Potential Rained on Hay

[Texasmark]

Field overdue for cutting....Austin Winter Peas and Jumbo Rye in one field and Ky31 Fescue and clover in the other. Both fields are thick, 2-3' tall. Looking like a weeks breather coming up after today with a 30% single shot ½" due in a week. If forecasts remain accurate and favorable I plan on cutting this coming week.

Question: Consider I will get rained on, do you prefer to cut mid week for a shower on Saturday, or do you wait till the day before the rain letting everything, ground included being saturated as it is, dry out then cut. The rationale in cutting the day before would be that the plants are still alive and consuming the sugars in their stems when rained on, which they have had done to them since October, and would resist mold and mildew better....considering Sunday, back on the field with a tedder and keep them flipped over till ready to rake and bale.

Or do you blow it off and keep hoping for a longer dry spell while the plants mature further and reduce more in quality?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[M-5]

Cut as close to schedule as you can. Battle the elements if you have to. 30% chance also means 70% will not see rain.

 

[T & B farms]

A rain on hay that has only been cut hours is better than hay that has been cut several days. No rain is good, but everyone knows that. I'm patiently waiting a few day dry spell to get some put up. I am going to wrap it. We can't seem to go more than 3-4 days without a rain

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

If I have to I will cut just before or during rain in a pinch. I'd rather have just mowed material get wet than stuff that is close to dry.

 

[1982vett]

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. But it's time to get the ryegrass off so the summer grass can come on and make before it dries out and burns up under the July rainless sun.....wont ever get dry enough to bale unless it's cut.

Friend up the road has some on the ground for over a week and a half now. Glad mines still standing but likely won't be much better than his.

 

[Texasmark]

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. But it's time to get the ryegrass off so the summer grass can come on and make before it dries out and burns up under the July rainless sun.....wont ever get dry enough to bale unless it's cut.

Friend up the road has some on the ground for over a week and a half now. Glad mines still standing but likely won't be much better than his.

I lost my winter crop last spring because I couldn't get it dry. Don't want to do that again. Looking at some TIF Leaf 3 Millet with 60 day maturing cycle to maybe drill in around 1st of June or slightly later...soon as I can transition from this to that...whatever that is....maybe nothing but soil rejuvenation via the plow. Got some ideas from responders on this post and checked them out. Looking for a dealer currently...waiting for a reply from Gayland-Ward Seed Co. in Hereford, Tx.

Thanks

 

[snoopdog]

I'll cut before a rain , but I dont want half cured hay rained on. We've gotten away with a may cutting a few times,but best wait, let the temps get where they need to be, and the grass will grow the whole time.

 

[gcreekrch]

Cut it down and bale before the rain if you have a bale wrapper available to rent or borrow. Plastic is way cheaper than black hay.

 

[Texasmark]

Cut it down and bale before the rain if you have a bale wrapper available to rent or borrow. Plastic is way cheaper than black hay.

Wrapper is out for several reasons, but on my wildest thought that I might bale, I went out yesterday and water is standing in the field......and it's barely hitting 80F on down the week. Yepper, it's grit your teeth and wait it out.

 

[snoopdog]

TM, the temps here are going to be warm but the humidity is gonna be off the charts, I don't know if you're conditioning, I don't really think it saves any time on long grass. Short grass, a day. Let it get hot, it'll be alright. I get itchy every year, but we have small chances of rain for the next 2 weeks.

 

[Texasmark]

TM, the temps here are going to be warm but the humidity is gonna be off the charts, I don't know if you're conditioning, I don't really think it saves any time on long grass. Short grass, a day. Let it get hot, it'll be alright. I get itchy every year, but we have small chances of rain for the next 2 weeks.

Right on with the humidity check. Sometimes I forget that important element. Doing my best to control the itches. Haven't hooked up the equipment as yet to help in calming the annual urge to get at it too soon. This week is looking really great but checking out Sat. Sun. Mon. more water so gotta wait.

 

[bird dog]

I'm thinking about trying to get mine cut on Friday. It will be green with the rain on Saturday. Let it and the ground dry out and roll it up next week. I need to get it off the field in a bad way.

 

[snoopdog]

TM, the temps here are going to be warm but the humidity is gonna be off the charts, I don't know if you're conditioning, I don't really think it saves any time on long grass. Short grass, a day. Let it get hot, it'll be alright. I get itchy every year, but we have small chances of rain for the next 2 weeks.

Right on with the humidity check. Sometimes I forget that important element. Doing my best to control the itches. Haven't hooked up the equipment as yet to help in calming the annual urge to get at it too soon. This week is looking really great but checking out Sat. Sun. Mon. more water so gotta wait.

Where are you at or close too? I need to hook the mower up and either tighten belts or get new ones, wasn't happy with the transfer of power last time, which was the first time for this mower. What weather app are you , or anyone else using? I've used Intellicast for years, and was extremely happy with it, then they merged with weather underground and I cant get any decent results. I have the weather channel on my phone for now ,but I don't trust it yet.

 

[1982vett]

I'm most unhappy with what happened to intellicast also. I'm using weather channels Storm Radar app on my phone and I pad. Not sure it's as "real time" as intellicast was but it's better than any I've found so far. I can still get to the radar intellicast used but it's a pita to scroll and click to and the interactive is gone.

I do use underground for the 10 day forecast. Easy to visualize the temperature changes and chance of rain. The also take a stab at the amount of rain the chance of rain might produce.

 

[M-5]

I cut my small fields Monday night to clean them up. Thin crop but should be good hay. I can not remember the last time I have not had to rush getting it put up . High pressure on us for about 10 days . I scattered it yesterday and it should be ready this afternoon. Intellecast/ Commie wunderground is the best out there that I have found , I did find a pretty good 72hr forecast radar. The last several weeks its been more accurate than the local weather man .

https://www.iweathernet.com/interactive-radar
scroll down and click the blue tab (click to load data)

 

[Texasmark]

TM, the temps here are going to be warm but the humidity is gonna be off the charts, I don't know if you're conditioning, I don't really think it saves any time on long grass. Short grass, a day. Let it get hot, it'll be alright. I get itchy every year, but we have small chances of rain for the next 2 weeks.

Right on with the humidity check. Sometimes I forget that important element. Doing my best to control the itches. Haven't hooked up the equipment as yet to help in calming the annual urge to get at it too soon. This week is looking really great but checking out Sat. Sun. Mon. more water so gotta wait.

Where are you at or close too? I need to hook the mower up and either tighten belts or get new ones, wasn't happy with the transfer of power last time, which was the first time for this mower. What weather app are you , or anyone else using? I've used Intellicast for years, and was extremely happy with it, then they merged with weather underground and I cant get any decent results. I have the weather channel on my phone for now ,but I don't trust it yet.

I'm NE of Dallas, Leonard area. On the weather info, I have 5 sites in my Favorites Window, 3 of which are WU, one Nat. W. Serv., and The Weather channel which posts as "weather.com". I browse all of them and now use weather.com for my 10 day forecast. Want more info on a particular day, like humidity, click on that day and it will expand.

I like the WU station's reports close to the farm but really miss Intellicast as it used to be. Really liked the Loop function on the radar image and was lost without it till I added NWS which has lots of Loop functions...perfect.

 

[1982vett]

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. But it's time to get the ryegrass off so the summer grass can come on and make before it dries out and burns up under the July rainless sun.....wont ever get dry enough to bale unless it's cut.

Friend up the road has some on the ground for over a week and a half now. Glad mines still standing but likely won't be much better than his.

I lost my winter crop last spring because I couldn't get it dry. Don't want to do that again. Looking at some TIF Leaf 3 Millet with 60 day maturing cycle to maybe drill in around 1st of June or slightly later...soon as I can transition from this to that...whatever that is....maybe nothing but soil rejuvenation via the plow. Got some ideas from responders on this post and checked them out. Looking for a dealer currently...waiting for a reply from Gayland-Ward Seed Co. in Hereford, Tx.

Thanks

Got started cutting. Potential inch of rain this weekend but ryegrass is way past it's prime and needs to be cleaned off. Ball Clover and Arrowleaf Clover has loved the cool wet weather. I grazed it till April.

Some of the Ball Clover.

Fence line of the Arrowleaf.

Truly a shame we couldn't have gotten it cut two weeks ago.

 

[1982vett]

Got it rolled up today in 25 mph wind. Made 136 5x6 bales off 50 acres.

 

[TexFarmer]

Field overdue for cutting....Austin Winter Peas and Jumbo Rye in one field and Ky31 Fescue and clover in the other. Both fields are thick, 2-3' tall. Looking like a weeks breather coming up after today with a 30% single shot ½" due in a week. If forecasts remain accurate and favorable I plan on cutting this coming week.

Question: Consider I will get rained on, do you prefer to cut mid week for a shower on Saturday, or do you wait till the day before the rain letting everything, ground included being saturated as it is, dry out then cut. The rationale in cutting the day before would be that the plants are still alive and consuming the sugars in their stems when rained on, which they have had done to them since October, and would resist mold and mildew better....considering Sunday, back on the field with a tedder and keep them flipped over till ready to rake and bale.

Or do you blow it off and keep hoping for a longer dry spell while the plants mature further and reduce more in quality?

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm in the county next door to you in north Hunt county. I cut a little bit of hay last week during the small dry window as I needed to test out some equipment before tackling my larger fields. I couldn't cut any more due to all the rain we got this past Saturday and my ground is still saturated thanks to the additional 1/4 inch rain yesterday. 10 day forecast is showing 40% and 30% most days, I really need to get my bigger fields cut, hoping those percentages hold out and we dodge the rain for a while. Last year we couldn't get any rain, this year it won't stop.

 

[Texasmark]

Field overdue for cutting....Austin Winter Peas and Jumbo Rye in one field and Ky31 Fescue and clover in the other. Both fields are thick, 2-3' tall. Looking like a weeks breather coming up after today with a 30% single shot ½" due in a week. If forecasts remain accurate and favorable I plan on cutting this coming week.

Question: Consider I will get rained on, do you prefer to cut mid week for a shower on Saturday, or do you wait till the day before the rain letting everything, ground included being saturated as it is, dry out then cut. The rationale in cutting the day before would be that the plants are still alive and consuming the sugars in their stems when rained on, which they have had done to them since October, and would resist mold and mildew better....considering Sunday, back on the field with a tedder and keep them flipped over till ready to rake and bale.

Or do you blow it off and keep hoping for a longer dry spell while the plants mature further and reduce more in quality?

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm in the county next door to you in north Hunt county. I cut a little bit of hay last week during the small dry window as I needed to test out some equipment before tackling my larger fields. I couldn't cut any more due to all the rain we got this past Saturday and my ground is still saturated thanks to the additional 1/4 inch rain yesterday. 10 day forecast is showing 40% and 30% most days, I really need to get my bigger fields cut, hoping those percentages hold out and we dodge the rain for a while. Last year we couldn't get any rain, this year it won't stop.

I'm on the fence big time and keep hoping, like we all do. So just now I walked out the door and the temp is only 70F but the humidity made me feel like I was back on the Tx. Gulf Coast. No way would anything cure with this humidity besides as you say, puddles of water standing, clay making balls.....no way you could get a cutter to cut it without getting mud clogged. I really think I will be writing off making anything off this mess and then comes the problem if what to do with it.....really doubt I could get all of it incorporated into the soil....but it would be nice enrichment for my clay.