Chopping hay!

JayinNY · Dec 20, 2012

Anybody ever hear of flail chopping hay this time of year here in eastern NY? Heck the hay is all brown, and dry, can't be to much nutrition in it, if any.

LAA · Dec 20, 2012

Maybe bedding.

Tony in Mass. · Dec 20, 2012

No worse than guys asking about baling corn stalks.... cheaper entertainment than buying the cows cable TV anyway....
If it's dry they might sleep on it, if it is damp, you are wasting fuel.
If the field is where you can put up elec fence and let then at it, and decide for themselves what to eat, otherwise just forget it.

JayinNY · Dec 20, 2012

I figured it wasn't any good, but my fil was boasting that he's still chopping hay and the cows love it. ????

paul · Dec 20, 2012

I cut 200 bales of swamp hay a few weeks ago, day before the snow started 'here'. It was dry, cut one day, baled the next, packed well and dry in the bale, some of the nicer bales I ever put up.

Cattle love it for filler/ roughage, of course less protien in it so need other stuff, but sure beats having them chew on bark....

--->Paul

rrlund · Dec 20, 2012

What's wrong with baling corn stalks? The dry beef cows eat the leaves and husks,and yes,lay on what's left. I save a round bale of hay for every bale of stalks I feed.

As far as still chopping hay,back when I green chopped,I did it until it was all gone or until the snow stopped me.

tomstractorsandtoys1 · Dec 20, 2012

That hay is more than likely better than you think.If short on feed harvest it.It is probaly has late fall regrowth that is better than first cut grass made in July.One year I cut second crop orchard grass the end of Nov. raked it and baled the first week of Jan. turned out great for our feeder calves.Not sure if I was behind my neighbors or just way ahead by getting started my haymaking five months before them?LOL

JayinNY · Dec 20, 2012

My friend grows sweet corn, than in the fall they sell the stalks, for decorations. What ever he has left he let's my cut them and feed them to my cows, I just use loopers and fill up my truck with them, yep the cows eat them! Not to many bale the stalks around, mostly gets chopped.

RodinNS · Dec 20, 2012

There be more in it than straw... and definitely more than the 2x4's... so... it can get you through.
Could also be just for bedding? There is actually more in it than you think. 'Stockpiling' pasture for winter grazing is a pretty common thing in some parts as well...

Rod

Mike (WA) · Dec 20, 2012

Around here, with the rain, nobody makes hay after August. Usually, the grass just gets brown, mats down, and that's that. But one year, an old guy had quite a bit of re-growth after 1st cutting, and he didn't graze it. We didn't have a killing frost until we got an "Alberta Clipper" in December, temperature in the teens and single digits for a week. Just before it arrived, he went out and mowed that (still green) field. Everybody thought he was nuts.

Crazy like a fox, it turned out- the hay "freeze-dried", and he baled it. Very dark green, nice and dry- the cattle loved it. And nobody worked up a sweat hauling it in.

Matter of fact, we might have conditions for that again this year- haven't had a killing frost yet. If it ever dries out, I really need to mow the lawn again, or its gonna be a real mess come spring.

wisbaker · Dec 20, 2012

Some folks bale junk hay in the winter for mushroom growers to use as mulch.

mkirsch · Dec 20, 2012

At least one farm is flail chopping here in Western NY.

We put the cattle in for the winter over a month ago, so it ain't Dad... After the ordeal we had getting them into stalls, they ain't goin' nowhere for a while.

Chopping hay!

JayinNY

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LAA

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Tony in Mass.

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JayinNY

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paul

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rrlund

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tomstractorsandtoys1

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JayinNY

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RodinNS

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Mike (WA)

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wisbaker

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mkirsch

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