I thought we may be short but the 15ac of crabgrass and 8ac of sundangrass that we just baled yesterday made 85 5x5 bales, the biggest problem I had the last little while is keeping the baler running.
Hay Shortage
- Thread starter Bright Raven
- Start date
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Our part of Arkansas is dry. Hay is making a third of what is normal. Our guy can't supply this year but thankfully we're getting hay albeit at a premium from eastern Arkansas. We're reducing our ladies and weaning sooner. Just part of it but that doesn't mean I like it.
My first was ok, second is so so but with nothing but 100F and 0 rain for as long as I can remember, and Intellicast can predict, no hurricanes erupting from W. Africa, and cracks that swallow the front tires on my ZTs and knock me out of the seat of a tractor, time to whack it.....get it while there is still something to get.
BK9954
Well-known member
Prices have gone up 5o% here so far. My main sellers won't even sell, they are saving what thry have for themselves. My place is in a drought but 1 hour away in Shiner Tx it's as green as can be. I bought a trailer load of 2018 5X6 haygrazer for $60 a roll. Now that's a decent price even with no drought. I started buying last year's hay this spring just in case we were in this situation. I can make it a year an a half. On what I have.
BK9954":3sdsd822 said:
Smart move.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
We finally got some rain last night. About .8" after many weeks without. This land is designed to be watered every 3-5 days. My pond is at least 4-5' low. Been worried about moving cows each time, thinking the rotated out ones were not coming back. Hopefully, with this heat & water, they will really kick in. AND, hopefully, our 2nd cutting will kick in. Has grown - fields are green, but not much there for cutting.
Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
Jeanne- our pond is EMPTY! We are dry, too dry. No one has hay, and unless I truck it from another state, I will not get any. We are praying for some much needed moisture to get some grass, and I am looking at cutting numbers hard and finding hay. The last quote I got was $250 a ton delivered.... I can not feed my beef cows and expect to break even at that. Sad state of affairs out here....
1982vett
Well-known member
You know, I've pretty much stopped the rotational grazing, especially in the summer because the risk of problems with stressed grasses.Jeanne - Simme Valley":i9eiiocc said:
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
Chris - sorry to hear that. We are dry enough to make me a little anxious, but grass keeps growing "enough" - so far.
I just looked at a drought report. Lot of you guys/gals are really getting stressed. Hope things turn around.
I remember when we lived in Kansas, we would hay our mostly Brome grass fields in early July, and they would turn brown and never come back until fall.
I just looked at a drought report. Lot of you guys/gals are really getting stressed. Hope things turn around.
I remember when we lived in Kansas, we would hay our mostly Brome grass fields in early July, and they would turn brown and never come back until fall.
rollinhills":2sp0du2k said:
Question on your Crabgrass. I have some equipment sitting around and earlier in the year I sprayed it with 24d-Glyphosate. It disappeared. Then on comes Crabgrass and some noxious weeds and they are jut going nuts in this hot, dry, weather and clay soil. Foilage is good and thick, thick enough to make hay when nothing else wants to and enough to be worth your time.
Giving me some ideas about maybe I'll add some seed to my bovine hay patch. What likes it?
Thanks,
Mark
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
Caustic Burno":g5eiv8fs said:
Pastures are brown here. Dead. Trees are dying. Cactus is turning yellow. The hay panic has started.
Texasmark":2fj04g4t said:
I've had real good luck with it, this is the third year with on the 18ac I sowed it on, let it go to seed and it will be back next year. My cattle eat the fire out of it, I tested it last year I think it was about 14% protein and the tdn was real good. Mine is Red River.
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
backhoeboogie":3el9dbx5 said:
Pretty poor here is an acre unfertilized.
Wished I had fertilized it now, night time temps wouldn't cooperate and then it turned dry. There is 8 4x5's in the pic there is a one more I couldn't get the angle right on this iPhone pic. No telling how poor the protein.
5S Cattle
Well-known member
Where at in Texas?backhoeboogie":10pc3g8p said:
snoopdog
Well-known member
We got 1.5 inches day before yesterday on the pastures and 1/2in on the hayfield . We'll get a second cutting , probably late, more worried about the pastures and pond. We're pushing our stocking rate right now , trying to hold on . The drought from last year has just never left .
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
5S Cattle":3j5w82tl said:
Hood County. We were in Crowley and Burleson a few weeks back and it was still green there. Meridian just got 4 inches of rain. My daughter's places west of here have had rain. We're simply in the middle of the hole.
slick4591
Well-known member
Spoke with my hay guy just a bit ago and he said the aphids were already starting to hit the Sudan. He's rolled around 700 bales of Sudan and mixed Johnson and is not selling outside of his regulars just yet. He's had my order since April so he should be dropping mine off once he starts moving it all. Seems he doesn't have hope for much of a second cutting at this point.
callmefence
Keyboard cowboy
No chance of second cutting here. Sudan is burning up and full of aphids. Opened the gates and let the cows on it.
Their tickled to have something with some green in it.
I bought 50 5 by 5 of old coastal for 2500.00 and was proud to get it. Can get good hay trucked in for 160 a ton. That's to dam much... I got a line on some Milo hay that's what I'm going to do this year. Fed it during the drought and with a little cottonseed it's just fine.
Maybe we'll have a good year for oats.
If not no biggie. It ain't like we haven't lost money on cattle before.
Their tickled to have something with some green in it.
I bought 50 5 by 5 of old coastal for 2500.00 and was proud to get it. Can get good hay trucked in for 160 a ton. That's to dam much... I got a line on some Milo hay that's what I'm going to do this year. Fed it during the drought and with a little cottonseed it's just fine.
Maybe we'll have a good year for oats.
If not no biggie. It ain't like we haven't lost money on cattle before.
It's been dry here too. No rain in the 10 day and 100*+ temps. I bought 200 rolls of Tifton 85 or jiggs (which ever he cuts first) for $128 a ton delivered today. Paid $100 a ton last year for same stuff and thought that was too high so was going to go another route but nobodys making any hay. If it doesn't rain soon I'll be feeding cornstalks to get by until Thanksgiving.
