your definition of prairie hay

had a conversation yesterday about what is prairie hay. one guy said he mows prairie hay now and brome in the fall, same field same grass. I"ve always thought brome was brome, and prairie hay was a mix of grasses.
 
Here in TX prairie grass comes from unimproved pastures. Naturally occurring grasses, weeds and all. Marketed as "cow" hay.
"Horse" hay is typically fertilized, weed free Bermuda grass. If the rancher is really on his game he'll test for protein and charge that much more for it. Square bales will bring $10-11
And was as high as $16 during the drought a few years ago.
 
Your thinking would match what most folks here in central Kansas would think - these are two different kinds of hay. There is a lot of brome raised around here and it is cut about this time of year. Good brome is "clean" in that it is all a single plant species with no weeds. Prairie hay would be a mixture of any number of native grasses and is usually cut later in the summer. It would not be considered as high a quality feed as brome and the yield per acre is usually much lower.
 
Road ditch hay. Mixed grasses, with some burger wrappers and hub caps mixed in.

Hay. Probably a bit over ripe grass hay of various types, cut from the low ground around here. First cutting tends to be over ripe because of the wet deal, second cutting can be wonderful.

Alfalfa hay. Mostly alfalfa bales.

That's what we have around here.

Paul
 
As below, prairie hay is mostly mixed pasture grass. Brome is Brome. Brome needs to be cut by now here in Central KS to have the best feed value. Any later than now and it becomes more filler than good protein. Still good though. I don't know how you could cut a field of Prairie Hay once, and then the second cutting to be Brome, in the same year. But I am far from a know it all...lol!
 

Native grasses that the Buffalo & other animals grazed on in the early days. Prairie grass hay I've bought in a past drought included briar/berry vines.
 
Just out of curiosity from someone from the Northeast. How much does prairie grass yield per acre?
 
The guy you talked to doesn't know anything about hay or putting it up. Brome is a specific type of grass. In my area brome is put up for hay in mid to late June if put up right. Can be put up later, but quality goes down. Second cutting on the re-growth would be some awefull low quality hay. Prairie hay in my area is a mixture of grasses that doesn't even include brome. More specifically, it is basically the same thing that was growing hear before white man came to this continant. In my area it is put up in late July if put up right. Again, can be put up later but quality goes down. A second cutting would be un-thinkable, and would be worthless if you did.
 

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