Wait or cut?

[Southernspeed]

I have a question ... or two (as usual!) , first time making hay, stupid kind of questions!
I blinked and I missed the boot stage. Some of it (mixed grasses) is just out of boot, some have good seed heads. It's only about 12-18 inches tall so I wasn't paying much attention. We had a lot of rain today, likely get some tomorrow then 'should' be clear until Friday PM although a couple of weather apps say there may be showers Wednesday. Temps generally in the 70s, maybe touching 80 degrees, pretty breezy. But then, they didn't forecast the rain today! The following week is looking very wet.
So ... would you wise folk cut Monday and hope to get it baled by Thursday evening or wait at least two weeks and have stemmy hay? Will it even dry on wet ground with high humidity? How detrimental is it to leave it another two weeks or more?
Please don't be shy to state the obvious, all I know about haying is what I've read here and seen on youtube!
Thanks for any info!

 

[Lineman North Florida]

It's always a best guess but a 5 day window with a maybe in the middle is a go for me, you win some and you lose some so go ahead and prepare yourself to be disappointed because sometimes you just get some wet, them weathermen will sometimes change forecast mid-stream of your window. Do you have a fluffer? Sometimes that can make the difference getting it dried a little quicker when your weather window seems to be closing on you.

 

[Southernspeed]

It's always a best guess but a 5 day window with a maybe in the middle is a go for me, you win some and you lose some so go ahead and prepare yourself to be disappointed because sometimes you just get some wet, them weathermen will sometimes change forecast mid-stream of your window. Do you have a fluffer? Sometimes that can make the difference getting it dried a little quicker when your weather window seems to be closing on you.

Four, maybe five day window but the forecasters for this area are only 80% right about what happened yesterday let alone the week ahead!
I have a Tedder but not the fluffer.
I hear what you’re saying, really don’t want to lose my first ever hay but what can you do!
At least this isn’t my livelihood, that would be far too stressful!!

 

[Hay Dude]

I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Would you be able to handle moldy hay if you end up taking a chance and baling it early?
Strange as it is to say, most people expect 1st cut to be on the stemy side. I was just in VA and didn’t think it was quite ready. We aren’t even close here in PA unless it was cover from last fall.

I’d probably wait and up my tonnage. Someone will buy it. Me and a buddy of mine have sold 2,000 small squares of stemmy from 2022 1st cut and only one guy with baby goats complained lol

 

[Southernspeed]

I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Would you be able to handle moldy hay if you end up taking a chance and baling it early?
Strange as it is to say, most people expect 1st cut to be on the stemy side. I was just in VA and didn’t think it was quite ready. We aren’t even close here in PA unless it was cover from last fall.

I’d probably wait and up my tonnage. Someone will buy it. Me and a buddy of mine have sold 2,000 small squares of stemmy from 2022 1st cut and only one guy with baby goats complained lol

That was on my mind too. Long stemmy stuff I could maybe sell as cow hay ( we have horses) or at worst, brush hog it. But if it all spoils on the ground, I have no idea what to do with it. Bale it all and dump it in the woods?
This was one field yesterday.

 

[Hay Dude]

Understanding everyone’s situation is different, might be able to sell (stemmy) is a lot better than moldy- unable to sell.

One thing I have learned about hay that took me a while is having to have patience. If you let your desire to attack early get the best of you, you can end up worse-off.

 

[Hay Dude]

Looks like you have some un sprayed pasture land there. Plenty of mix of grasses & some weeds.

Hay is so local/regional.
Everyone’s situation is different.
You’ll always have a uniformed clown telling you what you are doing is wrong. Most times they live 1,000 miles away in a different climate or serving different customer base.

 

[masseyrider]

If the worst happens bring it to me.
I use as much mulch as I can get in my orchard and garden.
Sell it to the green folk that try to garden naturally.

 

[Southernspeed]

Looks like you have some un sprayed pasture land there. Plenty of mix of grasses & some weeds.

Hay is so local/regional.
Everyone’s situation is different.
You’ll always have a uniformed clown telling you what you are doing is wrong. Most times they live 1,000 miles away in a different climate or serving different customer base.

I know, this wasn’t sprayed last year as it wasn’t going to be hayfield. Other fields are better but even those have a small amount of buttercup in them. I just can’t get rid of the damn things!
I’ve got four REALLY bad acres that I’ll kill off and reseed in the fall. Everything else is getting over seeded. But the buttercups….. might have to go nuclear on those!!

 

[Lineman North Florida]

That was on my mind too. Long stemmy stuff I could maybe sell as cow hay ( we have horses) or at worst, brush hog it. But if it all spoils on the ground, I have no idea what to do with it. Bale it all and dump it in the woods?
This was one field yesterday.
View attachment 795699View attachment 795699View attachment 795700

While putting it up dry is the goal , if it gets wet all is not lost, it can be fluffed or tedded same thing, and still put up dry and utilized for cow hay, it won't have much nutritional value but when combined with liquid protein it will help get cows through the winter, and you would just be honest with the buyers and let them know it's not horse quality and not barn stored and price accordingly. Down here in the deep south it's rare to go all hay season and not get some wet and a field that is in grass on black bottom land is going to need an extra day to dry verses a high sandy field, so a 4 day window is needed and fluffing daily required to get it under the barn dry.

 

[LouNY]

If you want quality feed it needs to be mowed. If you want tonage you can wait.
I am amazed at people suggest poor quality hay for cow hay. Possibly for wintering brood cows over in mild climates.
Certainly not for milk or growing beef. If it doesn't get baled at the right moisture it will mold and be useless, rained on hay can be tedded and dried it will be bleached out but once dried it will make mulch hay.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

If you want quality feed it needs to be mowed. If you want tonage you can wait.
I am amazed at people suggest poor quality hay for cow hay. Possibly for wintering brood cows over in mild climates.
Certainly not for milk or growing beef. If it doesn't get baled at the right moisture it will mold and be useless, rained on hay can be tedded and dried it will be bleached out but once dried it will make mulch hay.

We live in different parts of the country and probably are dealing with different types of grass, I don't advocate feeding anything moldy hay, but down here hay that gets rained on can usually be salvaged and rolled or baled dry with zero mold and fed to cows during the winter with liquid protein as a supplement, my cow herd gets this hay sometimes until my winter rye/ oat fields are ready for grazing, just the way it is.

 

[Boss 302]

I'm in Virginia and based on our experience it's best to wait until around the middle or last part of May before the first cutting. We need rain in my part of Virginia so the grass can germinate and flourish as i would expect before making hay.

 

[Southernspeed]

Looks like you have some un sprayed pasture land there. Plenty of mix of grasses & some weeds.

Hay is so local/regional.
Everyone’s situation is different.
You’ll always have a uniformed clown telling you what you are doing is wrong. Most times they live 1,000 miles away in a different climate or serving different customer base.

@Hay Dude what do you use to spray hay fields with? Have you had customers who say their horses won't eat it because of lingering taste/odor of herbicide?
Could I spray now and it be ok for a second cut in a month or two?
I've used Graze-on before (which is now DuraCor(DuraCon?) but there are so many restrictions about not using manure for 18 months, not moving the hay off farm for 18 months, telling all buyers it's been sprayed etc etc. No hay supply guy has ever told me there hay has been sprayed, I've just assumed it has anyway. Is that true of all herbicides ?

 

[Hay Dude]

@Hay Dude what do you use to spray hay fields with? Have you had customers who say their horses won't eat it because of lingering taste/odor of herbicide?
Could I spray now and it be ok for a second cut in a month or two?
I've used Graze-on before (which is now DuraCor(DuraCon?) but there are so many restrictions about not using manure for 18 months, not moving the hay off farm for 18 months, telling all buyers it's been sprayed etc etc. No hay supply guy has ever told me their hay has been sprayed, I've just assumed it has anyway. Is that true of all herbicides ?

Many years ago, I had a few customers who didn’t like the smell/taste of hay that was preserved. They never commented about herbicide spray. I stopped spraying broadleaf herbicides about 6-7 years ago.
You just have to read the labels about restriction times. I used 2-4-D, cimmaron and clarity most of the time.
I now have a group of “organic” hay buyers I sell to and I’m much better off.

 

[Southernspeed]

Many years ago, I had a few customers who didn’t like the smell/taste of hay that was preserved. They never commented about herbicide spray. I stopped spraying broadleaf herbicides about 6-7 years ago.
You just have to read the labels about restriction times. I used 2-4-D, cimmaron and clarity most of the time.
I now have a group of “organic” hay buyers I sell to and I’m much better off.

I’d rather not spray but how do you control weeds? Or have you just got to a point where they’re eradicated?

 

[Tx Jim]

That was on my mind too. Long stemmy stuff I could maybe sell as cow hay ( we have horses) or at worst, brush hog it. But if it all spoils on the ground, I have no idea what to do with it. Bale it all and dump it in the woods?
This was one field yesterday.
View attachment 795700

Stem between your fingers & thumb resembles ryegrass which can be fed to horses. Hay is in short supply & high $$$$ where I live. If grass in your photo was in my field I promise I'd cut & bale it

 

[5030]

In the past I've had fields go to ****te...lol I just rake it all into the ditch and call it good or I'll run the shredder over it, depending on the quantity. Unlike Hay Dude, I don't bale mulch hay for mushrooms.

 

[Hay Dude]

I’d rather not spray but how do you control weeds? Or have you just got to a point where they’re eradicated?

I don’t control them much, really. Only thing I do is lime and pretty much, but not perfectly organic topsoil. The stronger your grass, the less weeds will grow.
Some guys spray their fields into oblivion. The weeds are gone, but so is a lot of other edible non-grass growth and you aren’t organic, for sure.
You trade that off for selling lower priced hay to people who don’t want spray, but your input prices are lower, too. Spraying adds time & cost to making hay.
I have no beef with anyone who wants to spray whatsoever. Your hay, your call.

 

[hosspuller]

@Hay Dude what do you use to spray hay fields with? Have you had customers who say their horses won't eat it because of lingering taste/odor of herbicide?
Could I spray now and it be ok for a second cut in a month or two?
I've used Graze-on before (which is now DuraCor(DuraCon?) but there are so many restrictions about not using manure for 18 months, not moving the hay off farm for 18 months, telling all buyers it's been sprayed etc etc. No hay supply guy has ever told me there hay has been sprayed, I've just assumed it has anyway. Is that true of all herbicides ?

I 've used Grazon HL on hay fields before. Worked well, but then I thought it through. I'm throwing out useful herbicide and have to warn customers too. (Hay treated with Grazon passes through the animal. Their manure will kill customers tomatoes) So I stopped using it on the hay fields and use it exclusively on pastures. The herbicide that is passed through the guts helps keep the pasture weeds down. Most broadleaf herbicides don't pass through manure.

*** Read up on the herbicide labels. ***