FELLSMERE — Robena Hall has a free fitness program. Each day and all day, she grasps bales of hay averaging 50 to 60 pounds – to as heavy as her own weight of 120 pounds – and throws them down to a trailer bed, with a precise snap of the wrist causing the large rectangular bale to land in locking puzzle position to make use of all available space.
It’s all part of her mission to launch new farmers into the business of harvesting livestock for a living, even if it is just a living off the land for one’s own family. She and her life and business partner Ronnie Reedy run the Hay Station, located at 10175 138th Ave., in Fellsmere.
“We are seeing a lot of people going back to the land to grow all their own food,” said the petite but hearty Hall, wiping the glisten from her tanned brow.
Reedy, after he backed up a customer’s trailer and hopped aboard it to catch Hall’s pitches, added, “It may be so they may one day not need to rely on the world economy in the event of a catastrophe, or because they want to be in control of their own health by eating as close to the earth as possible.”
“Close to the earth” means eating food with as little processing as possible from where it is grown, which allows consumers to avoid the harmful fertilizers, pesticides, growth hormones and antibiotics that fill modern meals.
The additives allegedly contribute to Type II diabetes, premature puberty in children, heart disease and cancer, with some experts adding Alzheimer’s and autism to the list.
Leasing options in Fellsmere are abundant because development is still slow to approach the area, yet if the land lies fallow, it looks to the tax collector like a valuable potential new community.
Leasing the land for agricultural use gives the land owner a substantial tax break, not to mention some revenue from the land.
The cherry on top of the self-sufficiency move in Fellsmere is the abundant supply of water. The many flow-wells make it unnecessary to use a pump that may require electricity of petrol to operate.
They are so named because they are drilled deep into the ground to reach Artisian wells that push the water up and out of the ground to irrigate citrus groves and other crops.
Reedy continued to finish Hall’s sentence, as he and she often do for each other, “They want to live off the land, raise animals for food and grow their own fruits and vegetables, and this area is one of the last places you can leave or buy the five to 10 acres to accomplish all of that.”
The Hay Station sells all types of hay and stall bedding for horses, and feed and needs for comprehensive care of chickens, from egg to oven. They have the ability to special-order anything nouveau ranchers will need for any other animal they add to their spread.
Chanda Mundy and her mother, Rose Mundy, are typical customers of the Hay Station. First, the land. Even though they are Realtors, it took many months to find just the right five-acre parcel of land off which to live. Second, the plants and animals on it.
Once the land is procured – purchased in the Mundys’ case – they then set about finding the animals to make it happen, typically with no experience in anything ranch or farm. Lastly, the harvest and replenishment to complete the cycle.
Eventually, the Mundys will either need to trade a portion of their meat to a harvester, or to really be independent, purchase the equipment and learn the skills to process it themselves.
Produce, too, will take much research to get it right from seed to pan.
Barter and trade of equipment, services and products made directly or indirectly from animals and plants take place at the Farm Animal Sale, held the second and fourth Saturday of each month on Hall and Reedy’s spread.
Chanda Mundy answered Hall and Reedy’s free Craigslist post – the only advertising the Hay Station does other than word of mouth – and Chanda started coming around, enjoying the education she received from Hall and others at the Farm Animal Sale.
Hall was so helpful, informative and confidence-building, the Mundys decided to purchase their hay from the Hay Station, despite numerous other sources in the Fellsmere area.
As with all Hay Station customers, Hall was able to direct the Mundys to quality ranchers who sell cows, chickens and even pigs.
Word-of-mouth referrals are gold in the close-knit farming and ranching community, and regard is high for Hall and Reedy among their farming friends, neighboring ranchers and both customers and suppliers.
“Our goal is to buy the best, most nutritious hay that is nutritiously grown and safely harvested and stored, and make it available for the same price as the cheaper options,” Hall said.
They purchase hay by the tractor-trailer load of 700 bales from Arizona to Montana, and pitch 10 to 100 onto the smaller trailers of their customers who are limited in space to safely store it.
Most of the foraging feed is called coastal hay, because it is grown in and around Florida, where the ground is typically sand or clay-based rather than of the deeper, more nutrient-filled topsoil of inland areas.
Whereas coastal is considered the “baloney” of hay, the Hay Station also carries the “T-bone” of hay: the deep green and very nutritious Timothy and alfalfa hays.
“We got into this business because we, ourselves, were frustrated at the inability to find a consistent source for good, quality hay,” Reedy said, with Hall finishing, “These days, people are looking for the cheapest options because money is tight, and that can result in illness.”
Stories have populated social media since the beginning of the economic recession of sickness and even death of horses from eating moldy, stick-filled hay containing parasites. Desperation has quietly set into this low-key community, as animal owners are losing their farms to foreclosure, overloading horse-rescue operations, with even horse rescues getting into trouble for feeding with contaminated hay.
“Many people in the farming and ranching community are forced to decide whether to feed themselves or feed their animals,” Reedy said as he fed and stroked the noses of 2-year-old Nipper, a brown sorrel, and a decade older Appaloosa named Copper, among their horses that include two rescues.
Hall and Reedy are getting deeper into the animal side of the business rather than just what goes into them.
Later this month, they will break ground on stables, individual tack rooms and a riding arena, and will offer the option of boarding horses and providing all of the feeding, stall mucking, worming, bathing and other care, or letting the boarder provide it, known as full or partial boarding.
Eventually, Hay Station Stables will add a show barn and show arena and host horse shows.
Ultimately, Hall and Reedy hope to add the most important of structures: a farm home on the leased 10 acres that they one day plan to own outright, allowing them to move over from their Sebastian home.
“In Fellsmere, we’ve got the rivers for food, citrus all around, our own water, and we can grow everything else we need, so if everything goes to heck,” Reedy said, Hall finishing, “We’ll be just fine.”