Fall hay growth

[Mark Cowdrey]

Thinking about the timing of doing a second cutting of hay.

This is on currently poorish ground that I made 450 30″ bales on 9 acres; red clover, vetch, timothy, bedstraw, and plenty of orchard grass. With the dry summer it has not put up a great stand for a second cutting. We got an inch of rain last night & have warm sunshine forecast for the next few days.

At this time of year, with the added moisture, will another week or so significantly increase the crop, or are the days too short? (September=March) Should I let it grow another 2 weeks & hope for a good haying window around October 1, or take what I can get now?

Thanks,

Mark

[near horse]

Hey Mark,

I’m always concerned about leaving my fields w/ enough leaf area and time to recover before winter hits. My understanding is that it can really affect stand health and vigor.

[blue80]

I would say depends on what kind of forage you have. A lot of articles and options out there dealing with fall cutting and baling vs. clipping vs. leaving it stand vs. cut and leave it in a windrow to graze off….
ie. alfalfa don’t cut it within 30 days of a hard frost or it will be trying to regrow and at hard frost, the roots will not have the reserves to have good winterhardiness….
Couple thoughts, leave it stand option will catch more snow, in Gillette Wy. I see they leave strips uncut in their meadows.
Clipping also clips weeds and keeps them from going to seed, also leaves a little residue for moisture retention next year.
Studies I’ve read state that if you have at least a 1/2 ton/acre estimated crop, cutting it and leaving it in a windrow to graze off will provide much better quantity of forage than grazing uncut pasture, and saves off baling costs.
One study I read showed how getting a 4th (or last) cut of alfalfa late in the year actually would be that much less first cut the next year; which some people want, because it is the first cut which is so heavy and hard to get in dry…..

Kevin

[Tim Harrigan]

Do you have a plan B if there is not haying window in October?

[Mark Cowdrey]

Thanks for the input.
Geoff, Having enough regrowth to go into winter is part of the equation/question.
A couple of further thoughts:
Used to be around here in Central NH, we would have had a hard frost by now. These days it will probably be in the second half of October. So the climate/weather is supporting a longer growing season but the daylight length hasn’t changed.
Last year I tried mowing after the Field Days & just didn’t have enough sun to dry even the light crop I had. I left it lay as grazing that field (a neighbor’s) is not an option. If it was my field I would rotate my cattle on it now.
I mow fairly long (next to highest hole on the inner shoe of a McD #9 and highest hole on the outer shoe) so I’m not scalping it.
That is one of the fields I plan to spread ash on this fall & will manure it in the Spring. I manured it this spring which was the first time it had had anything other than clipping in at least 10 years.
Thinking about a Plan B , if I don’t make hay, should I clip it before I spread the ash?

Keep those cards & letters coming! 🙂

Mark

[near horse]

Should I let it grow another 2 weeks & hope for a good haying window around October 1, or take what I can get now?

If it looks dry for the next few days and there’s something there worth cutting, I’d have at it now. Never know what’s around the corner!

Are you getting regrowth on all of the species or is it more orchardgrass?

I thought timothy didn’t produce a second cutting very well and didn’t like being over stressed (has a rep for not being very persistent) and I think it stores its E reserves in a corm near the base of the plant (not below ground so it doesn’t handle late low cutting).

Remember – your mileage may vary!

Bedstraw !!?:eek: I hate that stuff and would cut it just to hear it scream:mad:

Oh yah, what do you mean hard frost in October? I thought I saw a picture of Carl at NEAPFD wearing flip-flops and Bermuda shorts. Now I have to change my wardrobe plans!

[Phil]

On poorish ground I wouldn’t expect much further growth and would cut if you have the weather. Well fed soil might be different, but I have no real experience with that sort of ground sad to say. 🙁

I’ve never worried about regrowth before cold weather (CT), I haven’t seen any bad results from cutting even in December. The exception may be alfalfa. As soon as it gets really cold top growth will die anyways, either way it will have to grow anew from root reserves only in the Spring. In theory it might even be better to cut late with no regrowth, because scanty regrowth won’t really be producing enough photosynthesis to build root reserves and will only be depleting them. Just my theory. 🙂

[Mark Cowdrey]

Well I did the smart thing(?) and decided to go ahead & mow some of it. It’s not like I’m going to knock down the whole 9 acres at one whack. So I cut maybe 2.5, will get that in hopefully Wednesday before rain Wed. night and go from there. Some places I was surprised by the volume, other places (dryer) were scant. I mowed w/o the grass stick, not that it would have done much, to leave the swaths spread out. Will tedd tomorrow late AM & see what I have by late afternoon. Good drying weather today.

Mark

[Donn Hewes]

Mark, Is that loose hay or baled? Any chance of a picture or two? Good luck, Donn

[Author]

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