Park the planter?

showcrop · Mar 9, 2021

The response from Bruce from Can. to the "time to sell" post about the value of high quality forage made me think of a statement by our state Ag commissioner years ago telling about the advisability of pausing planting in the spring in order to get forage in the bunk at its peak value in order to reduce next spring's grain bill. This would of course be dependent on weather conditions, but one of his main points was that it is really not that often that weather keeps you from getting your corn in before the frost reduces the feed value of it, while you know that the loss in value of your forage is costing you potentially thousands of dollars a day. I have just a few times broken off from first cutting after a long rain stretch to go grab some top quality 2nd cut. You would have to be extremely motivated to follow best practices in order to do this. Have you ever parked your planter to go get some forage?

chcase · Mar 9, 2021

Have more than once unhooked the planter
and cut hay.Always was told get the hay
done when needed.

JK-NY · Mar 9, 2021

Common practice now with the large dairy farms around here to start harvesting 1st cut hay silage in the second half of May and
often they still have some spring tillage and corn planting going on too. Of course last year was a bit different , we had
measurable snowfall here 3 or 4 days in a row the first full week of May . Usually I wouldnt figure dry square baled hay harvest
starting here till mid June.

Tgrasher · Mar 9, 2021

You can plant corn in a lot wetter conditions than baling hay. Many times, I've planted in the morning and then baled in the afternoon. I'll aways hook the
planter back up to be ready to go at day break. Nothing like watching the sun come up from a tractor seat.

JK-NY · Mar 9, 2021

Another thought came to me after my first reply , I remember my neighbors (small dairy farm) some years taking off first cutting in
early/mid June and then going in and plowing up the sod and planting corn for silage. With the warmer falls and later frosts we
have had the last 10 years or so , that program would work well. Back when they did this we often got a hard frost by mid/late
Sept.

formerly ny bill · Mar 9, 2021

that was a normal spring ritual here when we were milking. Get 1/2-2/3 of corn in, then chop first cutting haylage. I have enough tractors that I could
do both planting and chopping without having to unhook anything. Biggest issue was manpower. Dry hay came after.

john in la · Mar 9, 2021

What!!!!!!!!!
You suppose to cut hay based on the TDN and not the tons per acre.
Now you tell me.

Park the planter?

showcrop

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chcase

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JK-NY

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Tgrasher

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JK-NY

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formerly ny bill

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john in la

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