raleigh News and Features Editor, during which he learned that comics attract more reader response than just about anything else we do. His guilty pleasure is reality TV, which he finds not very real at all. That's assuming, of course, there is room on his DVR amid his daughter's "iCarly" episodes and his wife's daily installments of "One Life To Live."
