Clover Hay

[Rob30]

Does anyone bale large round bales of clover? I am planting a field if oats and want to underseed with red clover. I want the clover hay for higher quality hay. I see lots of people making alfalfa hay. Unfortunately I can not grow alfalfa hay here. The soil is a little too acidic and does not drain well enough. Clovers and trefoil work well here. Trefoil seed is too expensive this year. That is what I wanted to plant, but it is up to $8/lb here.
When I have harvested hay with lots of red clover before, I usually get some dust or mold in the hay. I have an older round baler, so wrapping it is not an option.

[FarmboyBill]

Its a tough hay sometimes to get right. If you crimp it so that its darn dry, yet not so dry it turns to dust You can bale it ok. Run your crimper over it assumeing you hav on. Go out a day later and grab a fair sized hand ful and try to twqist it in 2. look at it. If it LOOKS dry and yet its heard to break, Than your in the ballpark of what it should be like. Looking at it ought to tell you whether to wait or go ahead, If the leaves are 1.2 way between green and wilted, Its there thereabouts.

[springvalley]

As Bill has said it sometimes is a hard hay to get dry, and when it is, it looks almost like crap. Clover hay was the hay of choice back in the old days, Alfalfa wasn`t around much back then. Clover is a very good hay if you can`t grow alfalfa, and a lot cheaper to grow. You don`t have to spray clover as bugs don`t seem to bother it near as much. And the monmouth red clover bloosoms are good for people also, makes a great tea and good for your health. Clover hay is just dusty, can`t help it much, just that way. > Thanks Marc

[am1too]

How high does one cut the clover? An inch from the ground or higher? Just got my first clover going. It is about 2 ft high at the moment. Oh my it looks nice.

[springvalley]

Originally Posted by am1too

How high does one cut the clover? An inch from the ground or higher? Just got my first clover going. It is about 2 ft high at the moment. Oh my it looks nice.

An inch should be just fine, it will come back great. > Marc

[am1too]

Originally Posted by springvalley

An inch should be just fine, it will come back great. > Marc

Thank you very much. I appreaciate it. Would it work the same for alfalfa? I have some of it too.

[sammyd]

we always planted a clover timothy mix back in the day. Difficult to get dried down though as mentioned
alfalfa or clover we cut the same height

[uncle Will in In.]

Medium red clover with a little timothy mixed in was what they mostly grew here years ago. A couple pounds of timothy seed mixed with the clover seed will make more hay per acre. It also makes a better hay to feed either cattle or horses. Clover worked in better when we rotated or crops from corn wheat hay then pasture and back to corn. I've seen a lot of clover timothy hay grown in Ontario in the Soo area.

[Tad]

Pretty much just plan on letting it dry awhile, clover is hard to dry down but makes great feed.

[Riverdale]

Even conditioned (crushed) red clover takes a bit longer (a couple days rather than one) to dry.

[am1too]

I'm just using it for compost and soil enrichment. Also works to keep the darn rabbits outte the garden.

[bruce2288]

Hay drying depends of temp, wind and humidity. Were I am I plan of cutting alfalfa and baleing 3-4 days later.
The leaves will always be dry, you have to be concerned with the stem. If you can scape moisture out of the stem with a fingernail it is not ready. The foolproof way to get good hay is let is dry out and bale at night or early morning after the cooler temps and higher humidity have rehydrated the leaves.
Your climate is probably different than mine,so procede accordingly.

[oregon woodsmok]

There is often clover and grass hay for sale around here. A lot of grass and not much clover.

I won't buy it because the clover almost never looks good and I don't like little moldy spots in my hay. Apparently, clover is very difficult to get right and I suspect it dries and cures at a different rate than the grass it is mixed with.

If you can grow orchard grass, that will have 16% protein if it is cut at the right time and baled right.

Oat hay, if it is baled so it is that nice pale green color, is good nutritious hay. If you wait too long and it is gold colored hay, it has almost no feed value. You have to cut it when the seed head is barely forming and do not try to get grain in your hay.

[Welshmom]

I once attended a farm auction of an old farmer going out of business. He had 40 Jersey cows. His mow was filled with small squares of hay, most of which was actually black in color. Many folks were put off by that. But some guys said that was clover hay - and that was normal for clover hay. I looked a little closer at the hay, it wasn't moldy, just turned dark. It went for .75 cents a bale. My cows sure loved it

[haypoint]

For wet acid soil, birdsfoot trefoil will do better and last for many years. Around here, clover will disapear after 3-4 seasons.
Clover leaves dry in a day or two. Clover stems dry in three or four days. Bale in two days and the stem moisture will form mold. Bale in three days and the leaves will turn to dust and fall out before they get into the baler.

[ksfarmer]

One thing, a vet once told me not to feed clover hay to bull calves we were going to be dehorning and castrating. He said clover has an anti-coagulating effect and there would be much more bleeding.

[Ross]

Can you get vetch seed? I'm a big fan of vetch, its very forgiving for harvest as it can have dry pods to prebloom flowers all on the same plant. Sheep love it. Clover is OK but you don't need to read about drydown again. it really does make great hayledge or you can spray it with acid once it hits about 18% moisture. An inverter helps it dry down naturally but you still need sun.

[Rob30]

Haypoint, the drying process you are talking about is exactly what I am talking about. I do not have a sprayer or a wrapper. My baler is an older model that can not wrap wet hay. I will look into a sprayer for the square baler, but I have not used it in years. I think I was haveing issues with the notter when I parked it. I might look into having someone else wrapp it. But It is hard to fid custom operators around here.
Ross, I could plant vetch. I have not seen vetch seed forsale here. My objective is too make a good quality hay high in protien and energy. I am a little concerned about feeding pure clover to sheep. Trefoil was my first choice. But the seed is $9/ lb this year, compared to $2 for clover I am thinking now of adding some grass seed. But I wanted to keep the legume content high. At least 50%. However adding the grass should help with drydown

[Rob30]

I forgot to mention that one of the reasons I wanted to plant pure clover was for the seed. I wanted to combine the seed to use for overseeding other pastures. I bought an old massey 35 combine last year and want to make it usefull. I am planting a small grain mix (oats, barley, pea) in the field.

[o&itw]

Red clover hay is a great hay here in the midwest (US) also. Not the disease and insects that alfalfa gets, and will grow in our acid soils well. With our early spring, mine is ready to cut now. The problem with red clover hay has always been that if the stems were dry enough not to mold or heat, the leaves were so dry they would fall off while raking and bailing. With the advent of hay conditioners, which take the hay through rollers when it is cut and smash the stem flat (as well as squeezing out a lot of the sap) one can make great red clover hay. It does require watching the hay carefully and getting it baled when the stems are cured, but the leaves are not over-dry. Sure, it is more picky than fescue, or timothy, or red top, but it is such a great hay that it is worth it.

Also, if it is mixed in the field with grass hay, or in your case, mature oats, the straw or grass will help absorb some of the excess stem moisture.If you are going to combine the oats, then it still works with the straw.