Last Baling of Orchard grass

[Chuckie]

What makes Orchard grass smell so sweet this time of the year when it is cut for hay? This is the latest we have ever cut it, and it doesn't smell sweet in the summer. I wonder if the sugar content is higher in the fall? It looks good, just slow to cure this time of the year.

Has anyone ever cut it this late? If it tastes the way it smells, the cows will tear it up.

Chuckie

 

[cfpinz]

I'm assuming you've had a frost already. The old timers around here say that once a frost comes thru it turns the OG and fescue sweet, does something to the sugar content. I'm too ignorant to figure out why but it does smell good.

I baled 22 acres of redtop and fescue Saturday. Got a whopping 9 rolls. What a great year. You can't imagine how much money I've saved in twine and diesel moving hay.

cfpinz

 

[Chuckie]

Cfpinz,
I kept reading, trying to find some info, and you are right. This is what I found from a study done in the 50"s.

http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/44/3/511.pdf

High tempatures tend to decrease the monosaccharides of plants, while low tempatures tend to increase them.
The higer sugar content makes for a higher quality grass silage.
Such a situation, on cooler days, may also account for a good harvest of a sileage crop, on the same farm, then at warmer more humid days, the same crop produced a failed harvest.

Chuckie

 

[flaboy]

I don't have Orchard grass but I am just starting to cut my first cut today!