Yes, please!!! Many of our farmers got hay done last week or the week before (good dry, not-too-hot weather for doing it) but it is SO dry now most fields that were cut looked scalped now. Pasture is already dwindling and we’re looking at another week of 90*+ and no rain. I don’t remember the last time we had a rainy day.
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Haying was a nightmare here. Too wet to cut at first, cut a couple of weeks later than ideal, hay so thick on the ground/stemmy we had to take tines off of the rake to get windrows the baler could handle. Lots of equipment problems.
Now is a full scale drought, pastures are crunchy and the hay fields are brown. Don’t even know if we’ll get a second cutting, if we do, it will be very late.
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We are still several weeks from starting to cut hay. We have had a very dry spring, but rain recently… enough to be able to shut off our irrigation system for a few days in our big fields, and a huge bonus to our unirrigated fields (which are low lying, near the creek- so tend to be more moist). Our unirrigated fields are just little, a couple of acres, and just grow a variety of native grasses. None had ever been hayed before when we bought this place and moved onto it 15 years ago, but I decided it was worth doing. So I do it. It was pretty rough going the first time LOL, but has got more civilized over the years. The DH cuts them for me, he won’t let me near the discbine. (Thinks that he’s the only one with that talent- he’s wrong about that, but I go along with it). The last time I was out in those little grass fields, the growth there was a bit slow, but I’m hoping that it has picked up now. I don’t sell any of that grass hay, it gets small square baled. I have this “special” mare, who colics on our “nice” (alfalfa/grass) hay which comes out of our big fields), but flourishes on this grass hay. I presume that she requires lower protein hay than the nice hay, but it’s never been proven one way or the other exactly what her requirements are… the grass hay just works for her- so she gets it. Haven’t had it tested. Which of course means that she has to live away from the herd in winter. So she has a friend who lives with her, who does just fine on this grass hay too.
Our alfalfa/grass fields get round baled, the grass gets small squared, and I pick that up and stack it by hand. Which is easy, as the fields are small, and done in succession. I get probably over 300 small square bales off those little grass fields. Since they are close to the barn, I just put them into the bucket of my Kubota six at a time, bring them in, and use the bucket of the tractor as my hay elevator, pull them off onto the top of the stack. The round bales in the big field, we load onto our old flatdeck trailer (which my old truck pulls), load them with the spike on the JD tractor out in the field, and unload them the same way in the winter hay barn. Then, because I’m naturally frugal, I pick up any loose hay not caught by the baler out in the field into large bags (while he’s doing the loading with the tractor), and I have bags full of very nice alfalfa leaf and short stuff which I can also feed. Gotta do something while he’s loading the trailer. We unload this stuff the same way it gets loaded, one at a time, with the nose spike on the JD. Depending on the year, we get 300 to 400 round bales (600 lbs each). We sell some of it locally, and use no dealer. We deliver to small time local horse owners.
The summer heat is so dry here that it really isn’t that tough to get this done, I find. Not humid at all.
We haven’t run the irrigation system since it started to rain here, on and off, for the last 10 days or so. It’s not haying weather yet, and we are in no rush. We only take one cut, usually. Then graze the fields in winter with the second growth. Including the little grass fields, there’s about 46 acres to do.
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That happened to us last year as well. We saved a boatload of money but my husband wasn’t happy about the fields getting no fertilizer. It goes through the county ag extension so they should know what they are doing. We have never " not" fertilized our hay fields here.
Yields were about 1/2 last year of what they normally are and I would have blamed it on no fertilizer but everyone around had the same yield results and it was weather related .
This year we didn’t do soil samples and just put fertilizer down. It was pricey but husband is happy and yields are good.
I wouldn’t wait! Especially if it is dry. Not only may there be no hay to buy later it may be too expensive to purchase.
Make hay while the sun shines( weather is good for it) is something that must be done. It is brutal on people and machinery but if we want income from the farm it has to be done when it is ready. My husband and sons have full time off farm jobs and then come home and work harder still. They are worn out and the heat sure doesn’t help!!
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In our experience putting up hay it really depends on how much drying was done before the rain came. If it was still moist and green ( just cut) getting rained on really makes no difference.
If it had dried and then got rained on , you would run the tedder through to spread it all out, dry it and bale but we ( personally) would never feed that to anything. It is bleached, yellow and tasteless and I guess some would feed that to cows but I would’t.
@goodhors I don’t think having hay flattened in your hay fields is anything more than a tall, thick stand of heavy grass getting pounded down by heavy rains and wind . We have had that happen more times then I can count. It happens to us sometimes when we can’t get it cut as early as we would like–because of weather conditions.
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I used to think that until ours got rained on last year. We had a week of perfect weather-and then it wasn’t. My farmer recommended keeping it because so much got rained on in my area. They actually really like it. I never would have thought…,
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Not only may there be no hay to buy later it may be too expensive to purchase.
we have been through multiple draughts that curtailed local hay production, believe me suppliers know how to ship hay in from outside an area,
as for Cost yes it becomes very expensive however nothing about a horse (or any animal that eats) is cheap these days
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If it was still the color of normal hay after drying then I would keep it too. In many cases it is the color of straw and that is what I would pass on. I do remember one time in MN we had first cut grass/ alfalfa pretty well dry when a freak, heavy rain happened. It ended up looking pretty good when baled.
We kept that and it was eaten very well. Lucky us and lucky you!
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When we were in MN the lower midwest was having a horrible drought. I can’t tell you how many semi trucks loaded with hay went past our place every day ( we were on a major highway). It was going down here , being sold at a premium and raised our hay prices 3x what it used to be.
I used to buy some "supplemental " plain old meadow grass hay from the guy across the road. He went from $15 a 500 pound round to $60 and I said no thanks. My other neighbor sold me 1200 pound rounds for $25… saying he didn’t like to cheat people.
The small $60 bales sat there all year long across the road.
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At Feed Stores here large rounds here got to $225, have come “down” now to “just” $150, small two string square bales weighing in 50 pound range $17 area
We have been feeding TEFF for several years, it has been in the are of $600 a ton for the last three years
The ranch we have bought several horses from in North Dakota sells three string alfalfa mixed with grass that weigh about 120 pounds for $7.50 for second cutting/$7.00 for third cutting
( which say are “small squares” in an area that will bale the 600 to 800 pound Large squares)
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That is a phenomenal price in todays hay market!
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if drought conditions continue and diesel fuel prices go up again, these current prices may be cheap
Here most large hay producers went out of business after getting drilling rights checks for natural gas wells, most were paid up to $25,000 per acre which when your a section gave them $16m plus the increased production rights for each wheel head. We had three suppliers who said they would never stop bailing hay, that was until they were floored by their checks. And that is how we ended up switching to imported from out of state TEFF hay
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Can’t say I would blame them… Nowhere you can plant that on your farm so you don’t have to pay to have it hauled so far?
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@goodhors just reading through your original post my brain immediately went ‘oh, they’re in Minnesota for sure, this weather is something else!’ haha. May 2024 was the first month in two years our county wasn’t in a drought, and then the rain onslaught was crazy, now we have more water than we know what to do with…
We don’t do our own hay, but I’m feeling so so grateful for our Hay Guy who went crazy pulling off the fields at the absolute luckiest of times. This is our first year buying hay that is tested and I was thrilled with the 9% NSC for my ponies – one gelding who’s new to us but doesn’t seem to have issues knock on wood and a mare who doesn’t have metabolic issues, but man can she pack on pounds if we aren’t careful…
Anywho, bless you for being a hay farmer! So many have stopped haying after the last few years, this is our 4th supplier in as many years, but he owns a custom bailing business so fingers crossed he doesn’t also give up the ghost…
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The North Dakota, 3 string, 120# bale price is fairly cheap, compared to our local prices of $6-7 for the 40-50 pound bales of mixed grass and alfalfa.
Still working on our downed hay. We managed to get it dry, tedding, then raking, so the round baler guy could bale it. So far there are 40 some 4ft little round bales, then he blew a bearing on the baler. Went home, brought back the forage chopper. He got a fair amount of windrows chopped before it also got a mechanical problem. He headed home with husband following in the truck because it was full dark by then. Got more rain about 6am, half inch in the rain gauge. Not sure how fast he can fix his machinery to return. Baling is a side gig to his full-time job. So as things dry again, maybe Thursday, I might try just running the brush hog over the windrows and see how it cuts them up. Then drag the fields to spread the chopped stuff more evenly. Have to put an ad on Craigslist for the round bales, sell them cheap to be gone. Just an amazing amount of rain since we cut. How to word the ad? Hay was rained on but baled dry. Ha ha
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Not much rain here and 101 degrees with low humidity. Great hay curing weather! Took my tractor in Thursday and got it back this AM so my trailer is ready to load up with hay. Lots of good choices in Tennessee for OG and OG/timothy mix priced at $10 to $12 a bale which is about what it costs these days. They have had great weather and I have bought from these growers in the past so I am ready to head north! Thunderstorms forecast for Wed and Thursday but all clear after that. Beach traffic will be going the other direction in the AM and hopefully cleared out when I head back. Ready to get this job done!!! Looking foreword to see that trailer full! I wish I could keep a whole year’s supply but the humidity here makes that pretty much impossible. Still this will get me into November.
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It happens to us all! We have been blessed the last few years too but it is in the back of your mind every time you get a field cut.
We just get it as dry as we can, bale it and stick it in the woods to rot down.
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Winding up our haying “adventure” finally. Got the rest of the pasture baled except for two tangled piles of windrow grass the bale guy did not want to try picking up. Another 12 small 4ft round bales plus the 19 bales he did on the first round. Figuring 10 small squares per round bale makes it about 210 small squares plus what he was able to chop before his chopper died, is a LOT of hay off that field of 3 acres! Too bad it will be mostly mulch hay as Candyappy said. But the field is now mostly cleared off to now grow as pasture again. I will run the finish mower over it to get things evened up again.
Husband has collected the round bales in a couple places out of the way.
As a curiosity, has anyone mowed a prospective hayfield earlier in the season, before cutting it to be baled? I am considering doing that next spring. Grass would not get as tall, preventing blown-down issues when mowing and possible late (weather) first cutting dates. I had a hard time mowing pastures with wet ground this spring, everything grew tall fast!! But even cut weekly, the grass kept on growing quickly. I think early mowing of the pasture won’t set it back any for hay use. We will get less hay, not as tall, but that is OK with advantages of easier mowing and baling.
I don’t have personal experience but reading the hay forums I think you would have to get the grass clippings you cut the first time, off the field before you can bale the second cut. Otherwise the stuff you cut down the first time would be mixed in the stuff you were trying to bale and you would have a lot of dead stuff in the bale. Sometimes when those guys cut before they want to make hay, they round bale all the first cut stuff and sell it as cow hay.
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