muhlenberg man
Member
Anybody going to put hay down this week? I am tempted with 4 days of no rain forecasted.
kentucky weather
- Thread starter muhlenberg man
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littletom
Well-known member
I bet I saw 7-8 people cutting hay this afternoon here in central ky. We got ours up a couple weeks ago in that dry period.
inyati13
Well-known member
I have 16 acres of fescue, orchard grass, blue grass and red clover hay. It is mature. I mowed for 2 hours Sunday evening. Started again yesterday morning and mowed until noon. It rained .34 inches on it during the day. I am going to tedder it today about noon. The conditions are negative – cold and damp. It is impossible to make a good decision. Hay in this area is excellent but starting to move beyond the prime cutting maturity. It is starting to get funky at the bottom and the winds and weight of rain is starting to put some down. My hay has more red clover than I thought. The mowed rows are heavy and even in good hay weather it would be difficult to cure. This might sound radical but the thought of bush-hogging it has crossed my mind. I just don't know how this is going to end.
highgrit
Well-known member
Inyati, y'all need a mower conditioner. Some of the older sickle bar conditioners sell cheap.
Yesterday monring they called for sunny and wartm with no rain till saturday. Stayed heavily cloudy all day yesterday but I cut hay in the afternoon. Supposed to be sunny and warm today, but so far it's heavy clouds. Oh yeah, and now they've shifted the rain till thursday.
inyati13
Well-known member
Hay: What is it? It is plants that suck the water and nutrients from our land. I see people let others mow their fields and haul off the hay in exchange for having it mowed. Poor policy! Hauling out that hay is hauling off the most highly valued property a farm is noted for – the essential elements. It is not only N-P-K, it is that and the microelements that are essential to sustain biological units.
Now the concept I am building to: To produce good hay requires input. Fertilizer, lime and the other microelements that are rarely replaced by supplementation. They are the result of hundreds of millions of years of weathering of the parent bedrock laid down in primordial oceans that have been gone for millions of years. Therefore, that hay that we work so hard to harvest is a product of geologic processes from before life. And that friends is how I think of hay. It is the most "sacred" component of raising cattle. I sometimes think about abandoning my hayfields and totally buying hay. Better to bring in someone else's land than to haul off mine.
Now the concept I am building to: To produce good hay requires input. Fertilizer, lime and the other microelements that are rarely replaced by supplementation. They are the result of hundreds of millions of years of weathering of the parent bedrock laid down in primordial oceans that have been gone for millions of years. Therefore, that hay that we work so hard to harvest is a product of geologic processes from before life. And that friends is how I think of hay. It is the most "sacred" component of raising cattle. I sometimes think about abandoning my hayfields and totally buying hay. Better to bring in someone else's land than to haul off mine.
muhlenberg man":2s410nim said:
I had planned to mow this week, but they certainly aren't forecasting 4 days of no rain here in south central Kentucky; rain is in the forecast every day this week. It's a low percentage chance, like 20 or 30 percent each day, but so far, we seem to get it, so I'm holding off.
littletom
Well-known member
Hay here is going the other way big time. If some is not mowed soon. It will be beats a snow ball feed.
inyati13
Well-known member
I tedded my hay yesterday. After three days, there is almost no curing. It rained .34 inches on it Monday and yesterday was cold and damp. I tedded about 1:00 pm. The hay is in good condition but with the volume, it is going to require some sun. Lots of hay being cut despite the poor curing conditions and forecasted rain predictions. As was noted above, the hay is going south. It is past mature and the cool dampness is accelerating the natural cellular deterioration process.
Interesting conundrum, is that precipitation for May was below average. Nevertheless, ground has not dried and pastures are excellent. Pasture needs to be clipped.
Interesting conundrum, is that precipitation for May was below average. Nevertheless, ground has not dried and pastures are excellent. Pasture needs to be clipped.
I cut about 20A on Sunday. It got wet on Monday. Tedded it early this AM. Very little curing and the sun just won't break through..hoping to bale on Fri but I just don't know if out will work. Considered wrapping it and making haylidge but I really don't want to go through the trouble..
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
Don't know bout Ky started at 5:30 this morning walked in 10 minutes ago dripping wet.
Wasn't from rain either.
Wasn't from rain either.
Son of Butch
Well-known member
inyati13":3f4mn40i said:
I will give you credit for "long range" thinking. But that's not how top soil is made.
Weathering erodes top soil. "Green Manure" plowing the crop under, to speed plant material decay, builds top soil.
