When you think of an airport, you think of airplanes, flight attendants, security lines, maybe some unique shopping opportunities - but, hay? These days big round bales and neatly stacked squares of hay can be seen from the roads at both George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Ellington Field (EFD).

It started as part of an employee suggestion program with an idea to use the open land around IAH and EFD to grow and sell hay in order to generate revenue for the Houston Airport System (HAS).

The employee who suggested the program is the airport system’s director, Richard Vacar, who also owns horses and knows quite a bit about buying and selling hay.

“We’re always looking for ways to better our airport and to create additional sources of revenue,” says Vacar. “The thought came to me - I make hay off of my land by selling hay, just imagine how much money we can make out here with hundreds of acres of open land. We could be the Wal-Mart of the hay business!”

Of the 10,000 acres that comprise IAH, 250 acres are presently being used to harvest hay and 50 of the 2,500 acres at EFD are being used.

Right now most of the hay is a low grade Bermuda grass mainly used to feed livestock such as cattle.

A higher grade of hay – fed mainly to horses - called Tifton 85 is also being harvested in smaller quantities. Tifton 85 is a hybrid Bermuda grass developed by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Resource Service (USDA-ARS) in cooperation with the University of Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station.

The hay program began in 2006 with HAS working with contractors to cut, bale and sell the hay; but HAS decided to purchase specialized equipment like a few agricultural tractors and a bale wagon, so airport employees could get the work done.

“Our team is working hard to get hay produced and we’re finally starting to get into the groove of things," says Terrance York, senior superintendent of airfield and grounds.