There goes first cutting

[dun]

Last year the OG was about 110% of normal, fescue was around 10%. And of course we only have one small field of straight OG. The drought pretty well took care of the OG so this year we're looking at may be 50% for OG and around 75% from the fescue, if any of it drys enough to not put up as pure crap.
The drought maybe broken in some folks minds, but they're not looking at the big picture. Normal or even above normal rainfall for a year or 2 isn't really enough to completely mitigate the damage done.
Ponds fill when we hae the excess rain like we've had the past couple of months, but after a week they drop down to below pre-drought heights that were considered normal 6-7 years ago before the last long term drought.
Droughts are like icebergs. You only see the obvious damage but the long term and more serious affects are below the surface.
Sorry to get preachy

dun

 

[flaboy-]

it must be nice to have grass that is higher than an inch. or rain for that matter.

Rain? What's that? We will catch up though when the hurricanes get here.

 

[cfpinz]

Got less than half of what that field produced last year. All of my fields look thin, how's everyone else's yields so far?

Oh man, that really bites! We haven't cut first cutting yet, but our yield's don't count anyway because we're irrigated.

The past two years' first cuttings have been above average. More than adequate rainfall but hard to put it up dry. It's nice to have a little extra change from selling extra hay in the summer, looks like this year the money might be going the other way.

I'm assuming by 'hard to put it up dry', you're talking about the hay getting rained off after cutting? I hear you on the extra change, and I truly hope that the weather patterns straighten out and the money does not go the other way.

You are correct, we've had a couple nice wet springs the past few years, but this one isn't so. We had a very dry fall, no appreciable snowfall, and a really dry spring. And it's not even summer yet... :shock:

 

[msscamp]

Got less than half of what that field produced last year. All of my fields look thin, how's everyone else's yields so far?

Oh man, that really bites! We haven't cut first cutting yet, but our yield's don't count anyway because we're irrigated.

The past two years' first cuttings have been above average. More than adequate rainfall but hard to put it up dry. It's nice to have a little extra change from selling extra hay in the summer, looks like this year the money might be going the other way.

I'm assuming by 'hard to put it up dry', you're talking about the hay getting rained off after cutting? I hear you on the extra change, and I truly hope that the weather patterns straighten out and the money does not go the other way.

And it's not even summer yet... :shock:

That's a scary thought!

 

[dj]

This was before cutting Thursday

This is Monday about 1pm
I guess this could be considered a slow cure.
The blooms aren't even wilting. Even the orchard grass(in the middle of the clover heads) isn't showing any wilt.

 

[dun]

Our's hasn;t wilted yet all that much either, but the good part is I turned some and smelled it yesterday and it still smells fresh cut not rotting like I had expected. Today is tedding day, just hope we can get a couple of dry days. There's a big shiny bright thing in the sky this morning. I thought we'ld had enough rain that it had put it out!

dun

 

[rgv]

I think I'm holding off till Wensday - Looks like a good hot & dry spell from there. Wonder how fast that can change?

One thing about that weather.com forecast - always throws that 20%-30% chance of isolated showers in there. Before that I would just watch the news and probably just would have cut by now.

RGV

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We don't even THINK about putting up dry hay for first cutting anymore. All first cut is BALEAGE. Our area is mostly dairy, and they all put up haylage. Very few try to put it up dry. Even if it doesn't actually rain, so much dew & moisture, and rarely 2 solid dry days in a row - let alone 4 which is what we need.
Come 2nd cutting, we at least THINK about putting up 2nd cutting. Our hay is no where near ready, but some of the "big boys" are just pulling out the equipment for haylage - waiting for it to quit raining.
3 weeks ago, we didn't think we would have anything to graze - so cold & dry - not it's cold & wet - yuk! - but the grass has grown a bunch. Had frost warnings last night, but we didn't get one. Had a light one few days ago.
Welcome to upstate NEW YORK.

 

[sidney411]

At least you had hay to cut. We cut our field to just clean it off after the winter grasses quit growing and only rolled up 7 bales off 30 acres. Shouldn't even have wasted the diesel.

 

[gendronf]

If it had rained on your almost dry hay and you want to accelerate drying, a trick is to pass by again the wind-row in the disk mower. The best way of not having too much problems with the rain is to make round bales silage.

 

[dun]

If it had rained on your almost dry hay and you want to accelerate drying, a trick is to pass by again the wind-row in the disk mower. The best way of not having too much problems with the rain is to make round bales silage.

All of the baleage wrappers are busy wrapping their own stuff. The dairy has been on a couple of different peoples list for 2 weeks.

dun

 

[dun]

At least you had hay to cut. We cut our field to just clean it off after the winter grasses quit growing and only rolled up 7 bales off 30 acres. Shouldn't even have wasted the diesel.

Last year the hay was so thin that the baler wouldn;t even pick it up. Raked 5 acres into one windrow and there still wasn;t enough to get it going. Ended up just tedding it and scattered it.

dun