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How much good hay is left shattered and not used?
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Hay Wilson in TX
Posted 10/31/2014 10:46 (#4153643 - in reply to #4151796)
Subject: RE: How much good hay is left shattered and not used?



Little River, TX

Hello Hay Wilson in TX

I didn't read through all the info posted, but comment on these 2 points:

Stands to reason that with heavy fert. application that not only yield but nutrient content of hay will go up.


Here, I never raked (doubling 2nd cut swaths for baling) during the heat of the day. The day that I figured that it'd be ready to bale, I would go out early in the morning (sometimes before sunrise, if I had a lot of acres to do) & rake the hay while it was soaking wet with dew. If I didn't finish raking before the dew burnt off, I quit raking, not wanting to lose any of the leaves.
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We all have our own micro climate we work with. HERE we have 2 hours ( on occasion three ) to get our baling done.
Going from j ust barely dry enough to bale to too dry to bale.

There are times that I know the hay will be too dry to bale before finished. So what I do is only rake as usual the hay laying out flat. This is the day I expect to be able to bale. when I rake the day before I expect to bale. Then rake some of the hay the morning early of the day I will bale. This rolls the surface dew inside the windrow. This way the hay will have enough moisture to bale after the hay would usually be too dry. When I get to the reraked hay the hay moisture goes up enough to hold the leaves. I learned that little lesson a good number of years ago.

You may not have your humidity drop 20% in two hours but we do.

All this provides me with a completive edge. The local compition likes to start raking right after his noon meal, and starts baling when he be stacking the hay in the barn. His hay will be mostly stems with 7% CP compared to my 12% CP, and half the total dry matter. Selling by the bale cost him money, & more to the point the animals scatter the "hay" and use it for bedding. My hay us devouared down to the last morsel.


A lot of my funny ways I learned from Virginia and West Virginia.   

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