Still no hay

Help Support CattleToday:

Im with TG mow some fields and bale the "straw" as there will be a fair amount of 2nd growth coming up through it and it will not all be a loss. We find that with all the "dead stuff" the cows still will eat it through the winter and it still beats snowballs. You might have to supplement protein, & energy, but even dry coarse hay is a good filler in the cold. I don't think that you should just bushhog it down but get it off the field in poor quality hay and let the next cutting come up and then have some of both to feed for the winter.
 
I've made plenty of first cutting "straw" into September and there is generally enough 2nd crop underneath that it still tests pretty well and our cattle do just fine through our harsh winters.
 
Thanks all! I appreciate the words of encouragement. Having only been raising cows a few years, I am still a newbie, especially to the hay issues.
I have also been telling them to eat up while they can, it may be a lean winter. They are taking the advice to heart (or rumen).
 
True Grit Farms":wdj5ll6q said:
boondocks":wdj5ll6q said:
Gettin' in a real funk over the fields of basically straw. Where I've kept the farm road mowed, we have nice green grass. Had we brush hogged the fields a month ago (assuming we could sneak in a few hours without rain), we would have at least something now.
At what point should we just call them a loss and brush hog it in the hopes of getting at least a small "second" cutting? I'm worried there's too much biomass now and would maybe kill off the new grass if it's not removed...I am totally out of my element on this. Gonna call the county co-op guy in the am and beg for some advice.

viewtopic.php?t=14091
I'm wondering if you can just bale what you have and use as a filler and supplement? Myself I'd rotary mow half and bale the other half when possible. Never put all your eggs in one basket. What I can see from the satellite weather, I'd be cutting hay Wednesday and hoping for the best. Good luck

This sounds like a good plan.
 
I have had to wear rain gear while raking hay that was being baled as haylage. Didn't get very far ahead of the baler. The end product was a little slimy but it fed.
 
I like to use the JOBE water float. The mechanism goes under water with a string & ball as a float. Cattle can bob the float around, but cannot make the water keep running.
We are also Upstate NY and let me tell you, he has described our weather to a tee! I have 85 acres of hay ground. We do baleage for 1st cutting. We were able to mow & bale 37 acres, getting 10 bales to the acre - two weeks later than normal (around 6-29). We rutted the sh$t out of our hay field, and have not been able to get into any others since. Luckily, we had 180 bales left over from last year & with the 375 bales we put up, I have enough winter feed. I am grazing some of my hay fields now, but still hoping to put up some of our 1st, 2nd & 3rd cutting (LOL) as dry hay if we could get a break. Had 1" of rain yesterday, in about 20 minutes.
 
Stocker Steve":2vvrpogf said:
Let the cattle trample it flat and call it a soil regeneration season.
Well, they're pretty much doing that in the grazing fields.
We put down rock and stone in some of the dips and ruts in our farm road. Within days, then had a gully washer down the farm road that moved huge rocks (small boulders) several yards away. Washed away the gravel entirely. Glad we broke our backs for 2 days on that. Farm road is now worse than it was before we "fixed" it. Then came this week's storm:
 
I feel your pain, Boondocks. I'm in north central Pa so similar weather. I'm fortunate enough to have all my own haying equipment including a wrapper. I've made 160 wrapped and 56 dry (dusty) bales this year. I've got about 15 bales to make and wrap today of second cutting. Even with my own equipment, it's been hard to string a few dry days together even to wrap. Looks like the weather is going to change this weekend with about 6 days of sunny weather in the forecast. Hope to get the rest of the second cutting off and I hope you are able to get some hay in too.
 
Knocked down 35 acres of what looked like late 1st crop brown dead "straw" last night, once I got to cutting the undergrowth of trefoil, timothy, and clover was crazy. What looked like a bunch of garbage may make some of my best hay of the season haha.

I do custom hay work, and one of my customers bought his own wrapper this year. That way I can get his silage cut in a more timely fashion, as I don't have the capacity or time to cut/rake/bale and wrap silage for people with my old single bale wrapper. But with him having his own wrapper it really worked out nice this year.
 
chevytaHOE5674":34hmu9i4 said:
Knocked down 35 acres of what looked like late 1st crop brown dead "straw" last night, once I got to cutting the undergrowth of trefoil, timothy, and clover was crazy. What looked like a bunch of garbage may make some of my best hay of the season haha.

I do custom hay work, and one of my customers bought his own wrapper this year. That way I can get his silage cut in a more timely fashion, as I don't have the capacity or time to cut/rake/bale and wrap silage for people with my old single bale wrapper. But with him having his own wrapper it really worked out nice this year.

We are thinking about doing something like that...Our hay guy could then get ours done on days that he can't do his own dry bales
 
Nesikep":3qsg4qd0 said:
Do I see a house behind that tree? At least the tree didn't hit that!

It's a small shed. Some of the the larger branches fell on the roof and did some damage but yes, we lucked out (so far*) and the bulk of the tree fell just in front of it. And also lucky that none of the cows got hit.

*there's a smaller tree just to the side of it ready to go--it was half-knocked over by the big tree.
 
boondocks":aklhhg3v said:
We are thinking about doing something like that...Our hay guy could then get ours done on days that he can't do his own dry bales

That's how I finally convinced this guy, I said when the weather is bad and I can't do anything else I can be at your place putting up your silage. This year his hay got done and wrapped at the perfect time along with some of my silage. I cut/rake/baled all of his silage in a 3 day window and he hauled and wrapped like a mad man, but got it all done before it rained daily for a couple of weeks and nothing got done.
 
Hay was one of my biggest problems and why I never ran more than 37 momma cows. Working and bailing hay and putting up enough when I was off was a challenge.
That is the reason I adopted the philosophy of there is no such thing as too much hay and kept a years worth in reserve.
Health got me hay equipment got sold drought got most of the cows.
 
artesianspringsfarm":3a01cipt said:
True Grit Farms":3a01cipt said:
I hope you cut hay today.


Vince, they are a couple hours east of me but I got .75" today. Maybe tomorrow :)

Cutting hay in the rain or having fresh cut hay rained on isn't a big deal. Whenever you have good hay weather on the horizon I like to cut it down ASAP.
If you wait for rain it'll rain.
 
artesianspringsfarm":z6wl77th said:
True Grit Farms":z6wl77th said:
I hope you cut hay today.


Vince, they are a couple hours east of me but I got .75" today. Maybe tomorrow :)

We got a nice good rain yesterday. Hopefully my guy is coming tomorrow. Every time we've had a 3 day window forecasted, it's changed and we've had rain day 2.
 
Hay crew is here fixing the mower - errrr - will be mowing shortly - it's dark right now. Here's hoping with fingers crossed. Only going to mow down another 14 acres. I'm going to graze the other 12 acres in that section. I still have another 16 acres, but no way to get ANY equipment on it. Can't even brush hog it - wayyy too wet.
We are at a show that is close, so we are coming home at night. Show day tomorrow.
 

Latest posts

Top