haying

[Horse]

Anyone haying yet. I cut 55acres today and think it is going to be about 25% less than last yr. Fair bit of winter kill but seems to be blooming early and short. And I cut through 3 wet spots on most yrs, and not even wet tires. we are a little behind on avg rain this yr.

[kato]

To wet to even think about it here. Maybe next week.

[grassfarmer]

Horse, we are going to be limited by moisture going forward too. Our grass is very good now, can't complain, but we are only at 4.5" since the snow went and long range isn't showing much in July. Typically we could get 4-5" in both June and July here. I think this area is starting to dry out - not as extreme as the High Level/ Ft Vermillion area but still a departure from our claim to be one of the highest and most predictable precipitation areas of the province.

[15444]

Going to try and start today/tomorrow. Have gotten close to 30 inches of rain since end of April. Yields are going to be unreal this year. But hay is going to mature quick here and start going rank underneath the stand.

[Mufferaw]

Haying is going to be a nightmare.
Standing water in pastures and hayfields will be challenging. Humidity will make for challenging drying conditions.

[Happytrails]

Our hay is going to be light. Moisture came a few days late. But the grass is good and we dodged a huge bullet pasture wise.

[grassfarmer]

How much moisture did you get HT?

[Horse]

15444 Cant even imagine what 30in would be like.. We had wet yrs for quite a while but more like 15in an d then lots of snow. Had to get usedto black and brown hay. Kind of spoiled now green hay last 10-15yr. But we have excelent pastures now but could dissapeer fast to if no rain.

[15444]

Horse, decent records for this area go back 85 years and this year officially tops them all. Started cutting today. Hay to no end. Leaving tracks no matter where I go, but so much is already lying on the ground, it has to get cut right now before it goes rank. Lots of clovers. Going to be a bugger to dry.

[grassfarmer]

Time to start making silage 15444. Grew up with a 56" average annual precip in a country with areas that got 120" annual precip. Forget hay if you want decent feed in that kind of climate.

[15444]

Enough money invested in making feed for these four-leggers without having to throw another 30k in the pot. Even with all this rain, we have always been able to make hay. Might not be of the highest quality, but these are just beef cattle. They don't care about wrapped June hay versus September baled hay, when the alternative in February is cedar boughs and twigs.

[grassfarmer]

The difference in feed quality between June silage and September hay would pay to make a lot of silage. We don't own silage machinery but hiring a custom crew pencils out really well. Getting the whole job done custom was costing us @$1200/hour but the speed and quality of job these guys do makes the cost reasonable. Based on tonnage in the pit it was between $10-$11/ton. If you can find anyone to bale hay around here it would be at least $10/bale and that's only the baling - still have the cutting/raking/hauling and all the weather risk to take.
I think making silage is cheap compared to hay given the better feed quality, less weather risk and getting the field regrowing straight away.

[smcgrath76]

GF, what is your cost to get the silage back out to the cows? We have talked about it here a few times, but the deal breaker is always the feeding cost and delivery method in the winter time.

[kato]

Same with us. We save so much fuel grazing corn that it's hard not to just let them go and get it themselves.

[15444]

Yeah, it would mean I would actually have to start the tractor more than a dozen times a winter to push snow around the yard.