Graze hayfield or make hay

[Go for 300]

I am in a spot, like many folks especially in the Midwest, of being short of pasture. I had a piece rented I thought, then all the sudden it got sold to a higher bidder. Guess that happens all the time, but that is another topic.

So I have a grass hay field that will be 3 years old this year. By finagling around between some other places I think I can get by taking a first cutting off this field and then setting up a rotational grazing system on it. Te field is relatively square on the bottom half and triangular on the top. It is wheel line irrigated, so any fencing would need to be parallel to the existing set up.

My question really is, what sort of income, if any, might I be foregoing if i grazed this the second cutting and through the fall rather than making the hay to sell.

I know there are a bunch of ways to skin this deal, but I sure would like to be able to convince myself that grazing that second cutting is more efficient/economical than making the hay and selling it. I would like to get to grazing 300 days, right now we are at 210 to 240 depending on when fall ends and winter sets in. I don't think more than 300 is realistic given climate, but then again I bet I could have maybe got there this winter if we had been all set up since it was so mild. Might have taken some tubs for a bit, but I guarantee that is cheaper than $3/day in hay by itself.

[Yvonne's hubby]

You have better control of feed if you make hay and feed it to your critters. Pasture is handier and cheaper in some respects, but if you are having to buy feed, I would cut back on pasture and increase my hay production.

[Gabriel]

Is it your pasture? If so, I would definitely graze it since you said you would rotationally graze. If it was leased I would bale it and haul the bales to enrich my place.

Jim Gerrish crunches the #'s in "Kick the Hay Habit" and makes a very convincing case for, well, kicking the hay habit. Every year I listen to my neighbor complain about how much he has to spend on fertilizer and seed for his hay pastures and every year I watch my rotationally grazed pastures improve with no input other than sunlight.

[agmantoo]

Since you are irrigating I would guess you are in eastern Oregon. What are the low temps in your area during Winter? With your current setup, hay and pasture, what is the carrying capacity per acre and for how many months are you feeding hay?
PS.....what forage is being grown?

[Go for 300]

Low temps are usually -10 for a week or so, but generally 15-25 in the mornings for most of the winter.

Most producers feed hay from the middle of November, if they can find fall feed or crop ground to graze, until about now. So on average people feed for five months. This year I am going to be at 4 months. That extra 30 days is about $75/hd with feeder hay figured at 150/ton. Mugs who ran short are paying $200/ton for grass, ouch!

My hay fields are alfalfa, grass(fescue)/alfalfa, and the grass field I am thinking of grazing the second cutting is mostly endophyte free fescue, with orchard and some perennial rye blended in. One of my concerns on this field is how heavy the soil is. If it is even a little wet, the cows would tear it up pretty bad, at least the neighbors cows do. So I almost have to dry it out like we are going to cut it before putting cows out. By the time they got through their rotation, it might be burned up.

Honestly I couldn't tell you what the capacity is. We have completely redone the whole place, fences, watering, irrigation systems, crops since we bought the place. One guy said he figures that if he had 3 acres per cow, this includes the acre for producing winter feed, than he would be able to work.

The alfalfa fields will produce 5-6 ton with a good amount of fert, the grass fields will be a touch over four ton. With no fert it seems guys get about half that. At least initially, but nobody sticks to that program long enough for the ground to come around from holistic management. The better organic alfalfa yields about four ton here.

My wife bought me the hay habit book for Christmas. It was a good read. The book is part of what has me considering this. The pencil doesn't lie and there are a lot of nutrients on that truck when the hay leaves. I would like to get to rotationally grazing the whole place, and if this keeps working we will. Nut with hay prices where they are, it sure makes the cash flow work a little better. And with establishing all the hay fields in the last three years, I think we have to get the most we can while prices are at all time high. Maybe that isn't thinking straight, but someone has to pay those bills.

I have been looking for some hay ground that is reasonably close so we can imports nutrients from there, but I will just have to keep trying on that.

For now, and into the future, we need some winter feed. It is too cold for too long to go without it entirely. It would be nice to get feeding from mid to late January until about the middle of April. That is a little shorter than 300, but that will keep the motivation going.

[ycanchu2]

If I were going to bale it I would do it as soon as possible in order to get regrowth before dry weather. Last year I didn't cut my hay untill June then it turned hot and dry and regrowth was very slow.