Teach me about hay!

[LMK17]

I'm in way over my head when it comes to hay!

First, I'm pretty clueless regarding deciding *when* to make hay. Can someone please explain that to me, in layman's terms? I know I cut way late last year. Our bluestem was higher than my waist and had started dropping seeds already. That was in Oct or so. I *think* I'm in a good window for cutting right now. I'm not seeing big stalks on most of the grass. There's definitely a better proportion of leaf versus stem than when we cut last year, and the blades are pretty tall. BUT I don't know if I should cut now or wait a little longer. How do you tell?

Also, I'm a little confused about feeding hay. Last winter, I fed our overly mature hay to our cattle, but I supplemented with a little alfalfa for the protein. This year, I'd like to be able to confidently feed only our hay. How do you know if you need to supplement or not? Also, I noticed last year that our goats weren't very interested in our hay, though the cattle ate it with gusto. Is there a trick to feeding hay to goats? (We fed large round bales on the pasture in a round feeder.)

I also hear about "horse quality hay." Are horses really that sensitive? We don't have horses yet but plan to get them one day. Will our organic, native hay not be good enough for them?

Finally, we're trying to tread as lightly on the pasture as possible. My plan is to cut only half the pasture one time each year and allow the other half to stand and re-seed itself. Then the following year, we cut the other half. Also, I figure that way, there will be fewer nutrients being carted off, allowing for longer periods between fertilizing, yet the place won't be overrun by saplings because we'll be cutting it all every other year... Is this a sound way of managing the property?

Not sure how helpful the photos are, but here's how the pasture looks today. I think it's ready to be cut and should still be pretty nutritious?

 

[Bayleaf Meadows]

I saw a youtube explanation of hay that said the best thing to do is send it to be tested if you want to know how nutritious it is.

 

[LMK17]

Yeah, I'm sure that's best. Still, I think there's a decent way of eyeballing hay to get an idea of how good it is. I'd like to learn how to judge good grass or hay by its appearance. I'm planning to send off samples every couple years to get a handle on when we need to amend the soil, but most of the time, I'd like to just eyeball it. KWIM?

 

[greybeard]

I saw a youtube explanation of hay that said the best thing to do is send it to be tested if you want to know how nutritious it is.

That, is after the fact..after it has already been cut&baled.

Bluestem is one of the grasses that need to be cut for hay while in early "boot stage" which is BEFORE it goes to seed. Early boot stage is just before or just as the bulge that will become a seedhead even appears. Once it goes to seed, it is less nutritious and less palatable. If it's Big Bluestem, it loses even more protein after seeding out, compared to Little Bluestem but all grasses of this type lose protein and platability after seeding out.

http://forages.oregonstate.edu/regr...grass-types/jointing-and-non-jointing-grasses

You get more yield by waiting longer but, at a quality cost.

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

County ag agent should also help advise you, too.

Horse quality is about having leaf blades, rather than stems in the hay, being put up without getting wet, no mold, stored in the dry, little to no weeds, etc..... as horses are sensitive to mold. Actually cattle, goats, and HUMANS are too!!! You can end up with a nasty lung disease from breathing in mold from hay. Depending upon the mold type it can cause blood to not clot correctly, loss of pregnancy, and generally poor growth.

Goats don't like eating what they step upon. So, if your hay feeder allows them to climb on hay, they will not eat it. They are really good at picking through the hay and getting the better, tender bits, though.

If your hay is low in protein and high in fiber (as over mature hay may well be) you can supplement with whatever is cheaper source of protein such as you mentioned, alfalfa hay, or grain. Young stock have to have enough protein to grow and pregnant cows have to have enough to grow that baby calf, put on enough flesh herself so she can milk well.

Have you investigated using stockpiled grazing? Around here in eastern TN we close clip pastures in late August and then let them grow out without any grazing. When we begin to have to feed hay after hard freeze, we turn in on these "stockpiled" pastures. And, what about sowing annual rye grass? Again, here it is done in late August and pretty much grows through out winter unless we have a really cold winter. We can oversow fescue, but I don't think you can oversow rye on bluestem without loosing the stand.

Fertilizing and soil pH is important too. Do your soil testing as recomended and apply what is advised. Just like anything else, hay and pasture won't have what animals need in way of nutrients if you don't pay attention to soil needs.

 

[greybeard]

You can stockpile warm season bunch grass like Kline and Big Bluestem but it takes close monitoring and good management practices and a low stock rate of cattle. Little Bluestem same way but even closer monitoring is necessary. Between the July cutting and first frost, the Bluestem will be tall, stemmy and headed out and the cattle will be eating the more leafy crown and in doing so, going from bunch to bunch, trample the crown down and, eat the crown too close to the ground. You want the cattle moved off of it well before the leafy crown is grazed down to 6" height..do not let the cattle graze the entire plant down close. Next spring and especially at next cutting time, you will see really poor production in tons/acre and poor quality to boot because of crown loss.
An improved bunch grass like WW B. Dahl Old World bluestem might be an exception because it has such a high leaf to stem ratio, is later maturing (late September) and the likelihood of it being eaten that close to the ground is lessened. It's a great forage, high protein, but hard to get established and fairly expensive to establish as well. It thrives in central Texas and as far North as Northern Oklahoma. I get too much rainfall for it to make it here. BTDT. It 'drowned' out 2nd year of growth. B Dahl requires less fertilize than any Texas grass I know of, is extremely drought tolerant, and........fire ants generally leave any area B Dahl grows. Some research indicates cattle have fewer parasites on B Dahl...jury is still out on that one.

 

[LMK17]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! Very helpful, especially the diagrams.

We went ahead and made hay last week. The guy who cut/baled it for us was able to answer some of my questions, and he said we had timed the cutting well. We got 16 bales from about 7 acres. I know we could boost yield-- and maybe quality, too-- but I figure that can come later. For now, we're still learning and figuring out how to manage our place; it'll be a year tomorrow since we moved here. Also, we have a low stocking density right now, just 3 steers and a handful of goats on a total of 19 acres of pasture & woods. In the future, we may want to add some animals or go all-in for the best hay production possible, and at that point we'll get more concerned about closely monitoring and managing the pasture, but for now we're just trying to get a handle on the basics. Presently, we have plenty of our own hay to get us through the winter, and we just got a couple inches of rain to start the grass growing again, so I'm happy.

I've been intrigued by the idea of stockpiling forage. We even semi-do that since we've only cut half the pasture at a time and let the rest stand over the winter months. But again, I'm just not practiced enough in pasture management to do a really good job at it. Likewise with overseeding. It's definitely an option, and i know the folks who lived here before us did overseed some winters. But presently, it doesn't pencil out cost- and time-wise for us. The pasture needs cut occasionally, anyway, and while we're at it, we may as well make hay. Since we've been able to feed our animals over the winter on our own hay, it doesn't make sense to me to spend the time and money to overseed. Again, though, if we wanted a higher stocking density, then we'd definitely go that route.