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drought and summer mowing..
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<blockquote data-quote="SPH" data-source="post: 1704668" data-attributes="member: 20580"><p>We rotate pastures throughout the summer and fall and are finding that after we move them off the first pasture they go out on if we mow down stuff they didn't eat such as weeds and less desirable grass varieties the pasture comes back really nice that they have some good eating for the fall after it rested over the summer. We have 1 pasture with some decent clover that we usually would bale about half it with our 1st cutting hay then would graze it late summer or early fall and the clover would really come back nice without having all the other overgrown grasses and weeds for it to fight with. However, that backfired on us last year with the drought we are pretty much still in as after we baled it we got very little rain and it hardly grew back so this year we didn't mow any of that pasture to make sure we didn't run out of grass too soon like we did last year and had to start feeding hay sooner than we would like to. It's really kind of a crapshoot in a drought because timing of when you mow and when you get rain is everything. </p><p></p><p>Somewhat on topic here in regarding drought... Several years ago we needed to kill off the alfalfa stand in our main hay field that needed to be re-seeded so we got 1 cutting off it then no-tilled soybeans in June and sprayed the field with Round Up to kill everything else off. Well we didn't see any rain for a long time after we planted the beans and what did come up was so poor from the lack of rain that it would have cost more to run a combine through the field than beans it would have harvested so we just mowed them down and let the cows graze what was left in the fall. Needed to do the same this year too so instead of beans we sprayed the field after 1st cutting and drilled Japanese millet this time so we had something we could still bale for forage. Luckily got a timely rain right after it was put in the ground and a few others rains along the way so got a decent stand. It didn't make as much hay as we hoped for but we're still in a moderate drought zone but did get much better results than the last try with the beans. We don't crop farm so taking our main hay field out of production for a full year to do corn like many around here would probably do isn't a very feasible option for us. Have done sorghum sudan before but that takes a long time to dry and the bales don't hold up too well over the winter.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SPH, post: 1704668, member: 20580"] We rotate pastures throughout the summer and fall and are finding that after we move them off the first pasture they go out on if we mow down stuff they didn't eat such as weeds and less desirable grass varieties the pasture comes back really nice that they have some good eating for the fall after it rested over the summer. We have 1 pasture with some decent clover that we usually would bale about half it with our 1st cutting hay then would graze it late summer or early fall and the clover would really come back nice without having all the other overgrown grasses and weeds for it to fight with. However, that backfired on us last year with the drought we are pretty much still in as after we baled it we got very little rain and it hardly grew back so this year we didn't mow any of that pasture to make sure we didn't run out of grass too soon like we did last year and had to start feeding hay sooner than we would like to. It's really kind of a crapshoot in a drought because timing of when you mow and when you get rain is everything. Somewhat on topic here in regarding drought... Several years ago we needed to kill off the alfalfa stand in our main hay field that needed to be re-seeded so we got 1 cutting off it then no-tilled soybeans in June and sprayed the field with Round Up to kill everything else off. Well we didn't see any rain for a long time after we planted the beans and what did come up was so poor from the lack of rain that it would have cost more to run a combine through the field than beans it would have harvested so we just mowed them down and let the cows graze what was left in the fall. Needed to do the same this year too so instead of beans we sprayed the field after 1st cutting and drilled Japanese millet this time so we had something we could still bale for forage. Luckily got a timely rain right after it was put in the ground and a few others rains along the way so got a decent stand. It didn't make as much hay as we hoped for but we're still in a moderate drought zone but did get much better results than the last try with the beans. We don't crop farm so taking our main hay field out of production for a full year to do corn like many around here would probably do isn't a very feasible option for us. Have done sorghum sudan before but that takes a long time to dry and the bales don't hold up too well over the winter. [/QUOTE]
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