What to do.....

I use my tractors to harvest my hay crop. The winter hay consisting of mainly Rye grass is over 2' high and thick and the rain coming at least once a week won't stop. Seems rain is never your friend....either too much or too little.

I need a high pressure dome to sit over me for about a week to get it up but no such luck in sight. Looks like I have the makings for a big mess. I'm a STO and don't have any forage producing equipment nor any idea as to what I would do with it If I had it up as in my neck of the woods hay is what is consumed.

So, with the diversity on this site, I ask you folks, what's my best option? Things concerning me are mildew and the potential for all the dampness and delay in getting the plant processed will result in some kind of plant disease making the crop useless and possibly inviting more disease in following years.

Thanks
Mark

Anyone local wrap silage bales like Bruce does in Canada? They feed and handle almost like regular hay and you put it up in a couple days.

Silage bales are one option, another is using a hay tedder to speed drying time, and a third would be applying a preservative as the hay is baled at a bit higheer moisture than normal. You can add the basic no-frills preservative applicator set up to a round baler for a few hundred dollars.

Given that hay is your only option, my first suggestion would be to stop worrying before you give yourself an ulcer. Doesn't matter what you plant, this is always going to be an issue. Eventually your window will come, just make sure you are ready for it when it does. Do not get fooled and jump the gun on too short a window or wet ground. Wait and cut it when the weather will let you do it right. STO and hay these are the facts of life. Some years the hay and the window are ready at the same time, some years the window is late. Around here the later hay is a lower price (unless there is a shortage) but there is usually more bulk so more bales. Keep in mind that all this rain is going to make your buyers crazy for the hay and will pay more as long as you do not go nuts. Experienced buyers know the score. That would be my two cents as a long time hay producer for the horsey trade. With all this rain the last two years I have some fields could not be cut 100% either year. Just don't plow it under and plant corn. That can cause drought conditions to develop.

Just a typical hay season here in humid southern MN. Im guessing you are from a pretty dry area there and just not used to having to deal with wet hay making.

The big guys have all gone to bagging or wrapping options alongside dry hay making.

Us little folk just deal with it. The rained on little bit wet stuff gets fed to cattle or for mulch.

The good stuff goes to the better paying customers.

Paul

I should add, if you are used to handling dry hay in round bales, higher moisture hay and silage bale hay will weigh more-in proportion to the increased moisture.Silage will be quite a bit more I dont know what you have for bale handling/feeding but be careful not to make bales beyond what you can safely handle/haul/feed . You may need to make/have made smaller diam.bales to keep the weight where you need it,there will just will be more of them.

If you are short on feed right now, maybe fence some hay ground off with electric fence and run livestock on it for pasture. Yields are lower, but so are input costs.

AS DaveH posted it will come and your crop will be bigger. However, as JK posted it would be wise to have a tedder if you do not. No one makes hay up here without a tedder.

I've always said, just ride out the weather, and put it up in drier conditions. If it's going to be ruined by knocking it down in the rain, might as well take your chances on it not being ruined by putting it up past the maturity that you would of preffered.

I say this, although I haven't dealt with Rye. But have applied the tactic to alfalfa, brome, and prairie. I have ended up with edible hay (not ruined) by applying this tactic. That otherwise would of been completely ruined.

Got to remember, ending up with some hay of some sort at the end, is the goal. Not ending up with a whole bunch of bales that is only good enough to fill a ditch with.

I maybe dumb but what does STO mean?

Small Time Operator!

Well this Small Time Operator appreciates the replies. I have a JD 375 that bales a 5x4....like a 5x6 bale that stops at 4' diameter. It suits my current needs perfectly. I sold off my cattle in 2014 so I just sell it to neighbors now and I want it right,

On using a conditioner that might be an option but that is apparently a chemical and other than NPK I don't use any chemicals other than 2-4-D when needed, on a limited basis. I had a case of Lymphoma Cancer that almost killed me in 2013 and I'm not taking any chances.

I have had this problem every spring as the last few years springs have been very wet and then 1 June and the spiggot turns off for the summer....black to white, on to off. It chaps me to have bales that develop mold or look like the letter D on it's back side because of excessive moisture when baled . Without a complete overhaul, once Rye gets established, and like this year, matures in the field before baling, you can't get rid of it....plus when I can get it up right it makes a good hay. So it is my first crop of the year.

Well time will tell.
Thanks for your time.

STO = small time operator, conversely BTO = Big Time Operator

I think.

Weather permitting I'd choose to ""cut Ryegrass before it matures"" in flat swathes IE not windrowed. Cut stalks 3''-4'' high to help support cut crop to aid in air circulation. If no tedder or damp hay wrapper is available then wait for crop to dry then rake & bale. Hay laid flat doesn't mold/mildew as easily as windrowed hay.

I've wanted to bale some haylage for several yrs so if I was experiencing the same situation I'd be aggressively looking for a bale wrapper & frt end loader bale squeeze

Matured Ryegrass baled for hay resembles small grain straw in color & feed quality

Wait

"Eventually your window will come..."

I'm still waiting for my window to make dry hay in 2021.

I was hoping you'd chime in since your farm is fairly close to me and you bale hay for a living.

I have a MOCO and a drum mower. You helped me decide on the MOCO for cutting as I can control the WW and cut higher which is
good to aid in drying and it offers the stem crimping function also. The summer grasses in the same fields like having some stem
height to get going for their summer growth period. I wore out my old tedder and bought a new one last year. No doubt they pay
for themselves especially since I don't have perfectly rectangular (long and skinny) fields; really helps to spread out clumping in
irregular corners which are most of my corners. I usually start tedding the day after I cut and ted till the hay is dry....as dry as I can
get it on spring crops.

On hay quality, I agree that leaves are more nutritious than stems but being mature the seed pods would be in the grain category
would they not? We combine grain to get the seed pods and the associated food value, why wouldn't the Rye seeds be of similar
value, offsetting the bad effect of the stems? The fertilizer I applied went somewhere. Ruminants do a good job of digesting. I
don't have a horse customer.

On wrapper I assume you mean plastic bale encapsulation and a squeezing device to move the bales without penetrating the
plastic. Not sure a STO can afford such. I have a hard enough time getting my bottom line in the black as it is. There are BTOs
around here that do that and it makes an impressive row of rolls. They also cut corn sileage and row it out with a plastic covering
which seems to work well for bunk feeding stockers.

Thanks for your inputs.

Something else that we all do up here in the northeast when the ground is wet is to mow into a narrow swath, so that the sun can beat down on the exposed ground between the swaths. We then tedd out after 4-6 hours. reducing the moisture in the ground makes a huge difference. This is extremely apparent in one of my fields which is half well drained and half wet.

I agree with your methodology. I like to cut with a little bit of ww to expose some ground for drying purposes and also so that the
tractor doesn't stomp on freshly cut hay the next time around cutting the next lap.

Humidity has been running high and when we can get dry Northers here that bring in low humidity and have the sun shining it really
helps. I get a lot of southerly wind from the Gulf of Mexico and even though I am around 400 miles from the Gulf, it is a distinct
disadvantage in drying time.

On any crop that has seed heads as the seed heads mature the protein relocates from stem/leaves to seed heads leaving a lot less protein in leaves/stalks & majority of protein in seed head hence the name "straw". I'll choose rained on/dried to correct moisture before baled hay over very matured vegetation low overall protein of plant any day.

Opinions are similar to navels in that everyone has one & that's my opinion.

(quoted from post at 13:51:19 05/04/22)

On any crop that has seed heads as the seed heads mature the protein relocates from stem/leaves to seed heads leaving a lot less protein in leaves/stalks & majority of protein in seed head hence the name "straw". I'll choose rained on/dried to correct moisture before baled hay over very matured vegetation low overall protein of plant any day.

Opinions are similar to navels in that everyone has one & that's my opinion.

Click to expand...

Rain and re-drying doesn't hurt immature hay nearly as much as mature hay. but I think that Mark's is already past mature.

Excuse my ignorance but I don't catch your intent here. Do you mean that the window never came and you baled anyway? If so,
how did it turn out?

Jim I understand we are under strict guidelines here but I get your intent....I can't use the acronym Laugh My xxxxx Off in reply to
your post on here for the same reason. Grin.