Rain beautiful rain

cj in wisconsin · Jul 27, 2010

I know a lot of you are really getting too much rain but where I am we went through 8 years of drought and this year it finally started raining. 21 and a half inches since June 1 everything is finally green and the lakes are starting to rise again. I would still rather have rained on hay than no hay at all!!!!! Got my winters worth of hay the first crop and second will be a bonus for the first time in a long long time. Not gloating, just happy!

IaGary · Jul 27, 2010

There is a lot of talk on here about rained on hay. We had hay rained on many times myself.

Does one or to small rains really hurt the hay quality all that much? Sure it looses it"s green color but does it really loose nutriants?

Our cows never seemed to mind hay that got rained on. Sure a week of rain was a differant story. And that happened before as well.

I think over ripe hay is worse myself.

Glad you are getting the rains cj.

Gary

Fordfarmer · Jul 27, 2010

WE've had way more rain than we want/can use here... heavy soil just doens't need as much. still had a little standing water in the lows spots when I mowed Sunday afternoon. Forecast siad sunny till Wed. then - last night they said 40% chance for showers late this afternoon. It's 9:25 a.m. right now, and we've had over an inch. So I have more beef hay instead of cow hay. And back to can't-mow-because-I'd-get-stuck in the field with peas and triticale. (and I don't know what I'm going to do with it if I can get it off - it's too mature)

James Howell · Jul 27, 2010

Glad you got enough hay from your first cutting.

Second cutting as bonus sure sounds good.

We've had a lot of rain this July, but not complaining about it.

Helped us with our best cutting ever.

Good to hear that your drought is over.

PJH · Jul 27, 2010

We need a good rain here in Southern Illinois. It's dryer than a fopcorn part. I mowed some hay yesterday, even tho rain is forcast for most of the week. Thought that would surely make it rain. . .

Paul

showcrop · Jul 27, 2010

We had some mid-June hay rained on once and got half the field off just before the rain. We got both tested and found that it didn't hurt it much at all. July and August though are a different story. According to our tests the rained on June hay was better than late July hay that didn't get rained on. We have had threat of rain almost all summer, but have gotten nowhere near enough for the grass to grow well. Last year I was trying to bale through mud, with any number of bales in the wagon It was impossible to keep the baler in the windrow around curves. This year a lot of the ground is powder dry and the hay is drying in 1-2 days.

LAA · Jul 27, 2010

One extremely wet spring I had a double bumper crop of ryegrass and crimson clover, finally cut it and then it rained every day for 10 days. All we had at the time was a NH roller bar rake and the hay was so thick and heavy we never could do anything with it, finally kept raking and rolling it all around the edge of the field into the woods. That winter I moved a set of cows to that field and put out hay and there was dry grass on the meadow. Those cows and a few deer cleaned the woods out and ate that ruined hay down to the ground. They didn't touch the ''good'' hay I gave them for 3-4 weeks till they finished that clover.

Rain beautiful rain

cj in wisconsin

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IaGary

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James Howell

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showcrop

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