letting hay rot in the field

Nick m · Aug 11, 2015

I've never done this. It's been mowed for 8 days
now. Been rained on 3 times now. The new stuff
(alfalfa and alfalfa/Timothy) is growing nicely up
through it. I'm just worried about when I bale the
next cutting, some of this old crap will get raked
into the window and making that hay crappy. Will
it? Wish I had a chopper right now. Don't really
want to waste the net wrap and fuel, then have to
deal with getting rid of it. As I said, it doesn't seem
to be hurting the new crop, which will be 4th
cutting.

Chris in SK · Aug 11, 2015

I've done it, but only when I wasn't going to make another cut that year. I baled about 20 rolls of rained on brown crap last night just to get rid of it!! We have some sheep that'll pick through the bales in the winter. I guess if you cut your second cut high and set your baler pick up high, you might avoid some of it, but if you rake I think you'll end up picking some of it up next time. I think I'd bite the bullet and roll it up and use it or sell cheap, and hope you can make some good stuff next go around. Chopping it will use diesel as well.

Tom in TN · Aug 11, 2015

nick,

I very well may be the world's worst farmer, but I'll tell you what I did a few years ago with a similar situation. I ended up raking and baling it into about 150 small square bales. I then picked up the bales and threw them into a ravine out in one of my back pastures. I didn't want any of that rotted hay in my next cut of hay.

Fortunately, I only had about two acres of rotted hay, so it wasn't too terribly much. If I'd had a large area, I don't know what I would have done.

Good luck,

Tom in TN

Nick m · Aug 11, 2015

I've got about 18 acres worth. I don't really have anywhere to let it rot. The ideal place is behind 20 acres of corn. I may just bale it, line it up along the road, then move it back there when the corn is off.

Cliff Nelson · Aug 11, 2015

We did that with about 4 acres of first crop this year. Raised the shoes on the haybine so it cut over the top of it when cutting second crop. Rake set high also which left a little good hay but also left most of the bad. Baler also just low enough to pick the windrow. Pretty clean for the most part. Uneven ground and dead furrows were where most of the old hay got picked up. If I had to guess I'd say less than 5% got picked up overall.

old · Aug 11, 2015

Rake into big windrows then if you have a loader tractor pile it up in on corner of the field into a big tall pile and let it compost down a year or 2. After that it will make good compost for a garden etc.

showcrop · Aug 11, 2015

Bale into small bales, put it by the road at $9.00 per bale with corn stalks for autumn decorations. Works here.

donjr · Aug 11, 2015

I always pick it up one way or another. We'll roll it up, set it off to an unused area, let it sit for a year, and then sell it for mushroom hay. It doesn't bring much- only about $100 a ton, but it pays to bale it. Also, if you don't, especially in alfalfa, the material will help disease that will kill the future crop, so we make sure it comes off.

Pair-a-dice farm · Aug 11, 2015

I always bale any hay when I can. In a case like yours I roll it out when it snows for bedding. If possible I roll it out on a poor spot, it will build up the soil.

L.Fure · Aug 11, 2015

Maybe you can sell the bales for people to grow their gardens on. http://strawbalegardens.com/

http://thegardenersrake.com/hay-bale-gardeneing-techniques

4xMF · Aug 11, 2015

(quoted from post at 09:22:56 08/11/15) I've never done this. It's been mowed for 8 days
now. Been rained on 3 times now. The new stuff
(alfalfa and alfalfa/Timothy) is growing nicely up
through it. I'm just worried about when I bale the
next cutting, some of this old crap will get raked
into the window and making that hay crappy. Will
it? Wish I had a chopper right now. Don't really
want to waste the net wrap and fuel, then have to
deal with getting rid of it. As I said, it doesn't seem
to be hurting the new crop, which will be 4th
cutting.

I reckon you haven’t tedded the hay then. When we have hay down we keep tedding it every day it is not raining. If it is not rained on we can bale it after 5 days. Rain will delay baling and the quality and number of bales will be reduced but the hay will eventually get dry when the weather improves and it will not get overgrown. I have had hay I couldn’t get baled for several weeks and there wasn’t much left to bale at last. It was all grey and dusty but the cows ate it and didn’t complain.

JOCCO · Aug 11, 2015

Can you sell it for mulch? gardens, road ditch , some one building lawns, stabilizing hill sides. Even sell at a discount.

Nick m · Aug 11, 2015

Just went and raked it all. Tried tedding it earlier today and was destroying the new growth. Thanks for the comments.

letting hay rot in the field

Nick m

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Chris in SK

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Tom in TN

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Nick m

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Cliff Nelson

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old

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showcrop

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donjr

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Pair-a-dice farm

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L.Fure

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4xMF

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JOCCO

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Nick m

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