Should I just mulch the hay down?

Still no window for making hay East of St. Louis. I have 2 patches of clover/grass hay that I have not been able to cut. The few windows we had I couldn't get off work to get it done or the forecasters were calling for rain. How much longer would you guys go until you just mulched it down with a rotary mower with hopes of getting a second cutting off it? Or would you just leave it as it is and bale the mess when/if a dry spell ever shows up?

hard to say ,,. but it cant hurt.. still have 1st cut alfalfa /orchard grass ./timothy in field and waiting for fair weather ,..BUT ... gonna bushog some marginal grass and clover today ,,with the intent of baling later , and reseeding too , I hope... not sure its the right thing to do ,.. but least I am doing sumthin..

Bkpigs,

It also depends on what you're going to do with your hay. The old saying is, "Come January, the worst hay in the world is still better than the best snowballs." My cows want something to eat, even it's not 16 percent TDN. Generally speaking, I'd really have to have a tremendous mess in the field before I'd bush hog it.

Tom in TN

I'm in same boat. Started grazing cows across it yesterday in small, temporary paddocks for a day at a time. Will mow it the day after to break up patties and cut tough growth they passed over.

I would agree with Tom, I think this winter the worst hay is the only hay

Just keep buggering on... the second crop will grow up through the first. It won't be great hay but it will be hay... and it will keep a cow or a horse alive. If you were trying to make milk it would be a different story but generally it's good enough for maintenance.

Rod

I was gonna post about rolling some second cutting today,the same day that for the past two years,I was baling the last of the first cutting,but if you guys are having trouble,I'll sit on that one. I know where you're coming from though. Like I said,it was two years in a row for me.

I cut hay sometimes in late August on a couple places that I cut there only once a year,there is a lot of dry stuff in it but also some good stuff too the cows and goats eat what they want and lay on the rest.The stuff they lay on is great to mulch with and is worth more to me than the hay was before I fed it.Last Winter when we had snow and very cold the cows stay in about an acre area except when they went to get water and I just kept about two of these type bales there all the time for them to eat on and put out a better bale to eat too.Cows and calves did fine and kept up good the whole Winter.Spreaded the compost they made on truck patches and deer plots

If you need some high protein feed you might be better off to get some body making baleage to bale and wrap it, so that you can get your second cut going. I have been in this boat year after year, and as the weeks go by the demand for small squares just builds. The horse people don't care how over mature it is, just that it is not rained on. I could pretty much name my price for my junk hay. I got a call today from the next town. I don't have enough to meet my regular customers needs, who by the way are paying only $.25 more than last year, but I told her that I would bring her ten bales five miles, for $65.00, and she was as happy as could be.

Tom in TN is right hay is hay. Sounds like you and I are on the same weather pattern. I just got lucky on some hay earlier. Haven't seen a dry day for weeks

If you mow it with a rotary cutter and leave the cutting there you will not only have lost the first crop you will ruin the second. The clumps of DEAD grass from the first cutting will be there when you cut the second cutting. IF you mow your hay with a sickle type mower of any type those dead clumps plug the sickle.

IF you really want to mow it then mow it like you would for hay and bale it green. Throw the bales in a washout some where. At least the next cutting will have a chance of making some thing.

If it where mine I would do one of two things:

1) Leave it as is until you can bale it.

2) Mow it and make silage bales out of it. Even over ripe hay will make good cattle feed after it ensilages.

It is tough just setting there doing nothing but doing anything to it that leaves the old growth there is just making all your hay this year BAD!!!!

I have seen wet windrows chopped back on the field with a forage harvester. Just point the spout high in the air and the small clippings will spread and they will cause ZERO trouble. A rotary cutter or even flail mower does not cut it fine enough or spread the clipping out enough for them to not be trouble in the next crop.

This is from someone that has raised hay crops for just at 50 years now. I currently have 175 acres of hay. I get around this issue by chopping my first crop 8 out of ten years. I can feed the silage. Some rare springs I can make dry hay out of first crop.

Bale it and get it off the field. We had a very wet spring too and not too many guys got their summer hay crop planted. My hay
customer told me he'd take my over grown, mature hay along with the stuff I'm putting up now and was glad to get it. I did give him a
significant price break as it was the best answer for me, rather than trying to work it into the soil for humus. Just too much of it.

bkpigs I just got the first cutting up for the neighbor last night. Whoever he had cut it last year left the last cutting laying on the ground. pretty much killed out the good stuff and left grass. 1st cutting should have been done here 3 weeks ago. Now on to my own on Monday. Not supposed to rain for the 1st 4 days next week but you know how that is.

Maybe combine it for the seed.

I remember a year like this about... 15 years ago. A bunch of local wisemen had so much feed on first cut that they chopped the stuff they didn't need back onto the field as described. Then it got dry.... and they got no second cut... and were scrounging around looking for garbage feed come fall.
I'd bale it and ensile it if nothing else but I wouldn't blow it back on the field...

Rod

Jd has it dead on right! Read his post again!