How long does it take for grass to turn into hay?

Usually the conditions are less than ideal and the process can take 7 days. Hay Turning: As hay dries in the field, the top of the swath dries more rapidly than the bottom.

How long does it take for grass to dry into hay?

When preparing to bale hay, the transition from freshly cut, high-moisture grasses and legumes to dry forage is known as curing. This process takes on average 3 days—in good weather.

How long does it take to make hay?

Hay should be cut when dry at the end of a sunny day when sugar levels are at their highest and tedded immediately after cutting. In good weather the grass is tedded twice daily and in very good sunny, breezy weather haymaking should be achieved in 3 to 4 days.

Can you make hay in 2 days?

Since haylage is preserved at higher moisture contents, it is a lot easier to get it to a proper dry matter content for safe preservation than it is to make dry hay. Proper dry matter content for chopping haylage can often be achieved within 24 hours as compared to three to four days for dry hay.

Can any grass be turned into hay?

Composition. Commonly used plants for hay include mixtures of grasses such as ryegrass (Lolium species), timothy, brome, fescue, Bermuda grass, orchard grass, and other species, depending on region. Hay may also include legumes, such as alfalfa (lucerne) and clovers (red, white and subterranean).

how to make grass into hay bales

Can you grow hay on 1 acre?

Even an average rule of thumb can vary widely by region, soil, and type of hay. For us here in the Midwest, a mixed grass/legume hay can yield anywhere from one to five tons per acre for a full season.

Is it cheaper to grow your own hay?

Cost savings: Overall, growing your own hay is theoretically less expensive than paying someone else.

Why do farmers bale hay at night?

We often bale our alfalfa hay through the night, because of the necessary humidity, about 12-15%. This type of added moisture helps soften the hay and makes it easier to pack the bales tight, because the leaves stay put. Once they are baled, we let them sit in the sun before they're ready for feed.

How many bales of hay can 1 acre produce?

There are 3 basic sizes. Large round rolls of which you can get about 5 per acre. Then you have a large rectangular bale of which you get about 40 per acre. Small rectangular bales of which you can get about 100.

How many times a year do you harvest hay?

How Many Times Can You Harvest Hay in a Year? Depending on your soil and grass growth rate, you can harvest hay two or three times a year. In some places, you can even stretch for a fourth crop, but the harvest won't be as fruitful.

How do I know when my grass is ready to cut for hay?

The first cutting in the spring should be when grass has greened up and reached 12 – 16 inches tall. This should clean up all the old growth of winter weeds and such. Then each subsequent cutting is at 3.5 to 5 week intervals. This is dependent on fertilizer and moisture.

What grass produces the most hay?

Hybrid and improved vegetative bermudagrasses will produce a large quantity of high quality hay, but it usually requires more management than do other summer grasses. Horse owners usually prefer a weed free, high quality bermudagrass hay, whereas cattlemen may settle for less at a lower price.

Does hay grow back every year?

Some fields are always used to grow hay, and don't require re-planting every year. In other cases, hay is a part of a crop rotation, where farmers plant different crops on the same field in different years. Hayseed can be a mixture of many types of seeds, with alfalfa, clover, and timothy being among the most common.

Is wet hay ruined?

If rained-on hay is not again dried fully, mold and mycotoxin growth can occur which can put livestock health at risk. Furthermore, baled wet hay can combust due to the temperature increase caused by microbial growth - putting a producer at risk of barn fire.

What happens if you bale hay too early?

Hay that is baled too early will contain more moisture than you'd think. If the hay has only 13 percent moisture now, which you can ascertain through testing with an electronic moisture probe, its moisture content can rise between 25 and 30 percent after baling. That's quite the increase in moisture.

What is the fastest growing hay crop?

Teff is a self-pollinated, warm season annual grass which can be harvested multiple times during the growing season as dry hay, silage or pasture. As a fast-growing crop, Teff combines excellent forage quality with high yield during a relatively short growing season.

Can a hay farm be profitable?

“You are going to get more than three years out of that, but if we use three years, that's about $100 per acre per year,” Brown says. “If you are getting $125 per ton for quality hay, you are going to see a profit of $51 per ton, or $204 per acre. “The potential is there to make some pretty good money on hay.”

How much does hay cost 2022?

2022 hay prices forecast by the Livestock Marketing Information Center. Hay prices are forecast to reach record levels in 2022, with national alfalfa prices forecast to average $245/ton for the 2022-23 hay crop year. Other hay prices are forecast to average $155/ton for the current hay crop year.

Does hay attract rats or mice?

Hay bales are more likely to attract rodents looking for a place to nest. Similarly, use straw to stuff a scarecrow, not hay. The packed hay is a perfect place for rodents to nest.

What month is hay harvested?

From the month of May to late summer and early fall, hay baling is on the minds of many farmers. And during this stretch, the sight of workhorse tractors such as the Kubota M7 are common throughout our nation's fields.

What happens if you don't cut hay?

If left unmanaged, unharvested, standing forage can result in a dense mat on the soil surface over winter and interfere with spring growth and hay harvest next year.

What are the disadvantages of hay?

Hay contains some dust and mould spores. This combined with lower moisture content means these can be airborne and are a risk to horses that are stabled frequently. The answer to this is to soak your hay but this causes a reduction in quality.

How many bales of hay does a cow need a day?

A 1200-pound cow, ready for processing, will require 36 pounds of forage per day based on the formula used here. Thirty-six pounds of hay is close to one small square bale of hay per day, taking into consideration some waste.

How much does it cost to produce one bale of hay?

Thus our total cost increase for making hay between 2021 and 2022 would be in the range of $23-28/ton. For a 5'x5' bale this would be roughly $12-15 per bale.