early planting forage options

Does any one have any suggestions. Pocket gophers have made it so I will need to put corn in the alfalfa ground. Just has gotten too rough, and the stand is thinning, and I want to get the hay feilds closer to home any way. 1st question is, any recommendation for a good hay mix for beef, will be on lighter ground. Planning on doing oats as a cover, cut and bale as forage at boot stage or.... If I can get some early mixture in some lighter soil ground that is is not ready yet for decent yeilding corn, I was planning on getting an annual grass mix of some sorts, and cut and bale early enough that I can get a high yeilding .3 or .5 soybean in after. Then let the oat cover crop mature and harvest as saleable small squares of straw and save the oats for creep and selling to horse spoilers. Would this work? Central mn. Or would I be better off getting the beans in early and hope for a wet late summer and get a quick growing mix hay seeded after the beans? Hay would be needed by late fall. Last few falls have been dry and cant see getting any decent germination /growth after soybeans. Any suggestions or advice. Just a trial this year, but eather way I need to establish a replacement for that alfalfa ground going to corn. Pleaee, no snide comments, asking for suggestions and advice. Re reading is a bit confusing. This would be (2) different feilds, one to be seeded in spring for an established few year hay feild, the other I want to some how get a double use off of to boost forage stocks, and also get some soybenas off as harvestable quality beans. Part of the reasoning is also as it is lighter ground and worked to death by previous operators I want a cover crop any way and would no till the soybeans in.

I don't have a lot of experience with mixed hay, most of mine has been either red clover with an oat cover and established brome. I will say that you would be hard pressed to find any better hay than oat hay baled in the boot...makes tremendous cattle feed. Several years I baled straight oat hay and it worked out great, if your going to small square bale it consider wire tie, rats love it too and twine tied oats end up being feed with a fork if you have a rat problem. Also on the oats "here" I can sow them in mid-late February then plant beans after there baled in eary-mid June.

I help my neighbor level a field last year you couldn't drive a pickup over. Replanted Oats, Alfalfa, peas, and red clover mix. Had a good stand even with shortage of water.

You have several choices on what,when and how to plant/seed your hay.

If you are going to sow alfalfa then I would early spring plant it with oats and orchard grass. You will have to watch the oats like a hawk. They are in the correct stage just a few days when the weather gets really warm. The yields will not be great the first year. I usually just get one cutting on the alfalfa and then let the fall regrowth get tall. It seems to let the roots get established better than when you cut that last cutting.

IF you are going to have a grass hay like timothy or Broome then I would seed them in the fall. I would plant soybeans this year and harvest them as early as they are ready. Then seed the grasses down with wheat,Rye or Spelts. IF you want clover in the mix, late winter frost seed it. You while have a grain crop this year in the soybeans and a small grain crop next year. Plus in the right places the straw is valuable. Then if you get good rains after the small grain harvest then you should get a small grass crop that same year.

I personally have both types of hay. I actually are switching over to more grass bases hay stands. They fit my cattle operation better. I do not need the higher protein of alfalfa. The grass hay is much easier to work with. Get the wrong weather and alfalfa is a nightmare to fool with and get dry.

Also a thought. If you have livestock of your own and you want alfalfa. It is easier to chop the oats earlier an make hayledge out of them and the green growth. You can get them off earlier and that will let the alfalfa grow faster and better. I have had the weather turn wet right at Oats harvest time and they will smother the alfalfa out when the oats get too mature.

I don't think anything will compete with the oats well enough to bother? Even annual grasses typically grow slow and would be your good 2nd cutting, but if you are plowing under after the oats and putting beans in, might just as well go with the oats only?

Peas are the only thing that would work well as far as getting growing fast, BUT they don't dry down well at all and will make baling a struggle. For silage, would be something to look into tho.

Rereading your message, they always told me annual ryegrass is the best annual grass for down here.

The dairy neighbors love planting oats, harvesting it for silage or grain & straw, and then planting the alfalfa into the stubble. They say works better than spring planted alfalfa. But they do _not_ harvest it the year it's planted, that about kills it, needs to be left until next spring.

Don't know that I helped you, you are up a ways the summers get shorter yet up there, hard to get 2 crops out of our short summers.

paul

We used peas as a cover one (dry) year. Got 1 more cutting off those fields than any others. Soil stayed moist and loose all summer as well, couldn't load the wagons when we chopped if we had to climb any hills with the load.