|
North Dakota | I have run into an unusual problem for this area. We are on track receiving more than 2 times our annual rainfall and at an unusual time of year.
No, I am not a communist because I am complaining about too much moisture. I am grateful for the moisture we are receiving, but when you expect less and at this time of year especially, it does present problems.
Problem #1: I can't get my 1st cutting cut and dried properly with this weather. I am just over half way through my total haying acres and the 2nd growth has reached a point that it, in places will out produce the 1st cutting. My 1st cutting alfalfa is now losing value daily but my alfalfa/grass hay, the grass is still increasing in volume but decreasing in value.
About half of the 700 bales already put up are of excellent quality and put up "right". The other half has a larger amount of weeds or has been baled a little to wet. I will keep the wet ones and when I feed it will be through a bale processor so any mold that may occur will be put airborne when feeding. I store my bales single in a row so the chance of a bale heating up and starting the stack on fire is minimal or next to none.
Problem #2: I cannot leave that much material on the field till next spring and expect it not to cause future issues.
Deductive reasoning with just a little common sense tells me that leaving this stand and rotary mowing it back onto the soil in the spring may not progress my project forward. Too much mulch on the ground and as we all know rotary mowers do not spread what is mowed evenly on the ground, may just choke alfalfa plants out. That much massive amount of mulch should be put deep into the ground to improve your soil and would require more ground disturbance than alfalfa could survive.
SOLUTION: Turn your trusted, younger neighbor lose to take what he can from these (already cut once) acres.
I have already dealt with this neighbor in the past and we agree on certain practices benefitting my thought practice on the subject of alfalfa. We agree for instance that bales should promptly be bunched to the edge of the field killing alfalfa only in that area for one. Secondly it provides a nice clean area just in case you do take a 2nd cutting.
This practice has already this year benefited him more than myself.
The economic benefits to each of us mutually agreed upon previously. I have chosen him because he needs more hay than he can produce on his property and I can trust him with a hand shake alone as well as with a written contract.
Altering your project rules cannot be done easily when the project you are involved in is someone else's. A government project for instance, the reason you receive compensation is so that the program gets executed according to the project rules. Not generally flexible and strictly enforced.
If however you start a project completely uninhibited from outside "preconceived notions" or rules you can, as I appear to be forced to now, make decisions according to ever changing conditions and for your own reasons.
My now "steadfast" rule of never taking a 2nd cutting but instead leaving it for soil improvement, EVER, is now been altered so as to prevent previously not considered conditions form possibly causing future negative results. I have not changed my mind on this subject but have categorized the rule from a steadfast to general rule.
| |
|
Alfalfa - programs
