Haying Frequently

MudHog · Jan 31, 2014

After testing my hay this year and talking to folks, the one thing that stood out amongst everyone was that Bahiagrass is best baled every 30 days. This would mean baling once a month, but baling less per cycle. I could hit the field with nitrogen to get a good green up and then cut. I sort of like the idea of once a month as it would be easier to manage, even if I do everything myself. Generally, we baled twice a year and it was a matter of when enough help was available to pick up for when we actually baled. All my life my grandfather has baled once a year, but he managed the fields more with lime and fertilizer. Never did soil tests, just did what he always did.

I've never seen fields baled once a month, so would that be to extreme? Should I try once every two months? When would be best to start, say around May?

Edit: A total of 4 acres is to be cut and baled. This past year I got about 350-400 bales on this area, but was alot of trash and cut only once. I'm hoping frequent cuttings will reduce the trash and increase the quality of the hay.

bigbull338 · Jan 31, 2014

if you put fert out every cutting you could get 4 cuttings a year.an thats cutting every 28 to 30 days.an if you have rainfall at the right times an no droughts.we can get 3 cuttings on or meadows easy without fert if the rain is right without pushing them hard.

Hook · Jan 31, 2014

Once it starts setting seed heads the quality drops.

pricefarm · Jan 31, 2014

Don't know much about the kind of grass your talking about but I have a alfalfa field that I cut every 4 weeks unless it gets really dry. I usually only put fertilizer on it one time in the spring. I know if I fertilized after each cutting or maybe ever other I would get more hay off it but it's a pain in the butt to get that stuff dried down enough to roll so I don't want it any thicker than it is or it would never dry out. Would be nice to roll it for balage but I don't have a wrapper

MudHog · Jan 31, 2014

So 3-4 cutting per year would be May, June, July, September? August is our hottest is generally drought prone month. Would I be best trying April, May, June, July? Fields I've seen here cut hay on would get cut in June.