Cutting hay

[WarEagle73]

Thinking about cutting our fescue in the morning. Our hay is always too mature and TDN was in the tank on last years fescue. The grass is at the right stage of maturity but I am just not sure about the weather.

We are forecasted 7 days of dry weather. Didn't rain today. Highs in the 75-82 range. What you would do? Cut it or let it ride hoping for another dry week in the near future?

 

[A.J.]

If it's at the right stage of maturity, I would lay it down and hope for no pop up showers. Sounds like temps in your area are getting warm enough to cure it out in 3 or 4 days.

 

[bball]

For what its worth, old timers say to cut hay between full moon and new moon, it dries faster. Of course, if its calling for rain by the 4th, that doesn't much matter...

 

[Tim/South]

There will be a lot of hay put on the ground around here the next couple of days. Everyone is unhooking from the sprayers and greasing the disc mowers and tedders. It may be another month before we get another weather window for hay.
We are cutting 20 acres of rye grass Friday. It is thick, 5 roll per acre hay.

 

[Rafter S]

I don't know anything about fescue, but if it's at the right stage of maturity and the weather prediction is favorable, why would you wait?

 

[highgrit]

I'm knocking some hay down tomorrow if the weather report stays the same. Can't beat cutting hay on time.

 

[TN Cattle Man]

The only concern that I would have with cutting Fescue is your nighttime low temps... Fescue can takes longer to cure (at least here in Middle TN) until our lows are in the 60's.

:2cents:

 

[AllForage]

Thinking about cutting our fescue in the morning. Our hay is always too mature and TDN was in the tank on last years fescue. The grass is at the right stage of maturity but I am just not sure about the weather.

We are forecasted 7 days of dry weather. Didn't rain today. Highs in the 75-82 range. What you would do? Cut it or let it ride hoping for another dry week in the near future?

If you have conditioners on your machine I would think that is plenty of time for straight grass

 

[Jogeephus]

Go on and cut it. Then if yours gets rained on mine will too and we can both rant together! :lol2:

 

[Texas Gal]

There will be a lot of hay put on the ground around here the next couple of days. Everyone is unhooking from the sprayers and greasing the disc mowers and tedders. It may be another month before we get another weather window for hay.
We are cutting 20 acres of rye grass Friday. It is thick, 5 roll per acre hay.

We've got 20 acres of rye grass waiting to be cut.....however, grounds too wet still to get the tractor in there. At least it's better than the last couple of years when it was so stinking dry there wasn't ANYTHING to cut.

 

[WarEagle73]

It's on the ground. Hopefully it will dry enough to roll before the rain comes back.

 

[J&D Cattle]

That grass looks good. I talked to my baler yesterday and he said they were going to bale silage in a couple of weeks. Probably be a month before my hay is ready.

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Hay looks good WarEagle! Looks like I will be starting to cut some next week... The temps and forecast all look favorable.

 

[WarEagle73]

Ran a tedder through it Saturday. Worked on the Baler and got it ready yesterday. Looks like we might be able to start baling tomorrow, but the weather is supposed to be dry all week so no rush. I think we must have been the first people in our county to put hay on the ground this year, but a lot of folks were right behind us this weekend.

 

[machslammer]

Looks good. We drilled some wheat in our fescue and rolled it yesterday. Best we ever did on that field. 18 acre made 95 rolls