I belive I could make a 3rd cutting on my fescue. The first 2 came off late, I figured there'd be no way to make a 3rd. Been a good many years since I made 3 cuttings. Shaping up to get a cutting of pure blades. No place to put it but the ground, but I'll gladly take it.
3 cuttings?
- Thread starter Bigfoot
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pricefarm
Well-known member
Iam almost done with my second cutting. If we keep getting rain I will be ae to also get a 3rd cutting.
chevytaHOE5674
Well-known member
Still working on 1st cutting UP here. With any bit of luck I'll be done next weekend, then I can pack the hay equipment away until next year.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
Wll finish 1st cutting tomorrow.Latest I ever done first cutting. Will start on second cutting on Monday I hope. Hope to get a 3rd cuttng and then stockpile in September.
Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
We have the second cutting that was just put in the rows. Hope to get it rolled tonight! What is amazing, we have about 40 grazable acres, of which about 10 is put in small pastures for the bulls, show heifers, and such. We are currently running 25 cows with calves on the rest, with MIG. We have not been able to get to our 13 acre section because the grass has been growing enough that we do not need to use that rotation! So we have been cutting it! We grazed it the first part of spring, when green up started, but moved the cows off the last section the end of May. So since the end of May, we have now taken two cuttings! We have not put up hay on this land in a few years, since our numbers have not allowed, and we have bought our supply for winter. This is shaping up to be a great year, and it looks like if it continues we will get a third cutting! This cutting is if full of red clover and orchard, I bet it tests great! I will take the rain for the great grass year we are having...
Second cutting here is hardly worth bothering with. We just graze the hay field after the first cutting. Neighbor thought he was going to get great second cutting of mixed fescue/alfalfa/johnson grass. Got less then a third of what he got in the first cutting.
Nesikep
Well-known member
I got the first cut off 3 weeks early this year, but with the intense heat we had in june it just didn't want to regrow well no matter how much water you threw at it.. 2nd cut looks like it'll come off about the same time it usually does, and I'll graze what there is in the 3rd.
We're looking at $300/ton for round bales this year
We're looking at $300/ton for round bales this year
Being from the wet side of Oregon I have to ask, what's a second or third cutting? :lol: One and done here, some try to get two cuttings a lot either end up with moldy hay or as Dun stated not enough hay in the second cut to be worth the expense and time.
hillbilly beef man
Well-known member
I finished up with the first cutting yesterday. I will have some grazing stockpiled, but a second cutting is rarely enough to pay for the fuel to put it up.
A.J.
Well-known member
Just put up johnsongrass portion of second cutting. Third cutting of it should be ready in September hopefully. Fescue/clover second cutting should be ready in a few weeks. Very thankful after the year we had last year.
Dave
Well-known member
Alan":1emoy78h said:
Alan, I hate to disappoint you but one of my neighbors just mowed his fourth yesterday. He doesn't have better soil, grass, or climate than you do. He does have three things you probably don't have. Irrigation, real handy this year as dry as it has been. Plenty of nutrients in the form of dairy manure. But most importantly a round baler and wrapper to make haylage. The first cutting around the first of May and every 28 days after that. I know 6 or 8 people who do this and they get 6 cuttings a year of real good feed.
Steve Franson who is a forage research scientist from WSU, tells me that once our cool season grasses set a seed there is a hormone that gets sent through out the plant telling it to stop growing for the year. So if you are cutting hay like most people around here in late June or early July it isn't coming back no matter what you do. Getting that first cutting off in early May really sets you up for successive cuttings. And early May cutting in western Washington or Oregon really calls for wrapping the bales. I have another neighbor without irrigation who got two good cuttings this year because he wrapped that first cutting.
OP
OP
Bigfoot
Well-known member
I had toyed with idea of buying some steers to turn out on my hay ground for about 6 weeks. I think I'll go ahead, and cut before the end of the month, and wait and see where the bottom is at on the cattle market this fall. It might be worth more in a roll, than a steers belly.
