Grass length through winter?

[Rockbadchild]

I guess the real question for Hay Dude would be: Would you do it to improve your hay quality if you weren't being paid to do it. I guess even then it becomes a question of who your hay customers are and how much they are willing to pay.

I still don't think the benefit is there, I would think most people who do hay are not set up with 10ft + wide mower, at leas I am not, I have a brush hog but its only 4 ish foot wide, I don't want to spend 3 to 5 days cutting and burning time and diesel just to make my hay looking better the next year, plus some of these cutting would still end up in my hay next year just less and my horse still eat that dry stuff so it is what it is and I leave it at that.

I have burnt it but even that it doesn't all burn and I still end up with some in my hay and I think it's worse to have some half burnt hay vs just dry old hay mix in.

 

[1 Old Man]

So many things factor in to the decision to cut or not.
What quality of hay you're willing to accept or sell?
The market you're trying to sell to etc...
Dairy cows have different needs than regular "cow hay".
Horse folks? That's a hay category all to itself.
If you're just cutting and baling whatever is growing....
then it really doesn't make any difference. But the folks
I sell to are not looking for bales loaded with weeds and
stalks. And the way a hay field looks prior to cutting
can make a difference in a sale or not.
My last of the season cut/clean up is with a 12' bat-wing.
Just clipping and smoothing out whatever was left or missed
after my last of the season hay cut.
There are no absolutes. Just do whatever you think is
best for your situation.

*edit to add pic: last year I used a Flail to do fall clean-up.

 

[Hay Dude]

I guess the real question for Hay Dude would be: Would you do it to improve your hay quality if you weren't being paid to do it. I guess even then it becomes a question of who your hay customers are and how much they are willing to pay.

80% of my hay is mushroom/mulch hay. Tonnage is what makes more money as long as a basic standard for quality is met. For that hay, it would probably reduce tonnage. So there’s no sense in mowing, unless Customer wants to pay for it.

20% is feed hay. For the fields used to make feed hay, it would probably make for cleaner hay (no brown strands left over from previous year).

 

[Shawn T. W.]

For the three years I did hay after I bought this place, only one year we got a second cutting in late October ... The other two years it was too dry and I had scraggly mostly weeds, I cut it in November ... 1st year was with my 4' brush hog (all I had) the next time I buzzed it with my Z-turn ... I only had 6 acres to cut ... It will definitely clean it up, and all those weeds will disappear into the ground as mulch, and not be cut and baled with your first cutting the following year ...

 

[lman]

We usually get 4 cuttings of alfalfa/Orchard grass. It does take fertilizer to keep a good stand.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Rain more than once every couple of months also helps the grass grow!

Weeds seem to prosper better though in those hot dry conditions ...