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the tremendous growth of rye used as plot borders compared to that of the ryegrass. The rye plants were green and vigorous with 6-8 inches of growth while the ryegrasses were 2-3 inches tall. This is the primary reason for using rye for fall, winter, and early spring grazing in Virginia instead of the ryegrasses. By the time ryegrass begins to really grow in the spring, perennial pasture grasses such as bluegrass, orchardgrass, and tall fescue are alsu available.
Harvest Hay On Time
The biggest contributing factor to poor quality hay is that a very high percentage of it does not get harvested as early as it should be. There is an awful lot of orchardgrass and fescue and both of these forages make very good to excellent quality hay for beef cows and other cattle if they are properly harvested.
The problem is, a high percentage of this kind of hay simply does not get made when it should be and so the quality is much lower than it might be if harvest occurred when the plants were at an earlier stage of maturity. Spring is perennially a very poor time to make quality hay and yet, it is the time of year wThen our biggest volume of hay in Virginia should be made. An awful lot of our fescue and orchardgrass winds up being cut when it is in full bloom or later, and, of course, produces low quality hay.
Make every effort this year to get your orchardgrass and fescue hay made w hen the plants are in their early bloom stage. It sure doesn’t take them long to slip from this stage to full bloom, so this means May must be haymaking month for a lot of our hay.
Another thing to consider is that when we get first cutting hay harvested earlier, we have more tons of better quality second and third cutting hay. Legume hays such as alfalfa and clovers and mixed hay for that matter should be cut when these legumes are in the early bloom stage which means that an awful lot of this kind of hay will be ready to cut in May and early June.
Get your equipment oiled up and ready to roll and consult with the weatherman for good curing weather. After hay has been baled, go ahead and take samples and send to the VPI Forage Test Lab for analysis. Store that information away and be ready to put it to use in balancing rations when feeding next wdnter.
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