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East Central, IA | Jim,
That feed looks great! Some components of your mix do dry and cure much slower than straight grass, especially the pea stems, but we have some great hay making days ahead. My thought is that if your ground is dry enough and you ted it, with the sunlight hours we are experiencing and with any kind of breeze, you won't have a problem making this go as hay if that's what you prefer. I just did about 90 acres of brome/alfalfa/red clover/triticale mix and it made hay the 3rd day! I did NOT ted it. That is rare for this time of year, but it happened. I mowed it at night, it laid on the ground for 2 full days and was in the bale mid afternoon on the 3rd day. I probably could have forced it to go the 2nd day, but I didn't want to push the legumes. We were dry to start with, had a lot of intense sunlight, and 20-25 mph steady breeze. I mow with w 735 MoCo with a flail impeller which helps minimize the need for a tedder. If I do run a tedder, I like to do it immediately following the mower. I think if you let things dry for a day before you ted it, you will have some leaf loss depending on the ground condition and humidity. Here's a couple pics of my hay.
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 IMG_8393.JPG (144KB - 196 downloads)
IMG_8396.jpg (154KB - 221 downloads)
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mowed triticale pea strip for hay today (pics)
