When to cut?

[BryanM]

I know weve talked this to death but never cut hay before, When do you decide to cut hay! Forecast calls for some kind of shower everyday only their slight chances like 30%. Do you go ahead and cut or do you wait until lowwer than that. I have seen a few people cutting hay but it also rained on it. What to do? my zip is 43416, take a look and tell me what you would do. thanks Bryan

 

[ddivinia]

I am wrapping up my first time haying my place today. The first thing I did was keep my county agent in the loop to help advise me when the grass was ready.

How many acres?

How big a cutter?

What kind of bales?

I am doing round bales so, as long as I get them baled up, I am fine. Squares are a little different story.

Are you using one tractor or do you have somebody raking while you bale?

Good luck,

D.

 

[chetlenox]

Bryan,

Darin is right, it's kindof a complicated question. Depends on the type of grass you are growing, the bale type, the equipment you use, and whole lot of other things.

The other part of the problem is that the ideal weather for cutting and baling is a very regional thing. I just took a look at your weather forecast and it doesn't look great, a chance of showers essentially all the way through the week (20-40%, depending on the day). Drying conditions are also just ranging from fair to poor through the week as well, mostly due to the expected cloudcover and relatively high humidity. This is a great site (recently pointed out to me from somebody on this forum, I can't remember who) for getting an Ag-oriented forecast:

http://wwwagwx.ca.uky.edu/cgi-bin/ukawc.pl

Problem is, that could be as good as it gets for you (in Ohio) but not me (in Texas). I know looking at that weather forecast, I would hold off, but I'm comparing your weather forecast to my typical conditions (which are much drier, obviously). I'm calibrated to the following for my area:

20% or lower - Looks good, probably will cut if grass is ready.
30% - Getting worried, paying attention to if the number is up from 20 or down from 40 (ie, the trend), may hold off.
40% or great - Too risky, very likely hold off.

Here is my basic methodology (and remember, I'm relatively new to this as well, so take my advice with a grain of salt): Since I grow Coastal Bermuda, I wait until 28 days after the last cut (or April 1st, if it's the first cutting of the year). Then I look at the weather and see if I have an opening. The "size" of the opening that I need varies a lot (I've learned). If it's early in the year, we've been getting steady rains (grass and ground have relatively high moisture content) and the drying weather is going to be muggy or cloudy, I might need 4-5 days of curing time. If it's later in the year, the grass and ground are drier, and the weather is going to be hot and dry, the stuff cures in 1-2 days. I do my best to cut as closely to the 28th day as I can, as I've seen the protein content in my hay samples decline rapidly the farther I get away from the 28 day ideal. To ballpark it for you, I start out at about 13% protein content at 28 days and lose one percentage of protein every 7 days, the longer I wait. That could be very different from you though, depending on what type of grass or legume you grow.

So basically, as you wait for your opening, the urgency level begins to grow (because your grass is losing quality). Eventually those 20-30% chances of rain that kept you from cutting before don't look so bad, and you just say "what the heck" and go for it. I mean, you eventually have to cut the stuff. I'm 4 for 5 on getting my cuttings up without getting rained on, which the locals who have done this for 30 years tell me is about par-for-the-course.

Chet.

 

[mark.r]

It's a valid question, worth discussion and some words of wisdom from some of the more experience individuals here. I'll tell you what I say this weekend which was interesting . . .

Two guys that I have bought hay from, one this season and one last season.

The first one, we bought some freshly cut horse quality rounds from a couple weeks ok (cut on Memorial weekend). He cut the remainder of that same field this past Wednesday. I was curious why he hadn't cut the whole thing on Memorial Day weekend but now I know, he was keeping the remaind for squares. Also peculiar is that he cut the hay for rounds with a JD Moco and he was cutting the same field for squares with NH haybine. Anyone no why he wouldn't use the same cutter? Only thing I can think of is that his discbine may have been down. At any rate, come Saturday he hadn't got it baled and the skies let loose for about 2 hours. This morning on my way into the office I notice that he started round baling it yesterday. My take from that was that the idea of horse quality squares when out the window with the rain. Now looking back, I do remember the weather man calling for Saturday evening showers. He does have a tedder and why he would not use it between last Thurs. and Sat. to get that hay up is beyond me . . . if he even needed it. Our humidity was high last week but it was also pushing a 100 degrees mid week and 90's end of week.

Secondly, on my way to a birthday party I passed the guy we bought rounds from last year. He had his JD4440 hitched up to his square baler and kicker wagon ready roll. Once again that rain on Sat. came through and must have caught them by surprised or they were willing to risk it. Either way on my way back from the party. He had his round baler on the 4440 now and I ASSume had realized that he now had a field full of cow quality windrows . . .

So to take the original posters question one step further, if you are baling squares and you DO get rained on, are you done for as far as having horse quality hay. Or is there any chance in saving it by running the tedder over it an additional time and letting it dry and re-raking or are going to simply loose too much of the good stuff by doing that. Is it better to do that and offer it up as mulch hay to a contractor for grass seed covering or find a cow farmer to sell it to?

Good questions, indeed.

 

[WTA]

Protein levels are the highest on Bermuda and alfalfa usually between 28 and 30 days. Mines all irrigated and lately we've been really working our pump hard too but even with the lack of rain it's still coming out best at 28 days or so on the plant tissue analysis.
I don't know anything about other grasses but generally when a grass crop starts going to seed is the time to cut. After it's all gone to seed the nutritional value really goes down hill.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

It's a valid question, worth discussion and some words of wisdom from some of the more experience individuals here. I'll tell you what I say this weekend which was interesting . . .

Two guys that I have bought hay from, one this season and one last season.

The first one, we bought some freshly cut horse quality rounds from a couple weeks ok (cut on Memorial weekend). He cut the remainder of that same field this past Wednesday. I was curious why he hadn't cut the whole thing on Memorial Day weekend but now I know, he was keeping the remaind for squares. Also peculiar is that he cut the hay for rounds with a JD Moco and he was cutting the same field for squares with NH haybine. Anyone no why he wouldn't use the same cutter? Only thing I can think of is that his discbine may have been down. At any rate, come Saturday he hadn't got it baled and the skies let loose for about 2 hours. This morning on my way into the office I notice that he started round baling it yesterday. My take from that was that the idea of horse quality squares when out the window with the rain. Now looking back, I do remember the weather man calling for Saturday evening showers. He does have a tedder and why he would not use it between last Thurs. and Sat. to get that hay up is beyond me . . . if he even needed it. Our humidity was high last week but it was also pushing a 100 degrees mid week and 90's end of week.

Secondly, on my way to a birthday party I passed the guy we bought rounds from last year. He had his JD4440 hitched up to his square baler and kicker wagon ready roll. Once again that rain on Sat. came through and must have caught them by surprised or they were willing to risk it. Either way on my way back from the party. He had his round baler on the 4440 now and I ASSume had realized that he now had a field full of cow quality windrows . . .

So to take the original posters question one step further, if you are baling squares and you DO get rained on, are you done for as far as having horse quality hay. Or is there any chance in saving it by running the tedder over it an additional time and letting it dry and re-raking or are going to simply loose too much of the good stuff by doing that. Is it better to do that and offer it up as mulch hay to a contractor for grass seed covering or find a cow farmer to sell it to?

Good questions, indeed.

Once the hay gets rained on after it has started drying down it is done for as "horse" hay. Even running a tedder on it will not prevent the hay from dusting after it is baled. Your customers who buy it will not want dusty hay for their horses.

Also, high humidity is not good for drying hay. You need low humidity to get hay to dry fast. So those days where it was 90-100 degrees didn't do much but make everyone sweat with the humidity so high.

And as for why some guys are cutting when rain is forcasted, well, because we have no choice this year. We gamble that a 30% chance is going to miss us. Some times we win, others we lose. But the way this year is looking if we don't gamble the hay is going to lose its quality from standing too long. Plus, the longer it stands the less second cutting there will be (if we ever get a chance for a second cutting that is).

What I do is I look for 4 good days here in WNY. Right now I am just looking for 3 good days and a possible fourth. If the humidity is low, sky is clear and there is a nice breeze I will cut for a three day windrow. If the humidity is high, sky is cloudy and there is a heavy dew each morning I need a 4 day window.

A tedder is not a miracle machine either, it helps to expose the hay for drying but you still need the elements to work with you. I am hoping to get back to my first cutting later this week but right now the ground is so wet that I am nervous about tearing up some of my fields if I go on them too soon.

 

[mark.r]

Once the hay gets rained on after it has started drying down it is done for as "horse" hay. Even running a tedder on it will not prevent the hay from dusting after it is baled. Your customers who buy it will not want dusty hay for their horses.

Also, high humidity is not good for drying hay. You need low humidity to get hay to dry fast. So those days where it was 90-100 degrees didn't do much but make everyone sweat with the humidity so high.

And as for why some guys are cutting when rain is forcasted, well, because we have no choice this year. We gamble that a 30% chance is going to miss us. Some times we win, others we lose. But the way this year is looking if we don't gamble the hay is going to lose its quality from standing too long. Plus, the longer it stands the less second cutting there will be (if we ever get a chance for a second cutting that is).

What I do is I look for 4 good days here in WNY. Right now I am just looking for 3 good days and a possible fourth. If the humidity is low, sky is clear and there is a nice breeze I will cut for a three day windrow. If the humidity is high, sky is cloudy and there is a heavy dew each morning I need a 4 day window.

A tedder is not a miracle machine either, it helps to expose the hay for drying but you still need the elements to work with you. I am hoping to get back to my first cutting later this week but right now the ground is so wet that I am nervous about tearing up some of my fields if I go on them too soon.

Thanks Robert. You did get some of your first cutting done correct?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Thanks Robert. You did get some of your first cutting done correct?

I have 10 acres finished out of 100

 

[mark.r]

I have 10 acres finished out of 100

Well it's a start. Hopefully you get some four day stints in there. We haven't too many but a few down this way. Suppose to storm again today so no baling going on today either.

 

[chetlenox]

Everybody from the north keeps talking about not being able to get the hay cut because of the rain... I sure wish we had some of the stuff down here! We haven't gotten decent rain in at least a month here in North Texas, and my Bermuda is feeling the effects.

Weatherman says some chance on Wednesday, I've definitely got my fingers crossed.

Chet.