Hay yeilds

[Stocker Steve]

A cool and dry spring here delayed growth. Upland reed canary alfalfa mix is this years star producer. The dryness did not effect it much. It went from knee high to hip high in a week so I turned the cattle in before it headed out. We are now getting rain every couple days and I can not cut anything.

Not sure about 2008 grass hay prices. The university forecasted $60 a ton in northern MN and $100 a ton in southern MN.

 

[flaboy]

I should be cutting this week BUT it takes water to grow grass and we don't have any. Its looking grim. :help:

Yep, same here. I could cut my fields with a big lawn mower. I am going to look at a field this weekend that hasn't been cut in years. I might be able to cut and clean all the previous years dead mess out of it and (if god willing) get a second cut if we ever do get any rain. The first cut will not be good but it will be a filler.

 

[dun]

I should be cutting this week BUT it takes water to grow grass and we don't have any. Its looking grim. :help:

Yep, same here. I could cut my fields with a big lawn mower. I am going to look at a field this weekend that hasn't been cut in years. I might be able to cut and clean all the previous years dead mess out of it and (if god willing) get a second cut if we ever do get any rain. The first cut will not be good but it will be a filler.

Last year was a poor hay year, but the year before was a joke. One 15 acre field after cutting it I raked the whole thing into one windrow and it was still so thin that baler couldn;t hardly pick it up. Ended up just running the tedder over it and letting it lay

 

[mnmtranching]

I put in 20 acres of oats cover crop for red clover, orchard grass and northern perennial ryegrass. Planted and fertilized in dry cold ground. Thought it was the same as throwing money into the wind. :cry2:
Now, wish I would have done more acres. I believe this has the potential to be a 5 ton per acre crop. :clap:

 

[Stocker Steve]

I put in 20 acres of oats cover crop for red clover, orchard grass and northern perennial ryegrass.

What is "northern" perennial ryegrass and do you really think it will overwinter in MN?

 

[SRBeef]

So far no one in my county has cut any hay yet. It is slow developing (wet and cool) but it is ready now and we can't get a 3 day break without rain. Usually everyone is done with first cutting by end of May. It is ready now but it just keeps raining.

Hay yield so far in W WI is about zero. Hay is ready to cut but can't get a dry enough 3 days to finish corn planting let alone bale hay. I saw some on the ground Monday that had probably had 6" of rain on it since it was cut.

Hay is going to be in very short supply in the upper midwest this year. I have about 5 acres of pasture that is now a lake, complete with ducks stopping by.

Really not a laughing matter - there are many folks in a real bind right now. This was some good pasture but now just brown water - neighbors expensive fertilizer and soil.

The yearling had to go play in the mud - rest are trying ot figure out where this stuff came from.

By the way, my electric divider fence was under water in a couple places. Dun's suggested lightning chokes worked well - got a workout this weekend.

However for the mob grazing/don't need barb wire folks - this was not a weekend to rely on electric fencing. It doesn't like being underwater. I ended up just unplugging it and let them roam until the waters drop. The 5 wire barb perimeter fence was still working through the storm.

 

[mnmtranching]

I put in 20 acres of oats cover crop for red clover, orchard grass and northern perennial ryegrass.

What is "northern" perennial ryegrass and do you really think it will overwinter in MN?

I have planted this stuff before. Conditions need to be right. After the oats is cut off for hay this stuff really takes off. A good moist late Summer and early Fall will make some good late pasture or even a hay crop. Will grow much faster the first year then Orchard grass. Needs a snow cover for Winter but, so does Orchard Grass. Not an expensive seed and worth a shot I think. If it gets dry? nothing works anyway.

 

[BARNSCOOP]

I will know tomorrow how many tons I have gotten per acre. I am have an Ag. Extension guy come over with scales and weigh my round rolls. I will post the results tomorrow. Have you thought about doing some soil samples to see if your soil needs something? I would also have my hay tested to find out the protein and nitrate content. We have gotten rain here this year unlike last year so there is more hay but the price is still high because the price of fertilizer and diesel fuel are out the roof!
My friend sold 150 squares of plain fescue hay today for $7.00 per bale.

 

[BARNSCOOP]

I have gotten my results. We have 15 acres of hay pasture that we soil sampled and fertilized along with ammonim nitrate added in the spring. We had a horrible drought here last year so our fields are recovering from that. We have gotten 1.5 tons per acre this year verus .75 per acre last year. I might add we fertilized , lymed , and added ammonim nitrate last year as well.

 

[El_Putzo]

Of the 3 fields we cut, 2 were fertilized. One that wasn;t and one that was did about what they allwasy do. One field, 13 acres, usaully runs around 28-29 bales. This year 48. I recounted that one a bunch of times and still wasn;t sure till we got it in the barn.

I'm not far from Dun, geographically speaking that is, and we are experiencing the same thing. Last year our fescue was running around 4 bales (4x5) to the acre. This year those same fields with less fertilizer have produced 7 bales to the acre. We haven't weighed any bales this year yet, but in the past our grass bales out of the same baler have averaged about 800 lbs.

We also just got finished with our second cutting of ryegrass. Wet wrapped both cuttings for a total of 68 bales off of 9 acres. This is our first year with ryegrass, but the seed salesman tells us we should get another cutting this fall if we get any rain at all.

I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging, I'm really just thankfull as our barns were completely empty. We like to keep several months worth of hay as carryover in case times get hard, but after the last 2 summers of drought, that stockpile is long gone.

 

[Jogeephus]

Still haven't cut any hay yet. I think I finally figured out that it doesn't matter how good your fertility is you can't grow hay without one precious ingredient - water. It just keeps missing us. (Anybody got the name of a rainmaker? Heck, a snake oil salesman would problem work too)

 

[john250]

Still haven't cut any hay yet. I think I finally figured out that it doesn't matter how good your fertility is you can't grow hay without one precious ingredient - water. It just keeps missing us. (Anybody got the name of a rainmaker? Heck, a snake oil salesman would problem work too)

What do they say? The success of a rain dance is most dependent on timing. Something like that.
I assume you have tried washing the truck, hanging laundry outside, the usual methods.
We went through this last year. It's he77.

 

[bandit80]

Fertilized our hay fields the same as normal, and this looks to be a very good year yield wise. What brome we have baled has been very good. One patch yielded 21 bales, last year 14. One yielded 28, last year 22. Another yielded 35, last year 22. These are 5 1/2 x 5 bales. Some we have done for others has yielded very good as well. Now if it will just stop raining for 10 days so we can get the rest done. Some folks are starving for rain, and we can't go more than 3 days without. Still got about 600 to do for ourselves and others.

 

[1982vett]

Fertilized our hay fields the same as normal, and this looks to be a very good year yield wise. What brome we have baled has been very good. One patch yielded 21 bales, last year 14. One yielded 28, last year 22. Another yielded 35, last year 22. These are 5 1/2 x 5 bales. Some we have done for others has yielded very good as well. Now if it will just stop raining for 10 days so we can get the rest done. Some folks are starving for rain, and we can't go more than 3 days without. Still got about 600 to do for ourselves and others.

Sounds like the pattern we were in last year from March to July, then they turned the water off till October.