Well, wuz yer hay worth bragging about

[FarmboyBill]

Ranchers here are selling off entire herds so as not to have to try and find hay this winter, much less try to pay for it.

[tnokie]

Mr. Bill. I have been reading and hearing on the news about the horrific drought in Texas and southern/western Okla. How come no one has started a big hay relief thing going for all those farmers and ranchers? Looks like some rich singertype person like Willie would get one going. Or for that matter why hasn't the government done it. I mean if it was another country you could bet money we would be shipping boatloads to them!
This is going to be a devastateing thing as I see it. The farmers have to sell their stock, then they can't make farm loans and loose their property. And once they sell the stock it starts the ball rolling for the people who supply the farmers,so in no time we are in a major hurt with lots of people loosing homes and income. I sure wish the President and Congressmen would stop bickering about whose fault it is going to be if the goverment defaults and to concider whats going to happen if all those farmers default.Who do we contact and how do we get attention to this very dangerous situation.

[haypoint]

We had a cold spring and summer started out wet. Lots of hay around here. Every year a lot of hay gets shipped south. With the cost of fuel, I suspect there will be hay fields that won't get cut.

[whiterock]

My neighbor rents my pasture and land adjoining that belongs to my uncle. I noticed he was baling a 40 acre costal patch, and he keeps his hay on my uncles land. He stopped by my house and I asked if he made a bale to the acre, which is a pretty good cotton yield, or was when cotton was grown here. He said about half. I think he got 27 bales.
Ed

[FarmboyBill]

Ya know, If these mega ranches and farms go under, They may get broke up so that homesteaders have a chance at them

[rambler]

I don't know.

'Here' we can get 3 or 4 cuttings of alfalfa, and 2 cuttings of grass hay.

We typically have it kinda wet during 1st cutting.

This year was stupid wet. I don't grow alfalfa any morel I have a county ditch (small stream made by the county to help drain excess water, for you dry-land folk) and a road ditch on a county road (50 feet or so of grass on 4000 feet times 2 sides) and a 7 acre wet spot that is currently only good for grass, and tends to be wet at that, and a small network of field roads that's probably another 4 acres or so.

Well. Don't think I am 1/2 done with 1st cutting yet. With all the rain, some that I got to early for first cutting could be cut again.

The wet spot I cut a couple rounds, but got into 2 inches of standing water.... Actually got all but 200 feet of that baled - the hay dired down, but it didn't look like it would carry the baler & tractor...

Anyhow, hay this year is just a mess. It's been cool and wet, now hot and wet, you can't get 4 days in a row to make any dry hay. With the ground and the air so full of moisture, it takes a 4 day dry spell.

Got a 1/4 of the road ditch laying right now, got .4, .6, .2, and today .6 inch of rain on it after I cut it 6 days ago... What do you do? At least it will be good hay if it does stop raining - it is still green, never dried down....

There were 2 dry weeks early on, many dairy farmers made their alfalfa, and many make it into silage or balage so cut one day, silage the next - others of us spent that time finishing up planting beans & spraying weeds and such. Never got another chance yet for good hay. My bales are all boarderline dampish.

I feel for those of you in the dry areas. Been no fun here in mudland either. The hay is there, just can't get to it, watching it go downhill.

--->Paul

[Tana Mc]

We buy our hay for our 25 cows and assorted other farm yard hayburners. We have about 110 acres of grazeable land.
I am sooooo glad that I went ahead and "booked" our hay earlier this spring. We picked up a truck load of square baled alfalfa this evening and plan to go back to the field in the morning.
While we were there, we double checked with our hay guy to make sure that he still had our round bales. He has it and is just waiting to get the alfalfa done before he starts hauling it to our place. I went ahead and bought another 2 loads...... just to make sure. I am afraid if it doesn't rain soon, we will start feeding the hay sooner than normal.

The fellow who farms our field says that the corn crop is pitiful. After he harvests what is there, we are going to run a hot wire around that 30 acres and graze that. Hopefully, that will delay the hay feeding for another 25-30 days.

I am planning to go into winter with about 90 round bales of grass hay, 100 small sqare bales of grass, and about 75 squae bales of alfalfa.

I have already culled my goat herd down to about 20 total. The 6 horses stay until the bitter end. We are dithering about keeping replacement heifers..... the price is pretty dang good but with the massive cow herd sell off going on right now, good replacement heifers are going to be scarce and expensive over the next couple of years....

[Callieslamb]

We followed semi's loaded with hay from Cortez, Co to the Texas border just over a week ago. From the looks of things - the cows need it now.

[Wisconsin Ann]

Bill, I'm so sorry y'all are having such a bad drought this year. It's always hard in your area this time of year, but wow...if it's not burning from the sun it's burning from a fire down there.

While it's been cooler than normal here first part of the summer, the hay here is good. 2nd cutting was done earlier this month, and now with our heavy heat the hay is going gangbusters again. Neighbor bales straight alfalfa and his bales are glorious again. Our timonthy pasture/hayfield is excellent (except for the wildflowers in it)

[DaleK]

It's my first year not milking so my first cut was later than it's ever been for comparison. Finished cutting on the 12th, got 830 4x4.5 bales off 103 acres. Should have second cut in another 10 days but it hasn't rained in 3 weeks. Corn starting to tassel this weekend.

[Ramblin Wreck]

We've had mixed luck. A neighbor asked us to take over 40 acres, but the fields needed a lot of rehabilitation, very weedy and not much grass. Because it's right next door, I was able to give it a lot of attention (mowing, seeding, spraying), plus we lucked into some chicken litter. Those fields have produced well in spite of a six week drought in May/early June. Other fields we've managed for years did very poorly. Optomistic nuts that we are, we fertilized in the heat of mid-Summer, and the rains came back. It looks like we will get a good second cutting on all fields.

[Kazahleenah]

Originally Posted by haypoint

We had a cold spring and summer started out wet. Lots of hay around here. Every year a lot of hay gets shipped south. With the cost of fuel, I suspect there will be hay fields that won't get cut.

It's the same here.
LOTS of hay... I suspect many will ship down south/west to make the big bucks.

[brosil]

8 acres of grass alfalfa mix, about 520 bales. It should feed the sheep but they're not picky. The grass was overage but the alfalfa was ok. I don't think we'll get a second cutting.

[FarmboyBill]

Ive heard a simi of hay in Tex brings a fortune. Corse, it would cost a bunch in gas to get it there. They said that in Okla, the cow prices are amazeingly still on the high end regardless that the cows are comeing in under fed.

Its kinda funny here. A farmer can get 2 crops off his fields a year. Ive seen it done by a big farmer every year since ive been here. Wheat and milo, and later wheat and corn. BUT, We only usually get 1 cutting of hay, MAYBE 2 in a good year. Up home in NE Kans. It was the reverse. We could get only one crop off of farm land, but 3 cuttings of alfalfa a year for hay. Alfalfa dont grow here.

[sheepish]

Here in SW Ontario, when the rain finally stopped, we have gotten twice the hay off some fields. They are both thicker and taller than usual. But with a late first cut and now just heat and no rain, I don't know if there will be a second cut.

[arabian knight]

Going to be a HUge Hay season in WI also this year.
My landlord is on his 3rd growth now, may even make 4th crop, many around me also maybe doing the same. Plenty of hay as we have had plenty of rain Just in the nick of time so that new growth can get a nice start on growing.

[mabeane]

We had a surprise this year as a local guy asked to hay our field. Its about 11 acres and its mixed grass. We'll feed goats and he horses. So far we've brought in 160 bales and he's not half done! At no cost to us I am pleased with the results. And, my husband, who usually bush hogs the whole field yearly doesn't have to this year! A gas and time saver.

[7thswan]

Seems here, some are pussie footen arround with balen, maybe keepen it long to avoid too much burn. We should have cut our short field last week. The bottem land looks good, but some folks top fields of corn are cupping from the dryness. They say we might get rain 2 days next week, but I never belive them.

[Tiempo]

My hay man got a good 1st cutting, but 2nd is looking very weak...not enough rain since first cutting came in.

[Paquebot]

Hay looks great around here and well into second cutting. Did see something I never saw before. About a half section field had been in alfalfa for at least 3 or 4 years. First cutting was taken off and a few days later it was white. Now it's planted to beans. Got a decent crop of hay, killed everything with glyphosate, and still had time to plant beans.

Martin