SW PA weather - hay - frustrated

I'm curious if anyone has been able to get hay up in the western/southwestern part of Pennsylvania. I know there were about 4 good days back in early May that I missed but other than that I haven't seen anything worth even taking a chance on.

The orchard grass is headed out and the Timothy will be soon too...fields are looking well past due but I don't even want to take a gamble at 40% chance of rain as it seems like it's raining just about every other day here.

Farm is in Washington County - the only fields around here that have been cut look like they've been wrapped for haylage. My girlfriend wanted to try to take a third cutting this year - at this rate I'll be happy just to get the first cutting in.

I've had years where we haven't even started baling before July but that was normally because we couldn't get around to it earlier - now I'm sitting around just waiting for the weather to clear up enough to take a chance.

Thanks for letting me vent,
Jameson

All part of the game with the weather, win some, lose some and sometimes its a little of both. It can be just as you describe here too. Last season was very good weather, '13 was a wash out til July if I recall. This year, so dry the first cut yield is going to be much less, though we are well caught up on rain now, so its 2-3 day windows, maybe more but give or take, usually common. This season would have been ideal to take the first cut off earlier as the weather was just dry until the end of May, rains came back, and it seems like we are back to normal here. Given that and perhaps some fertilizer, lime and whatever the field may need to help it grow as best it can, one could have a very nice 2nd cut, with time for a 3rd if the weather allows it to grow and you can get it in. I've done the previous and on moist fields have had volume equal to or better than first cut, nice lush green grasses. I think there's a lot to be said for making the call on first cut after a certain point to take it off and try for the next cutting, seems to work here most seasons, but it can dry up again too. Its definitely a "racket" dealing with the weather and all the rest. Worst case is if you have livestock dependent on hay only or its the main part of their feed, like horses, where you may have to buy what you need to make up for these kinds of losses, can be costly as I have seen when buying whats needed, vs doing the work to put up your own, even with all the other things involved, equipment and such, at least then you have some control over it.

Cut 'er down. Dad always said "you can't make hay unless you cut it down".
Yup, he lived by that. Had very few crappy bales.

I'm not in PA but we have the same problem here in Missouri. I had one week where I go 4 days of dry and cut some hay and baled it but wish I had cut 2 or 3 times more. Got 3.75 inches of rain yesterday evening and over night. Have not had a day with out rain in about a week now.

East Kentucky hasn't been much better. I missed one window two weeks ago but it was forecasted to rain and didn't. So I blame the weatherman for that one. Other than that I baled some back on May 22 and some this past weekend(this past weekend the forecast wasn't the best but I chanced it and it worked out great). Here's the forecast thru Sunday...looks real familiar....

We have the same situation here on our farm in NE Texas.

Was able to cut, rake, and bale a little bit of hay last week.

Started raining again on Sunday and no relief in sight until Saturday.

We have one field down in the bottom that might not even get cut this year because of standing water.

Just hang in there the sun has got to come out again sometime.

Same thing here in NY, no rain in May, now rain every other day, then it takes a other week and a half if not longer to get the clay ground to dry out so you can get into the fields! It stinks.

I drive around Fayette, Greene, Westmoreland, and some of Washington. I've seen some cut and bailed but a lot is still standing. I just planted some corn this past weekend and i'm hoping all this rain has helped it start out. Where I work we've measured over 2" in the past 3 days.

What is the point in venting? Won't change the weather. I have been cutting grass hay and selling it in small squares to the local horsey set for many years now. Yes, there is an optimum time to cut hay to maximize quality. But if it is shot thru with mold because you rushed it between storms or if it is dusty because you tried to dry it on too wet a ground then it doesn't matter how optimum the stage it was in when you cut it. Generally, there will be a time between now and the 4th of July when the weather will cooperate. Yes, it will be past it's prime. I have every bale I can make already sold with pre-orders. It will sit down there and wait for the weather to be right because I don't want it coming back for refund. I would like to see 5-6 dry days at this point. The first couple are to let the ground dry out. Then I cut.

If hay is frustrating you, try corn.

I'll bet I'm the only person in Michigan that baled hay today. I was right in a dry slot Monday,so I knocked down 12 acres after I got back from the sale barn. It rained for about an hour while I was cutting,but I was right on the edge of it. It looked like it should have stopped at any minute,but it kept drizzling.
Yesterday was a good drying day. This morning was good,the wind held up all day. I rolled 76 bales. Had just half a round left just now when the mist moved in and got to be too much. I brought the last bale of the day home in the baler with no string and kicked it out so I can feed it.
About 95 acres done,65 or so to go.

I don't have any hay equipment of my own so I'm at the mercy of they guy down the road that is cutting and baling for me. I've only got 7 acres of hay so low on anyone else's priority list but not enough hay acres to warrant buying my own equipment. Even if it stopped raining today it would be 3 days before I could get in to get it mowed. At this point I have half a mind to brush-hog it off and salvage a second and maybe third cutting.

I'm in northeast Ohio and usually don't start haying till late June. You've heard of lake effect snow, well there's lake effect rain, too. June weather is usually unstable and it's hard to get three dry days in a row. May was cold and way below normal for rain and the hay didn't grow well.

I was half expecting to see a lot of the small horse places out mowing their own hay this week. After all, we had a day and a half of sunshine! You have a brand new mower and you are feeding (your) beef critters on round bales. I have a 30 year old mower (with rollers) and sell small squares for horses. I cannot get away with what you can get away with. Worse yet, they are all dickering with me this year. No one wants to pay what we got the last two years. I had to cave in and give the discount but at least it is all sold. Now if I can just get a few days...

That was going through my mind all day. I was sure glad it was hay for dry beef cows and not for sale to the horsey people. A few tough bales here and there,oh well. I feed four a day,they'll pick though it if I mix it in. I never gave them anything yet that they didn't eat eventually.

im going to start cutting tomorrow morning, we have a chance of thunderstorms tomorrow evening but its getting to the point we are either going to have to chance the rain or end up with woody hay. The neighbor is cutting tonight but he has more tile then us, I walked to field this afternoon and the ground was still to muddy for my liking.

I remember about 20 years ago we had June like this one--rain every other day. Didn't get 1st cutting done until July 4 and boy was it stemmy. You just can't win!!!

Most horse people are a pain. They don't understand that every bale isn't going to be perfect. There's a local dairy farm that I'm starting to cater to here. If it's good alfalfa, they'll buy every round bale I get them at a decent price. If it gets rained on, over ripe, grassy, they feed it to their heifers at a cheaper price. This is my first year working with them and it's been great so far. Even had a few wet bales and they didn't care. Just fed them up right away. What's hay selling for down your way? Good alfalfa is in the $140-$160/ton range here.