Haying 2013

[near horse]

Oh — gwpoky. I wish I’d have known what you were after in ND, SD as I just got back from a fast road trip from here to Eau Claire WI with an empty 18ft trailer heading east. I might have been able to haul something your direction.

Pretty strange conditions on that trip — Butte, MT was initiating their watering restrictions (odd/even based on address and date) while Billings, MT was getting over some flooding. Western SD was worried about low rainfall conditions but the eastern half and into MN was too wet (some were still doing tillage and trying to get corn in the ground in early June). During the 6 days I was gone (3500 miles), home went from 60F to 80F for that period and I went from being patient on the hay crop to being behind (dang it). Hardly recognized it when I pulled in at home.

We’re looking at pretty dry conditions with lower than normal spring rain so it seems everything is maturing much earlier — including the local winter wheat etc.

Mitch – Lat 44 and 300ft? We’re at 46.8 and 3000 ft but your winters still trump ours by a mile. Happy Haying!

[mitchmaine]

hey geoff, still waiting for dry ground here. had it a few days ago, but not enough drying time before saturdays 1.6″, yesterdays 1.8 and todays half inch. too much water. it’ll be a week or ten days till we can get on our heavy clay, and then we need three northwest days to make it. alot to ask for it seems, but it happens when its ready. good luck with your haying. do you have wheat in? i got a chance to drill an acre and a half of oats and this rain is actually helping them. best wishes, mitch

[Michel Boulay]

Hey Mitch, not to much difference between NB & Maine, were at lat.46.2 and 50ft and the feilds are growing real good with all that rain plus a day here and there of sun. Will have to get a couple of weeks of hot dry weather to dry the ground and have a good five days of sun wind to make good hay, its pretty wet here its like spring staying a lot longer. Pretty much everybody around here use tedders, weather is to unpredictable to not use one. When your raking or tedding in good hay weather and the tires are wet its not always good. Having a hard time to get in the 70’s so its not really drying weather.But aint haying fun though. Hope everybody can make good hay. Have a great summer guys.
Mike

[mitchmaine]

I think we are fighting the same beast, mike. The grand banks and browns and georges pushes the gulf stream way to the eastward. The water in the gulf of maine is 34 degrees summer and winter and good for codfish only. The prevailing winds whip out over the gulf, load up with moisture and bring it back and dump it on us year round. The only thing you can count on is that whatever the weatherman says will not happen. That you can take to the bank, but it still leaves us with too many options, and in the end its still just a crapshoot. I got too good at selling hay this winter, so now my horses are eating hay you wouldn’t buy for mulch. Ha! You goota love it, right? Thanks for the note.

[Donn Hewes]

I have been struggling for years while trying to make early hay with horse power. Our farm can use a good supply of dairy quality hay to feed pregnant sheep. I have been looking for ways to stop fighting the weather and make my life easier. It will take a few years to implement some of these ideas; but here is what I am thinking.

First, one of the big advantages of making early hay (think may 20 to june 5) is uncovering a large part of your farm to good regrowth, for either second cutting hay or future grazing. I think baleage and silage where just a mechanical solution to this problem. Those of us making dry hay just wish we could do what they are doing.

As a sheep dairy that feeds no grain, our lambs are very challenged to grow on pasture alone. historically we have slaughtered all our lambs, except ewe replacements, before winter. My plan starts with keeping up to half our lamb crop each year and feeding them into the following summer. This will accomplish a couple things: This group will help eat (as they winter feed) the abundant later (mid June to early July) first cutting hay we can more easily make with out fighting the weather or wasting horse power. Second, they can “uncover” or graze a large number of additional acres in May and June as yearlings; that the weather didn’t allow for making hay. Now these fields will be available for second cutting hay or good grazing later in the year. Finally, this is the flexible group (not a milk flock, and already big enough for slaughter; they can start to go, dependent on drought or other forage stockpile levels.

Next I want to stop trying to make first and second cutting off the same fields. First cutting will be the long, sometimes over mature fields that make good yields, and feed horses, mules, cattle, and ewes in early gestation. My second cutting will come from pasture that were grazed early (like late may). This will improve the horse efficiency of making enough bales off an acre to make it worth the effort to handle second cutting with horses. I am tired of 20 good bales from an acre of work. These fields will need longer rests before possible re grazing in Oct or Nov.

One final piece of the puzzle that I have been working on for the last few years is mowing a few acres, just to let it grow back. Just yesterday we moved milking ewes from tall, over mature pasture to ground mowed in mid-may. This is a prime dairy pasture at this time. The mowing is easy and I should do more of it.

There is probably some history to these ideas. With less sophisticated weather forecasting, hay making equipment, and the pressure to produce every once we can, I think folks may well have set out to make hay in the middle of summer when the weather was more likely to be good, and high yields would reward your effort. Just some thoughts on a rainy day. Donn

[Does’ Leap]

Hey Donn:

We raised 100% grass-fed lamb for several years when we started out milking goats and had up to 25 ewes at one point. We weren’t making hay at that time, but we gravitated toward the system you are talking about. We would take a crop of lambs through the winter to help us get through our spring flush of grass and butchered them when the grass-growth slowed in July. Those hoggets (1-2 year sheep) far surpassed any lamb we raised in terms of eating quality. By that second summer they had a nice frame to them and were able to add a lot of inter-muscular fat. Too bad your not closer. I would love to buy one from you for our freezer.

George

[Billy Foster]

Donn
I assume since you are a grass dairy you are rotationally grazing your flock? We keep a flock of about 20 ewes and I always fight to keep up with the spring flush. We lamb on pasture and use a “drift lambing” approach so the ewes are grazing stock piled grass or grass that has only just started to grow early in the spring, we usually have to feed some hay to them in the beginning. Getting the sheep out there early and moving them everyday has helped me almost keep up with the flush. I move them very “fast”, 24hr rotations and bigger than normal paddocks (about 40 head and acre stocking density). I want them to just take a bite from each plant to set it back a week or so. I just make sure I don’t move them so fast I am back to the start before the 45 days, I like to wait for the worm larve to “peter out” before they get back on a paddock. If the growth comes back to fast I will either rotary mow it, or decide to let it mature and use that section for horse pasture. My mind thinks it is good to let the grass complete a reproductive cycle every couple years, this is just my opinion.
What time of year do you lamb, also at how many days do you wean the lambs? I have had poor experience feeding growing lambs first cut hay over the winter. I have found their growth stalls out until they we back on pasture in the spring. I do not know much about dairy genetics but I would think you should be able to grow a good size lamb with that good milk production. Sorry for all the comments and questions Donn, I love grazing sheep almost as much as thinking about pasture management .
Billy

Oh yea this is a haying thread!

[fogish]

Still on the subject of rotational grazing and the trouble with hay, I read this article recently: http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com/articles/view.php?entryID=28
I don’t know how well it would work in the North East but it’s something to think about if you have limited hay supplies.

[Ed Thayer]

Weather is looking better for first cut on Tuesday or Wednesday in the northeast. Anyone else ready to go?

[Carl Russell]

I’m going for it….. as soon as the grass dries today…… having trouble getting the Wisconsin to start though…… I’ve still got time between tedding and raking.

Carl

[Eli]

I’m going to cut soon most likely round bale I have to go out of town for a few days. I wanted to small square bale it but if I’m not home I can’t. Eli

[near horse]

Every year I “plan” on having my hay equipment serviced up and ready to roll well before it’s close to cutting time — hasn’t happened yet. Yesterday I finally put new seals on the #9 and cleaned off some of the fire damage from last year (melted plastic coated half of it). It was in pretty good shape before the toasting so I’m hoping minimal cleanup was all it needed.

On my recent trip to MN I happened to find an 8ft kicker tedder/fluffer that had been sitting in a shed since it was put away 40+ yrs back. I just need to fab a tongue for that one.

Our weather is moistureless but most here are way too leery of cutting this early even though the grass says otherwise. Later this summer might be a legit fire season for us.

Mitch – I didn’t put in any grains but a drier than normal spring allowed most guys into the field pretty early so spring crops are all in. The lack of moisture and occasional pulses of heat (a couple of 85 degree days here and there) have triggered maturation without as much tillering of the wheat plants as you’d like to see. We’ll see if it “pinches” the test weight of the grain itself (also the dry peas too).

Donn – the NZ guys are masters of the baleage-making. I’ve seen some where they wet bale and make a stack (about a wagon’s load — 100 bales?) and tightly cover it with a plastic tarp. I know guys use individual round bale wrappers for baleage too as well as ag bags.

[dominiquer60]

We are ready to cut Wednesday as soon as threat of T-storms is over, looks like we may have a good 4 days to get some crop in whether we small bale or chop it for the trench, is yet to be determined.

[Billy Foster]

I am planning on cutting Wednesday as well. Big year this year. I will be putting up a couple acres loose with just the horses. First time doing loose hay and first time knocking it down using a sickle bar, we used a mower conditioner when I was a kid. I wonder how much longer the really mature red clover stems will take to dry?
Billy

[Carl Russell]

Thunderstorms just passing by….. looks like we’ll be mowing in the rain this afternoon…. won’t be the first time. I’ll let it sit under cloudy skies for tomorrow, and be ready to go on Wed and Thur if the forecast holds…

The old-timer I worked for as a kid would say, “you can’t make hay while you’re watching the sky!”

Carl

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