Hay Yields

[barrybro]

I just baled my hay field for the very first time. My Wife and I just bought our farm last fall. Neither one of us have grown up on a farm or had any experience what to speak of.

With that in mind I did not fertilize my hay field in case i couldn't get a bale to come out of the back end of my New Holland 269 hayliner.

Well I managed to get bales to come out, but my first cutting is at a rate of 10 bales per acre (6 acres total). How much will fertilizing (according to the soils analysis done) increase my yield. I was told by the previous owners my field was old and tired, maybe I just need to start over?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Barry

 

[WTA]

In my 7 acre bermuda field, without fertilizer I am lucky to get 50 bales in 28 days. With 60 pounds per acre nitrogen, at least 4 inches of rain and daily irrigation I can get 500 bales. We've only gotten there once. Usually I get 400 or so.

My first cutting of alfalfa this year was very disappointing. I got 5 good bales off of 2 acres because I couldn't afford the fertilizer back in April. Normally we can get a little over 300 bales off that 2 acres. I fertilized it now and it's growing like crazy!

 

[barrybro]

Thank you - that is encouraging!

It was quite a letdown to have so little success the first time. I had hired two young guys to help, my wife had food and pop - we felt like we were all set for the big time.

We had fun and we are learning which is the goal this year.

 

[zzvyb6]

We're gonna need some pictures...

6 bales per acre ought to weigh a LOT.

What are you mowing with? Is there a lot of grass still out there?

BTW: Pop is bad for post haying refreshment (as is beer). Its very dehydrating. I found out the hard way. Stick to water or Gatorade or equivalent.....

 

[WTA]

I'm still learning too. I've only been at it for 3 years now on my own. I recently retired from the military where I was working on steam engines and guns for a bunch of years. It's a big change.

When I was a kid we spent our summers on the great grandparrents farm where everything was done with horse power. Literally. Planting corn, cultivating, harvesting, haying, everything was always done with a horse team. That was 120 acres too. I was too young to do much thankfully but I learned a little.

With these fuel prices now we are going more and more to working the horses. My son's thoroughbred is in for a rude awakening when I cut hay at the end of this month. The harvest is looking pretty good right now and she will be pulling the hay wagon. Right now I have a single horse hitch on it. She can handle it. I'll rig it for 2 or 4 horses later on as I can afford the harnesses. I have a fat quarterhorse that is learning the harness work right now. She's next in line.

The learning just never stops! You have to constantly adapt to everything in the hay business.

Did you know that a horse can go farther on a bale of hay than the most efficient car in the world can on a gallon of gas????? Just not as quickly I guess.

I agree about the pop and beer. It will cramp you up out in the sun with all the lifting. I put a 35 gallon water tank on the weight bracket of my tractor with a hose attached to drink from and hose ourselves down with. It works a lot better than beer. I don't even allow beer on our property anymore. If you compare the one fence line that I got help from friends with, that were drinking heavily, to all the other fence lines that I did myself sober you will understand why.

 

[barrybro]

I will send pictures tonite (I am at my day job now). My equipment is part of the problem. My Ford 501 Sickle mower died on me 20 yards into the field. Had to finish with a brush hog (raised the back end up so it wouldn't chop the hay). Yes there is still a lot of grass in the field (uneven cutting, not low enough, etc...) but I can't imagine that it would have tripled my yield.

 

[barrybro]

No the bales were not that big, I didn't weigh them but I don't think they were more than 50#'s.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Ouch! 10 bales/A. Sounds pretty bad but then I don't know anything about growing conditions in your area. Using a rotary mower explains a lot but at today's costs, it hardly was cost effective for ~60 bales.

When I was haying I had a small custom haying service (this was yrs ago) so was doing others fields. Don't know if they used Fertilizer or not. Seemed to recall typ yield for 1st cutting was ~ 4tons/A.

Replanting the pasture and getting soil nutrients up to where they need to be is likely going to help a lot.

 

[mark.r]

I've got to think using the rotary had ALOT to do with it. I have heard of people cutting hay with a modified rotary mower. They remove portions of the sides which from what I understand allow the grass to escape and prevent it from being "chopped" into so many fine little pieces. By using the rotary in its "normal" setup even raised, the grass just got chopped into pieces that the baler couldn't pick up.

On the other hand I may not have any idea to what the **** I am talking about. It's just what I have heard but it makes some sense to me.

 

[barrybro]

I believe you are right it had something to do with it. I just have a hard time thinking it cost me 40 bales an acre. But who knows?

 

[mark.r]

I believe you are right it had something to do with it. I just have a hard time thinking it cost me 40 bales an acre. But who knows?

Again, I'm no expert but assume this. The grass that was cut by the rotary got overly chopped (huge losses there). Secondly, you mentioned you cut high (huge losses there). None of us, except you, know how "healthy" your grass was to began with so we don't know what your yield would have been if you would have cut using a sickle bar/haybine/discbine. So it is quite feasible that what you ended up with is about right. Just a thought . . .

 

[barrybro]

Yeah you may be right. I almost want to fix things one at a time to see the yield differences.

 

[mark.r]

Yeah you may be right. I almost want to fix things one at a time to see the yield differences.

Nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, nothing wrong with having healthy pastures either. Fix your sickle mower, and get your soil tested and go from there. If you can afford it add whatever fertilizer/lime you need. At the very least you'll know two thing, there is a reason that hay farmers don't use rotary's to cut hay and your fields will be more healthy than they were last go round! In the end you seem to be doing better than many other people like myself included who still can't make up my mind when I want to buy my hay equipment.

 

[ddivinia]

I baled my 100 acres last weekend and I got 107 round bales 48" * 65" bales.

I am still trying to get the weeds out so I am not going crazy on fertilizer. When we sprayed (grazon P+D) we put out some straight nitrogen (the amount slips my mind right now).

We need rain more than anything. I was thinking I would sell some hay, but until I see some more coming out of my baler - I am going to hold it all.

What kind of equipment are you using? The rotary cutter didn't help your situation. What kind of rake? Was there much grass left on the ground after you baled? How low did you cut?

How much do the bales weight?

D.

 

[WTA]

I've been out spraying 24d since late last night. I'm noticing the careless weeds and nightshade wilting over when I come back on the next row already. That is some awsome stuff! I'm only doing the minimum amount on it which is 1 pint for 100 gallons and I'm moving pretty fast too. If you have cotton or anything even remotely like it around your farm then I would recommend being very careful with this stuff. The nearest cotton to me is a mile away but the hail last week totally wiped him out.

 

[ddivinia]

I've been out spraying 24d since late last night. I'm noticing the careless weeds and nightshade wilting over when I come back on the next row already. That is some awsome stuff! I'm only doing the minimum amount on it which is 1 pint for 100 gallons and I'm moving pretty fast too. If you have cotton or anything even remotely like it around your farm then I would recommend being very careful with this stuff. The nearest cotton to me is a mile away but the hail last week totally wiped him out.

That stuff can work wonders for sure. What temperature is it up there? With the Grazon P+D it really needs to be cooler overall (early spring for us iN Texas). If you spray it late at night and then it warms up - it can change to a gas and be blown off. I needed to spray some stuff late int he season and I used Sterling (banvel). It does not have the same issue. This late in the season It wont kill them dead, but it will really slow them down.

What kind of sprayer are you using?

What really helped me get this spraying stuff figured out is you have got to know how much water you are putting out per acre. Then you can back into what you want to put down per acre, etc.

Did you mix any surfactant with it? Like preference or the like?

D.

 

[mark.r]

I've been out spraying 24d since late last night. I'm noticing the careless weeds and nightshade wilting over when I come back on the next row already. That is some awsome stuff! I'm only doing the minimum amount on it which is 1 pint for 100 gallons and I'm moving pretty fast too. If you have cotton or anything even remotely like it around your farm then I would recommend being very careful with this stuff. The nearest cotton to me is a mile away but the hail last week totally wiped him out.

What are you spraying it on, meaning which crop?

I use Pasture Pro from TCS and it works great. Kills everything but the grass within a day and half, for what's it's worth.

 

[vettemanwight]

You are in the learning curve on your haymaking !!!!! A good hayfield should produce about 100 bales per acre of 1st cutting and 35 second cutting. An excellant field should give 135 to 150 bales and 75 bales of 2 nd cutting. What do you need the hay for and how many bales do you need for the year ? The seeding is run out I would say and with the price of fertilizer this year I think you would be wasting your money this year. I would plow up some or all of your hay field and lime it and reseed it. Its going to cost you some money but then next season fertilize the fiels and you will notice REMARKABLE increase. It takes the same amount of time and fuel and equipment to cut 5 bale per acre as 100 bales per acre !!!! In this economy you need to get the most for your time and money !!!!!!! V

 

[ddivinia]

My 100 acres is in bermuda.

D.

 

[barrybro]

Thank you to all. I obviously have some work to do. Sorry for disappearing over the weekend, but I got wrapped up in my other projects (planting 250 mums for the fall, and getting my drip irrigation system started). I think I will probably plow under and start over next year. In addition I need to get the mower part handled.