bahia grass

[Anonymous]

Does anyone in here feed bahia grass? I have a guy a few blocks away who has quite a few big round bales of coastal burmuda / bahia mix which he is looking to sell pretty cheap. He is asking $20 a bale, as opposed to straight burmuda selling for $35 a bale here in the N Tx area...plus, he would set aside whatever I paid for in advance and bring it to me whenever I needed it, since he is just a few blocks away. It would save me the trouble of having to haul 1 or 2 bales on my trailer and pickup from Dallas, but I have never heard of anyone using bahia grass. Any comments?

 

[Anonymous]

personally, we are not big fans of bahia. we roundup spot spray it in our coastal fields and use ally in the other pastures when we fertilize. depending on what type of grass you already have, you may want to be careful feeding bahia hay. bahia will take over bermuda quickly. i've heard it referred to as the "poor man's coastal" because it grows almost anywhere and doesn't require lots of care (fertilizer). the cows do like bahia grass and will eat it (sometimes before the coastal) but there's not much to it, stem & seeds. it also tends to have lower percentages of protein than coastal.

of course, that's just an opinion, other folks will probably disagree and swear by it.

 

[Anonymous]

Bahia is our main stay down here in Fla. It is not a quality grass, but it is almost impossible to kill- very persistant. That being said it is very cost effective if it will maintain BCS on cattle. I'm not sure if they will eat it baled unless they are starving. Maybe you could try a bale before you make a deal. I'm buying Hermathria for 25$ bale when needed through the winters. Not sure if you have that there. They eat it like candy and it has more TDN than bahia. Coastal out of GA runs us $35 bale, but they don't like it as well as the Hermathria.

> Does anyone in here feed bahia
> grass? I have a guy a few blocks
> away who has quite a few big round
> bales of coastal burmuda / bahia
> mix which he is looking to sell
> pretty cheap. He is asking $20 a
> bale, as opposed to straight
> burmuda selling for $35 a bale
> here in the N Tx area...plus, he
> would set aside whatever I paid
> for in advance and bring it to me
> whenever I needed it, since he is
> just a few blocks away. It would
> save me the trouble of having to
> haul 1 or 2 bales on my trailer
> and pickup from Dallas, but I have
> never heard of anyone using bahia
> grass. Any comments?

 

[Anonymous]

> I am getting my first cows this weekend, so I need to get some hay for them for the winter. My pastures are sprigged with coastal burmuda but it is all dormant right now....I was just considering the coastal/bahia mix because a neighbor has it and it would be very convient, but it really isn't that big of a deal to haul a couple rolls of coastal burmuda up from Dallas, especially since I only plan on needing 6-8 rolls for the 3 cow/calf pairs I am buying, hopefully that will get me through until March/April when the grass strarts grening up again. Sounds like it wouldnt be worth chancing since I would only be saving less than $100 if I need 8 rolls. Thanks for the comments.

 

[Anonymous]

> Does anyone in here feed bahia
> grass? I have a guy a few blocks
> away who has quite a few big round
> bales of coastal burmuda / bahia
> mix which he is looking to sell
> pretty cheap. He is asking $20 a
> bale, as opposed to straight
> burmuda selling for $35 a bale
> here in the N Tx area...plus, he
> would set aside whatever I paid
> for in advance and bring it to me
> whenever I needed it, since he is
> just a few blocks away. It would
> save me the trouble of having to
> haul 1 or 2 bales on my trailer
> and pickup from Dallas, but I have
> never heard of anyone using bahia
> grass. Any comments?

If I were in your shoes, generally speaking I would have no problem with the deal he is proposing, in fact I'd jump on it. I have fed Bahia (Argentine, not Pensacola or Tifton)) in the past and my cows ate it and came through the winter just fine, but I also supplemented with some cotton seed. Cut when its is "too old" it can be pretty tough, but they'll eat it when they are hungry enough. In my experience the cows prefer Johnson grass or Haygrazer (cut at the right time), bermuda and Bahia hay, in that order.

If you have a bunch of Coastal, Jiggs or Tifton 85 type bermuda on your place there is of course the chance that Bahia will infest it, and that can be a problem. But if the guy's hay field is also real close to you, and he doesn't use Ally to kill out his Bahia, you are going to get it in your pastures sooner or later anyway! Also, if the bermuda/bahia mix hay was cut early in the season I don't really think you have to worry too much about that particular hay as a source of infesting your pasture with Bahia, since it is propagated by seed and it is a late fall seeder.

Perhaps you should try a few bales and see how your cows like it, and also spend $10 or $15 to have the hay analyzed for protein, TDN, etc. --- but at $20 delivered for large round bales you can't hardly go wrong. (I assume it is this year's hay and it wans't rained on a lot after cutting, good tight large round bales, etc.)

Then again, $35 delivered for large round bales of pure Bermuda is a reasonable price also.

But if you have never dealt with this guy before, and you didn't inspect the hay as it was being cut and later baled you may want to try a few bales of each before committing to a larger quantity --- and make sure he isn't selling you something that was cut way too late and is all stems and super low in protein.

Sorry to be so long winded!

 

[Anonymous]

Well, now I see what you wrote and posted one minute before my long winded post, and in view of what you just posted you should just probably ignore my comments. Good luck with your new cows.

 

[Anonymous]

Arnold, yes it is this yrs first cutting, cut in late May, we had a lot of rain this summer, but the bales are wrapped in plastic. Since I plan on baling my pastures this yr, my thought is that I might as well just buy the coastal and get the cows used to feeding on coastal from now on, since I had my pastures sprigged last Spring. As stated earlier, I would only be saving less than $100 total.

 

[Roy E. Mosley Jr.]

Well I don't know about feeding it for hay. But I do graze my cattle on a mixture of bahia & sweet clover. They seem to likeit almost as much as the sweet clover.