How’s your grass?

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alacowman1 said:
View attachment 30547
Got a lot to get to if theses rains let up, have a couple felids on the ground now..so tall and heavy it's laying over
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I had the same situation...2 pastures of thick rye grass that I would have liked to have had baled...too wet. I just let the cows eat one pasture and mowed the other. Temps are cooler than usual so the bermuda grass is a little slow...but growing. They say this summer will be a bit cooler here but the northeast will be warmer (transition year between El Nino and La Nina is how it was explained to me - but I'm no meteorologist). Chance of a little more rain today. Still working on the trees that went down in the recent storms...all on fences, of course - that will be ongoing for awhile. The storms laid most of rye grass down. Hoping to spray week after next and get chicken litter applied to hay pastures when the guy can get it done. Then, some rain will be a welcome thing. Just another springtime in deep east Texas.
 
Baled the Hay today. I guessed maybe a 25% less yield than average. It ended up being 45% less yield than average this year. Same field, same fertilizer, same time of year within a week give or take. Soil test looks good, ph 6.8.

We have been dry, but not dry enough for -45% hay yield. Maybe it's the filtered sunshine? Sunny days are not really sunny. You can see clouds, but the sky is white between them not blue. The sun is "filtered" for the lack of a better word. They claim it's the wildfires in Canada causing it. I am at a loss and don't see anything significantly different than previous years.
 
Walker's Ridge said:
Baled the Hay today. I guessed maybe a 25% less yield than average. It ended up being 45% less yield than average this year. Same field, same fertilizer, same time of year within a week give or take. Soil test looks good, ph 6.8.

We have been dry, but not dry enough for -45% hay yield. Maybe it's the filtered sunshine? Sunny days are not really sunny. You can see clouds, but the sky is white between them not blue. The sun is "filtered" for the lack of a better word. They claim it's the wildfires in Canada causing it. I am at a loss and don't see anything significantly different than previous years.
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How do you store your hay? With the reduced yield plus the cost if you store outside hay would become very expensive
 
crossbreed said:
How do you store your hay? With the reduced yield plus the cost if you store outside hay would become very expensive
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I store the dry hay inside the barn. I also wrap baleage when the barn is full.

Thankfully I made enough hay to feed the animals for a winter. With more cuttings of alfalfa and hopefully a second grass cutting, I should have some to sell also.
 
We went from near record snowfall to no rain in 2 weeks here. Grass is green but not growing. Our clay is bone dry and dusty. Hopefully we get some this week or things will be bleak here.
 
Walker's Ridge said:
I store the dry hay inside the barn. I also wrap baleage when the barn is full.

Thankfully I made enough hay to feed the animals for a winter. With more cuttings of alfalfa and hopefully a second grass cutting, I should have some to sell also.
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By wrap I assume plastic wrap? We use the net wrap but obviously we lose a percentage to Mother Nature. Was thinking about stacking and tarping
 
Hogfarmer10 said:
I'm in northeast TN. I've noticed that it just seems like the grass in pastures and hayfields just hasn't started growing around here. Even what was fertilized. It's got a real nice "black green" color, just not growing. My ryegrass is looking great but the perennial grasses are just sitting there. It's like that all around here. We've had plenty of rain and, other than the Christmas week freeze, no hard cold temperatures. Just wondering what everybody else's grass is doing.
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My grass is green and slow growing. My cow are walking and packing pastures. We have had the rain but the cool days and some 58 degree nights haven't helped it grow much. I am over stocked and having to sub feed cotton seed and 15% cattle feed 2-3 times a week. I have fed my last hay about 3 weeks ago. Hay now $70 a bale and most here have gone to the smaller 4 x 5 ft. bales instead of the 5 x 6 ft bales. I don't have enough land to plant hay so it's tough when the grass is not growing. I only have 11 cows, a bull and 8 calves on the ground with 3 more coming soon. All this on 18-20 acres with about 3 of that in woods. I don't want to sell off cow and calf pairs but I may have no choice. I just doing the best I can to survive without hurting my cows more than I have to. I know there's no need crying on y'all shoulder but it is stressing situation.
 
crossbreed said:
By wrap I assume plastic wrap? We use the net wrap but obviously we lose a percentage to Mother Nature. Was thinking about stacking and tarping
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Yes, moist hay wrapped in plastic. It ferments and makes good feed for the cattle.

I've stored bales outside and it does ok. If you can put them on a stone pad instead of dirt the bottoms keep better. Still lose the outside of the bale which does add up. That's why I started wrapping the bales that don't fit inside. My neighbor stacks his bales and tarps them. I haven't seen them up close to see how well they keep.
 
tcolvin said:
My grass is green and slow growing. My cow are walking and packing pastures. We have had the rain but the cool days and some 58 degree nights haven't helped it grow much. I am over stocked and having to sub feed cotton seed and 15% cattle feed 2-3 times a week. I have fed my last hay about 3 weeks ago. Hay now $70 a bale and most here have gone to the smaller 4 x 5 ft. bales instead of the 5 x 6 ft bales. I don't have enough land to plant hay so it's tough when the grass is not growing. I only have 11 cows, a bull and 8 calves on the ground with 3 more coming soon. All this on 18-20 acres with about 3 of that in woods. I don't want to sell off cow and calf pairs but I may have no choice. I just doing the best I can to survive without hurting my cows more than I have to. I know there's no need crying on y'all shoulder but it is stressing situation.
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In a similar boat with ya buddy. 56 head on 60 acres here with poor growing conditions really do make for some stress/worry. I've been short changing mine a little bit. Hopefully no lasting effects.

I started grazing again this week after feeding hay for almost 3 weeks. Grass just wasn't doing much after I hit it hard twice in April. Luckily got the hay for $35 a roll.

We finally got a rain yesterday of about 1.75 inches. A slow soaking type. Hoping things will kick back on.

Some fields around here are down to nothing. Looks like many hayfields netting a single bale per acre.
 
Everyone is rolling up hay here this past week under perfect weather and grass conditions. We've been a little cool to slightly warm on temps but low humidity and no rain for maybe 10 days now, which is not common for May. Fescue is prime right now, quality will be the best in years. I baled my square bale patch, just a couple acres, made 145 nice tight bales, around 60# bales. Even my brother, who always waits until June to bale is rolling his up today. His theory is that he's never lost a hay crop to rain in June, even though the quality is less, it's better than rotting in the field. he's a horse man, quality isn't as important to him, they're fed grain everyday anyway. We'll see how many he ends up with vs. last year.
 
It appears most guys are getting 50% hay crop compared to most years here in Missouri. Rode around the pastures yesterday and without rain expect to be out of grass by mid-August. Selling 25% of bred cows this week so I have enough grass to get us into fall regrowth and hoping the rain comes this fall. Sourced enough hay at a fair price to get me through until next spring if we remain in a drought the rest of summer and fall.
 
some alfalfa being baled in the area, but last rain was May 7th at my place so grass hay field is slow to grow. what rain we det seems to go around me. forecast for chance of thunderstorms here over the next few days so just maybe we will see some rain. I have enough hay carry over from winter and hopefully get a decent first cut of grass hay. everything is still green so its not totally dry.
 
50/50Farms said:
I'm going to try to ride out to our pastures on Saturday or Sunday, I'm hoping it's balanced out some. I need to find something in the world that eats yellowstem broomsedge after maturity, other than a bush hog of course.
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I've got an alternative for the yellowstem broomsedge for you other than the bush hog.......A prescribed burn/fire! I know that isn't what you were aiming for. I don't know of anything that eats it. However, do a soil test and check your pH, P & K. The broomsedge thrives in P deficient (or unavailable) soils. Low pH makes P unavailable. broomsedge isn't a competitive plant and WILL be out-competeted where the nutrients are available. Broomsedge just does well when P isn't available because it doesn't need near as much of it where your preferred grasses do. If you increase the P availability, your broomsedge levels will drop.
 

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