Thinking of baling my pasture for grass hay--advice?

I have about 18 acres of mixed brome/bluegrass pasture. I"m thinking about putting it up for hay this year and baling it with my AC Roto-baler.

I both fertilized and sprayed this spring, so there's lots of grass and it is very clean

Just want to ask folks out there if this is a good idea, and that if there is a market for small round bales of grass hay. What should I ask per bale? How is the best way to sell it?

When should it be cut? And how long should it lay in the windrow before baling? Thanks in advance for the excellent advice on this site!

I think it"s a good idea.

Finding buyers is always the problem. Some locations are starved for hay, you get $6 a bale, some locations are swimming in hay and you can"t get $1.50 a bale. Typically it"s most profitable tostore the hay under roof & sell it over winter when people realize they need some, typically you get the least money now in summer when everyone has hay but then it"s less work for you too.

Western hay in arid regions is much different than eastern hay in humid regions, the dew point/ relative humidity makes a big big difference on how long the hay needs to dry. You didn"t provide any info at all... Could take 24 hours, could take 5 days to dry down (or longer if the weather forcast goes wrong...).

Good hay is high in protien and cut young and dried properly and didn"t have the leaves shattered off it and will be worth top dollar for your area. Poorly made over ripe hay is only worth multch - up to 50 cents a bale. Depending on your location, hay demand, and your skills at cutting, drying, and baling the hay, will determine what it"s worth.

Those small round bales can be a bit different to handle and store, so might keep some buyers away. On the other hand they might be viewed as "cute and different" and sell well in fall as decorations....

We are probably moving into the "overripe" hay season pretty soon now, grass hay is mature as it goes to seed, and loses protien in the stems that get stemmy and the leaves are more likely to shatter as they dry. But - depends on where you are. Cutting early often allows a 2nd cutting which is a better grade of feed most times. This first cutting is typically a battle with the rain gods tho, anyhow "here".

Lots more details, but that"s an overview from what you provided us.

--->Paul

When I had cattle, a considerable percentage of my Winter feed was hay baled from excess pasture in the late Spring. Depending on where you are, it probably needs to be cut NOW........assuming you have a 'weather window'. Not sure how anyone could explain on the internet exactly when it's cured. Local conditions will determine if there's a market and what it's worth.

I would say go for it. In my area too many horses have been chasing too little hay for years. mine is sold before I cut it. As Paul said cut as soon as you can for better quality. Start off with about three acres and work the bugs out the equipment. take a long narrow strip if the field shape allows. Look for a weather window of 2-4 days depending on your equipment and climate. Post back more info on equipment, climate, soil conditions and you can get much more accurate info.

Check out the market for hay in your area- we've had a surplus around here (especially since the economic downturn, and everyone trying to get rid of their excess horses). The guy we buy from has a barn full from last year, and now its time to cut again.

Also, the Roto-bales could be a deal-breaker- hard to transport, and stack has to have barriers on the sides or the stack could collapse and push the side of the barn out (happened to my uncle back in the day).

Thanks for the advice. I am located in eastern Nebraska. Right now, the brome is at the "pollinating" stage (where it"s got the little yellow things hanging out of the seed head). If it"s like oats hay, I have waited until the seed head is past the milk stage and is getting somewhat firm, before cutting. Been wet and cool so far this June, but it can get hot and dry real quick soon. I would probably need at least 3-4 days sunny dry weather after cutting/windrowing before baling it.

Thanks for the reply. I'm located in eastern Nebraska. Besides the Roto-baler, I have a IHC 27V sickle mower (with smooth knives and guards) and a New Holland 55 rake. I used to have dairy cattle and put up a lot of alfalfa hay with this equipment in years past, so I've done a fair amount of haying. But not much with grass hay.

The brome is at the pollinating stage right now. Should I wait until the seed is starting to firm in the head? About 2 weeks yet?

Cut it now. Or as soon as the weather allows.

I would look for a square baler. The rotor may be fun to play with but could be a deal breaker for someone looking to buy hay.

Whats the local hay situation? Round here everyone has hay. Big rounds are going for 25 a bale for the last several months. Not very good. Plus a lot of the horse people have got rid of them critters because of the econemy so small square are not going very well.

So check the local area, you may do better finding someone who wants to reat a little pasture.

Rick

'Here' you like to make alfalfa before it turns to June; and you like to make grass hay the first week of June.

Of course this year was late, and now we have drizzle 4 days out of 7, so even a lot of alfalfa hasn't been made around here yet....

But typically, I'd say you were a tad late, or right on time to have it laying on the ground. For cow hay you can make it later, but if you want to impress the horde crowd for top dollar, make it a little earlier than you think, the protien & look will be better.

We cut our brome which in this neck of the woods consists mostly of waterways, with some small meadows unfit for cultivation, about a week ago as it was heading and not in the bloom stage yet. We have found that brome sometimes gets stemmy, or "rank" as we call it if we wait too long to cut it. But, sometimes due to the busy season, planting, etc., it gets cut a little late but still makes good hay and cows will clean it up better than calves as calves prefer a finer, more leafy hay. We put ours in large round bales for winter feed for cattle. Makes good horse hay also.

with all the drought across alot of the cow country this year so far ,it probably would make sense to bale everything you could.I'm in oklahoma and have bought it as far away as canada in years past.I would agree with some of the others though,square bales or large round bales are what most folks are used to handling,with more and more going to those large square bales for ease of transport.nothing wrong with those bales out of a roto baler but a lot of folk would probably shy away from them unless desperate.