First Cutting is Down

[goodhors]

We decided to jump in, cut the pasture today for baling. With horses still getting timed turnout on lots of grass, getting used to grass diet over the last 30 days, there is more grass than we need at the moment. We planned to let this bigger field grow without being mowed. It seemed such a waste last year mowing it down, not harvesting it as hay… All the other pasture fields have been mowed once, need it again. We figured any extra bales harvested are “bonus bales,” so maybe we won’t need to buy any hay this year. We will have less horses by fall, adding to our figuring on bales needed.

I got fertilizer on in early April, timed it perfectly before 3 days of rain! Grass is looking very nice, just short at about 2-3ft. THICK though, had to unclog the mower a few times. Tedding hay tomorrow, see what we have by evening. Maybe bale Monday, if the clover is dry. I didn’t kill off the clover in pasture fields like I did on the hayfields. Kept short, I have no issues with horses grazing clover. Just takes too much time to dry, often molds anyway.

Temps are rising, but we learned hay needs warm nights as well warm-to-hot days for drying, so we held off on cutting last week… We had FROST warnings the last few nights, didn’t want hay down in that! We usually have rain this time in May, so cutting is normally in June. We got good rain earlier this Spring, grass is seeding out already, so off it comes.

There are two other fields of hay to cut, probably tomarrow, then tedding it Monday. I have to go pick up the horse at Trainer’s to get her teeth done as well. Tuesday is a busy day, horse dentist coming. 8 horses take him some time to finish, all hand work, no electric tools. Then return training horse. Glad she is only about 30 miles away!

Barns are fairly clean from a clinic two weeks ago. I just hope we can find some people to stack hay in the barn. Our kids are not very available this year. We have an accumulator and grapple for stacking on wagons. Barn aisle is too small to unload hay that way. The elevator helps a lot in getting bales up high.

Have to hustle, weather is always in question when hay is ready. Cutting this early, we MIGHT actually get a second cutting!! Not holding my breath, 2nd has been minimal the last two years of no rain thru July and small rain amounts in August. No water means no growth. Funny, the hay folks 10 miles south got THREE sizable cuttings of grass hay the last three years! NOT FAIR. At least we had someone to buy nice hay from! Ha ha

Hope your hay is looking good and you can get it harvested on time.

[3PonyFarm]

I love the smell of fresh cut hay.

[walktrot]

BO got fertilizer on her hayfield every fall. Too many weeds sprouting so she limed it. Cleanied it up nicely.

Sounds like you live down south in a tropical climate. Here in Maine we won’t start first cut until sometime in June. It has been pretty dry so mud season was tolerably short. But we did have frost warnings last week. My next-door neighbors built some nice raised beds in the backyard and planted some veggies. A lot of them died. You aren’t supposed to start planting outside until after Memorial Day. It was wishful gardening.

[Jackie_amp_Starlette]

In West Michigan - my hay farmer texted me on the 19th and wanted to know if I wanted my hay. I never get it before Memorial Day. I now have my hay for the year in my barn. Hay farmer is happy - he had half his fields done before Memorial Day and the rest before Memorial Day. He’s never had that happen. I had to hustle to unload the wagons since he was chomping at the bit to get them back.

No rain in the forecast except a chance in Thursday - slight chance. The weather report was it has not been this dry since the drought in 2012.

[NancyM]

Our hay fields are growing well. Early warm spring here, then some rain earlier this week. Got the fertilizer down just before that rain too. We only have one of our two irrigation guns functional so far this year, waiting on parts coming from France. Amazingly… even though there are things called “airplanes” that make the journey from France to NA practically daily, it takes several weeks for parts to get here. I think it’s been three weeks so far. Not expecting them to show up any time soon, either. Fortunately, we got the rain in the last week, so we are doing OK. Won’t be cutting until July, usually. We only take one cut, usually. We find it is hard on the fields to take two cuts here. Some farmers do it, we’ve done it occasionally… if we cut one field early, we might cut it again later. We used a high nitrogen fertilizer this spring, so the grass is growing well, wanted to crowd out some clover. We grow about 20 to 30% alfalfa in these fields. Total of 40 acres of that. Then another 5 or so acres of grass fields, that we worked up from waste land when we bought this place. I just square bale that stuff. Pick it up and stack it by hand with the tractor bucket as an elevator. The rest is round baled. We leave it down for a number of days before turning it. Can’t imagine turning it that early here!

[goodhors]

We are Michigan too, though higher up between Flint and Lansing. We are not listed as drought, like many counties on the west side of the State. Going on about two weeks without rain. Our soil is heavy clay, so it helps hold moisture better than the more Sandy soils of the west side.

My Grampa used to say “holidays are for getting the hay in,” when I was a kid. So back then Memorial Day, Forth of July, Labor Day, were all times to do hay. Being further north now, we seldom can do hay on the holidays, it isn’t USUALLY ready yet. But nothing stays the same anymore, so we have to watch the grass itself. Last year we seemed to have rain every other day!! Grass was over 5ft tall, you could barely see husband’s head ON the tractor during mowing! Downed hay choked the tedder forks with the quantity, made tedding impossible!! Had to rake it to get it up for drying. Got that hay in just before July started, then no rain while we cooked for the rest of summer. My Texas Aunt was visiting , she thought 90F weather was “nice” here! Her friends called and said stay longer, the daily 110F or higher was awful.

I get soil tests yearly to determine what various fertilizer additives the fields need. Taking hay off removes the minerals, so I only want to put back what the soil needs to produce good grass hay. Oddly, we do put some lime in the mix, but never need to apply only lime, as many folks on COTH say they do. I usually put fertilizer on the hay fields in fall, but last year I spent my “fertilizer allowance” on spraying to kill the volunteer clover taking over. Spray really did a great job, aimed at all broad leaf plants, clover wilted away. So I was eager to put fertilizer on the hay fields this spring to encourage the grass growth. We got some great weather in early April, with no machinery or operator issues spreading on pastures. So I thought “why not” and had them load the spreader wagon again for the hayfields! Fields and pastures have different recipes and amounts spread needed, so it is always two trips to get the fertilizer. Usually two days to finish. Again, no problems spreading, all done in one day!! Amazing Ta-Dah moment for me! Never did that before! Ha ha

Gosh, having all your winter hay in the barn is a lovely feeling!!

[Jackie_amp_Starlette]

@goodhors

We are Michigan too, though higher up between Flint and Lansing. We are not listed as drought, like many counties on the west side of the State. Going on about two weeks without rain. Our soil is heavy clay, so it helps hold moisture better than the more Sandy soils of the west side.

I am in Zeeland and we have the heavy clay soils. Further south has the sand, and north. Not sure why this belt has clay, but even with the downside (boot-sucking mud, concrete grounds when baked) it’s loaded with nutrition and does hold water well.

Yes, hay in the barn and not having to do it in the heat of summer or on a long weekend is great!

[2DogsFarm]

Hayguy neighbors cut their small back field this week.
Testing to see if equipment was in good order.
They cut & bale the small L-shaped perimeter of my acreage & said I may be next.
They’ve been getting around 120+ small squares off my place. Orchard grass with a little timothy & sometimes clover.

We have had no measurable rain since 5/8, forecasters are starting to mention drought.
My grass started looking a bit dry this weekend. But the hayfield part looks good. Over a foot tall.
I’ll sleep easier when my barn has my 350 small squares stacked in it.
Hoping that will be by July.

My pastures can’t ever be called “lush”, but hay consumption is way down & horses are out in pasture all day & at night. As evidenced by nothing to pick from any of the 3 stalls in the morning. They bring themselves in for grain & ever-smaller amounts of hay, then go back out.
They did spend some time in today. All 3 in 1 stall , proof in the 2 piles I picked when I fed at 4.

[goodhors]

Update on our hay harvesting. It went well! I put an ad on Facebook for “Help wanted for stacking hay.” I got a number of replies. I posted the ad in the morning, but most replies came after 8p, and were on FB, despite putting out my phone number to call. Got some texting too. Found 3 guys who showed up on time, did a pretty good job for never stacking hay before. We offered plenty of water and Gatorade, cold, to keep them hydrated. One guy ended early, but the other two were great, stayed until 6:30p when we quit baling. The two came back the next day and finished getting all the bales in. It was hot, hot, hot, even with a little breeze down the aisle

So if you need help, a FB ad might find the people you need to get your hay done. I was not chintzy at $16 the hour, we NEEDED the help! We were not going really fast, too hot for that! They worked steadily, were pleasant, followed directions, moved a lot of weighty bales. Being rookies at hay handling, it took a bit of time to learn the best bale handling techniques! Ha ha I would have those two back in a minute if we had more hay to put away!! Worth their wages. Saved their numbers for help if we get any second cutting.

With the heat over the last week, hay dried pretty well. I got to use my new thermometer and moisture meter, checking things as we went along. With the field clover gone, hay dried evenly and pretty fast. We have a bale accumulator and grapple for picking bales up to stack in bundles on the wagons. No wagon walking to stack bales. Had a bit of knotter issue with some strings coming undone or unevenly tied, strings came off, had to rebale them again… But things ran fairly smoothly. We could have used a tractor driver to move wagons back to the barn quicker to stay ahead of the stackers. I was driving the baler tractor, trying to stay ahead of husband loading wagons.

Lovely to stand in the barn looking at next winter’s hay!! Funny with this baler we put up “less numbers” of bales, but they FILL UP the barn pretty fast! I believe the bales are bigger than what we used to buy, so it takes less of ours in the same space. The pasture count was 150 on three acres of mixed plant grazing, not hay grasses. We “think” we got about 90 bales to the acre off the hayfieds. The bale counter got unhooked in the middle of the field. Slightly less than last year’s 100 bales to the acre, but grass was way taller in 2022 with all the rain. A very good harvest! Horses liked the sweepings off the wagons, thought it was delicious!

My new 70 power sunscreen with long sleeved, chambray shirt, big hat, kept me from burning. I AM going to get the umbrellas on the tractors before i get back to mowing. Ran out of time before the hay stuff started. I really like the shade under umbrellas, FEELS abut 15 degress cooler.

Hope your haying goes well. . .

[2DogsFarm]

Hayguy neighbors cut my mini-field last week, baled this weekend.
As expected, yield was pitiful - 55 small squares.
A friend who bales her 7ac field had similar short harvest. Her average has been 1000-1500 small squares. This year, 1st cutting gave her 300

We finally got a halfway decent rain yesterday.
But not enough to counter the past month’'s droughtlike conditions.
I hope 2nd cutting is better, I don’t expect anyone here will get a 3rd.
I’d like to be wrong about that

[BroncoMo]

Geez Louise, you want me to bottle up some rain for you? Here in the western plains, I can’t find the data but this has to be one of the rainiest springs on record. I know it two months I’ll regret griping about it, but the amount of rainfall has been horrible. Not sure how the hay fields are doing since I just tell my supplier how much I need and they set it aside. But I’m sure irrigation isn’t necessary just yet.

[2DogsFarm]

Just push that rainy front toward the bonedry Midwest!

[goodhors]

We got about 3/4 of an inch of soft rain Monday. Hoping for more but the rain percentage chance is getting smaller. Well, every bit helps! Air quality is much improved.

I need to mow pastures SOON, in case that was it for rain. Hayfields look good after the rain, growing again. Just have to mow the downed grass we missed during baling, so it won’t cause any bald spots.

Been working on cleaning fences. That grass is tall and healthy! Got my trimmer on the lowest setting, hoping to get all fences done before much regrowth. Need to get the sprayer out so I won’t need to trim everything again this summer.

[candyappy]

We have gotten all the round bales we need for the year up now. It is a good feeling! We did about 40 extra just in case the dry spell goes on. We have gotten a couple small rains and 2 nd cutting looks possible .

We have a large field down now as we are starting on hay for our customer who buys 220+ 4x5 rounds.

We are waiting to do squares when we do 2nd cutting and we have a small plot here by the house we square bale. Usually we don’t get hay started until June since it is usually wet but we started in mid May this year which is a first.