Hay experiment done at Outofmy League U.

[Jogeephus]

I was talking to one of my friends who grows produce and he mentioned spraying liquid iron prior to harvest cause it enhances the color of his green produce.

Did a little reading and it seems iron will enhance chlorophyll and carbohydrate production in plants. Since liquid iron is cheap, less than $20 for 2.5 gallons, I thought I would try a little experiment on my favorite hay field. Sprayed 2pt/ac on it two weeks before cutting to insure the tractor tracks wouldn't be left in the field. Field appeared to darken. Cut the hay and it had the best color of any that year.

Friend who is in the horse hay business commented on the hay and I told him what I did. He then tried it on one of his fields and his results were the same and he asked me not to mention it to his competitiors.

If this does enhance the production of the chlorophyll and the carbohydrates, do you think the food value is increased as well? Seems to me it would, but I don't know. If it merely enhances color then it is of no use to my operation but I thought it might be a useful tool for those who sell square bales in a finicky market.

 

[KNERSIE]

No idea about colour enhancers in green produce, but potassium enhances the colour in fruit as well as increase the brix% (sugar in laymens terms) when sprayed in two applications atrting at about three weeks prior to harvest

 

[western]

No idea about colour enhancers in green produce, but potassium enhances the colour in fruit as well as increase the brix% (sugar in laymens terms) when sprayed in two applications atrting at about three weeks prior to harvest

Iron really makes turf grass dark green. not sure about feed value

 

[plbcattle]

you sprayed 2 pnts/acre. what amount of water did you mix it with.

 

[Jogeephus]

you sprayed 2 pnts/acre. what amount of water did you mix it with.

Sprayed 20 gal/ac of solution.

Knersie, I don't know if this makes any difference but my thinking is if it enhances photosynthesis, and it must based on the color change, it seems reasonable the sugars and other goody production should increase as well. Whether this is correct or if this makes a profitable enhancement of the hay poses an interesting question. As for the appearance value for someone selling hay, seems like it could make a difference.

 

[dun]

Wouldn;t green paint be cheaper?

 

[Jogeephus]

Wouldn;t green paint be cheaper?

A few years ago a guy north of me was caught spraying green dye on square bales as he rebaled them from large rounds.

Cost of iron it is actually cheap ($2/ac). Is it worth it? I don't know. Just trying to see if anyone else has used it or knows anything about it. Still trying to learn.

 

[Cabo]

Joe, did you or your friend have any tests done on any of this hay? This may be the biggest thing in hay since disc mowers! Even if the color is the only change, it would be worth it for horse owner appeal.

 

[Tod Dague]

My thought is if it is to improve photosynthesis wouldn't it be better to apply right after each cutting to get full use of it.

 

[MikeC]

When I had my irrigation well water tested, it came back as "Very Suitable for Crop/Pasture Irrigation" because of the low salt content and high iron content.

Didn't think much of it at the time............

 

[Jogeephus]

Cabo, I don't think he did and I know I didn't. Doesn't really matter to me cause I knew it was "feed quality hay". Probably the only fair way to check this would be to spray half the field and leave the other as a control. But this is more trouble than I'm willing to go to right now and was hoping to find some info on this. Have found a little info in books but nothing directly aimed to hay production.

Tod, it seems the "boost" from iron application is somewhat short lived. I sprayed some strips on bahia grass and after a month I couldn't see any difference. So what I did was fertilize the field heavily and once the color peaked from the initial fertilizer application I sprayed the iron. This deepened the color and looked like I had given it another shot of N.

I have also heard in centipede grass people say not to give it N due to mole crickets. Been told to spray iron and it will green it up without mole cricket problem.

MikeC, I think there is something to this but I really don't know if its a local thing or not. Our soils are sandy loams and we may be more deficient in iron so it may have a more pronounced results in my area.

But again, I honestly don't know but I think it is interesting and might have some benefit to someone selling squares or entering a hay contest.

 

[dcara]

I'd say have it tested to determine the CP and TDN.

Careful using that stuff though. About 15 years ago one of my neighbors sprayed iron on his front yard and it made it a beautiful dark green. I tried it but must have used to much, or maybe didn't water it enough since I was traveling more then, because my yard turned from light green to brown in about 2 weeks and then just died. It took me 2 years to get a decent yard back.

 

[Jogeephus]

dcara you are right. The label does warn not to put more than ? per acre otherwise it will burn the grass. My equipment is always calibrated so I don't have a problem with overspray but the rate I used was well beneath the danger threshold so even if I overlapped some it would not matter.