Orchard Grass Year

[inyati13]

Last year was a clover year in KY. This year is an orchard grass year. Everywhere you look, pastures, roadsides, vacant lots, idle land, and of course hay fields, the dominant plant is orchard grass. Everyone is calling it an orchard grass year. I mowed hay all day yesterday. I should have taken some pictures. I have never seen orchard grass this tall. It is abundant and the stands are very thick. Very interesting how the spring weather pattern seems to favor one plant or another. Last year sweet clover and white clover were everywhere you look. This is an orchard grass year. Other states seeing this same pattern?

 

[dun]

Last year was a clover year in KY. This year is an orchard grass year. Everywhere you look, pastures, roadsides, vacant lots, idle land, and of course hay fields, the dominant plant is orchard grass. Everyone is calling it an orchard grass year. I mowed hay all day yesterday. I should have taken some pictures. I have never seen orchard grass this tall. It is abundant and the stands are very thick. Very interesting how the spring weather pattern seems to favor one plant or another. Last year sweet clover and white clover were everywhere you look. This is an orchard grass year. Other states seeing this same pattern?

Fescue and some bizarre type of Poa are the most dominant. But we do have 2 types I've never seen that I'm having NRCS analyze to figure out what the heck it is.

 

[bigbull338]

sounds like your going to make alot of hay on the 1st cutting.

 

[J&D Cattle]

I see more Orchard Grass than normal around the place or two I've looked.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Last year was a clover year in KY. This year is an orchard grass year. Everywhere you look, pastures, roadsides, vacant lots, idle land, and of course hay fields, the dominant plant is orchard grass. Everyone is calling it an orchard grass year. I mowed hay all day yesterday. I should have taken some pictures. I have never seen orchard grass this tall. It is abundant and the stands are very thick. Very interesting how the spring weather pattern seems to favor one plant or another. Last year sweet clover and white clover were everywhere you look. This is an orchard grass year. Other states seeing this same pattern?

I wish you would post some pics of your orchard grass inyati. I'd like to compare it to what I saw in our fields a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what it was we had growing but there was a lot of it.

 

[tnwalkingred]

Here in middle TN it's the same. Most hay fields are covered in orchard grass. I was thinking the same thing but hadn't thought that weather patterns might be favoring them. I do know after the first cutting it normally becomes a "Johnson Grass" kind of year! LOL

 

[inyati13]

Hey TN Tux, here are some pictures of the hay crop I am mowing. I took these today from the cab of the tractor.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Wow! That's a good looking stand of grass right there Inyati. We're cutting this week too and I sure wish I could be there to help.

 

[texast]

I'm sorry inyati13, but what type of grass is that again you're cutting? I don't think I've ever seen orchard grass.

 

[inyati13]

Wow! That's a good looking stand of grass right there Inyati. We're cutting this week too and I sure wish I could be there to help.

TN Tux, I have never seen orchard grass like this!!! All the stars must have been in the proper alignment. Start rolling tomorrow. I have 30 acres of hay on the ground as of today. My neighbor rakes and rolls for part of the hay. I should have enough hay by the weekend to do me for the winter. I don't feed hay unless I have too. You can hardly find a level spot on my farm but boy does it produce pasture and hay. In fact, the land I spend my time on has so much slope, I can't make love unless I am at a forty-five degree angle.

 

[Kingfisher]

I told ya to get some more cows! I traveled to Brownwood today and Mt Olive and boy the grass is blowing up in places that looked like the desert less than 30 days ago. Our natives really popped with some rain.

 

[inyati13]

I'm sorry inyati13, but what type of grass is that again you're cutting? I don't think I've ever seen orchard grass.

Orchard grass is a long stemmed grass which heads out into a cluster of club-shaped seed-head. Has a large leaf blade that is very raspy. Not a native grass but has been here since my Dad was a boy. My dad always liked timothy and orchard grass for his draft horses.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Wow! That's a good looking stand of grass right there Inyati. We're cutting this week too and I sure wish I could be there to help.

TN Tux, I have never seen orchard grass like this!!! All the stars must have been in the proper alignment. Start rolling tomorrow. I have 30 acres of hay on the ground as of today. My neighbor rakes and rolls for part of the hay. I should have enough hay by the weekend to do me for the winter. I don't feed hay unless I have too. You can hardly find a level spot on my farm but boy does it produce pasture and hay. In fact, the land I spend my time on has so much slope, I can't make love unless I am at a forty-five degree angle.

I probably could have gone all week without that last visual you just gave me.

Congrats on the great harvest.

 

[inyati13]

Thanks, TN Tux. Sorry for that visual. It was just too good a line to not use.

 

[Chris H]

Wow! That's a good looking stand of grass right there Inyati. We're cutting this week too and I sure wish I could be there to help.

TN Tux, I have never seen orchard grass like this!!! All the stars must have been in the proper alignment. Start rolling tomorrow. I have 30 acres of hay on the ground as of today. My neighbor rakes and rolls for part of the hay. I should have enough hay by the weekend to do me for the winter. I don't feed hay unless I have too. You can hardly find a level spot on my farm but boy does it produce pasture and hay. In fact, the land I spend my time on has so much slope, I can't make love unless I am at a forty-five degree angle.

Last year our hay conditioner broke with just a few rounds left, and a friends rake broke with a few fields left. I took our rake over there and husband brought his conditioner to our place and we all got done. His fields looked just like yours, heavy OG and rolling. At the bottom of the hills were 3 ponds and the drainage ditches. I had my choice of using our wide front end tractor with no brakes or the old narrow front end M. I took the M and prayed. And got the brakes fixed on the wide front end tractor this winter.

I was going to ask you on one of your previous pictures of cows, how do you breed cows with legs 12 inches shorter on one side than the other? :lol:

 

[tom4018]

Seeing more orchard grass in my hay fields on this part of Ky. Finished the first fields that I cut for hay this afternoon, made about 50% more than the average. hope the rest of it does.