Alfalfa??

Hey,
didn't want to hijack the other post on hay.
Farmer across the street has alfalfa on a couple of fields >10 acres. He cuts and gathers with a forage wagon (?) and feeds it fresh a load at a time. I never paid a lot of attention, but think he cuts it 3 or 4 times.
Question is: I am probably gettingabout an acre of ground that always had barley on it. Don't want to wait to seed it as a pasture and don't really need it as a pasture. Only want to have about 100 bales of alfalfa hay on hand through the year for emergencies and to keep one mare up that tends to slim down in winter.

Would it be fair to the neighbor to ask him to plant/maintain it with alfalfa, mow it once and let me make hay from 1 cut per year(raking/baling on my dime) and take whatever else it yields for himself?

If so, which cut should I look at getting (for horses) if it matters? 2nd would be convenient for hay because of the nise weather.

any ideas?

Thanks,


Dave

If he's actually driving by, can cut and chop as he goes past to another field, wouldn't hurt to ask.

That 1st year it is hard to get much crop off the field, so a lot of costs the 1st year with the payoff the following 2-4 years. I'd expect you the landowner to pay for fertilizer & seed to establish the field. But for such a small plot, kinda depends on the mood of the farmer, if he likes folks & enjoys working with neighbors, can do it for you.

If he's a little more self-contained & doesn't mess with people so much, probably won't go for it.

--->Paul

In Va, in seems like we only get two cuts of Alfalfa even in the best of times- so you're essentially asking the man to plant and maintain, then go "halfs"...dunno if anyone around here would do it.

For tough winter keepers, i add a half scoop of cracked corn. Remember- hay for bellies, grain for top line. a flat top line is always more apealling than a big ol hay belly, and moves better too. but_ igot an old boy that just loves that alfalfa too, so i know where you're coming from

I think its called green chopping. My fil does that. Id try to get the second cutting myself. Its funny one lady I sell hay to for here 2 horses said "I dont want 2nd cutting" Cant understand why. I wanna try to cut at the end of May this year, even if its a little early. I may get less yeild but better quality hay, and if the weather works in my favor, I can get a 2nd cutting. Cant hurt to ask the guy I guess right?

Oh yea, 2nd cutting is typically the 'best' hay, as 1st cutting is weedy or stemmy; 3rd & 4tth cutting tend to be thin.

Now, you are asking him to do most of the work, so kinda rough if you demand the best portion of the crop too. You may wish to be flexable on which cutting you get?

The diffivulty you will have is chopping for the silo, he can cut the hay one day, and chop it for the silo the following day.

For silo, you cut & windrow the hay right away. For baling it, you like the windrow real wide so it dries out better, then rake it to gather it & dry the bottom.

For hay, you will need a 3 or even 4 day window to let it dry.

He's not going to re=set his cutter for just one acre to adjust the width of the windrow.

He's not going to worry about rain-free week for your hay, when he has 20 acres of silage to gather.

So you might have some little issue there with weather window.

--->Paul

Yep same old story, "it all depends on the weather for bailing good dry hay." LOL J

(quoted from post at 09:44:10 03/07/10) "I dont want 2nd cutting"

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Prolly based on something she read in a snooty magazine than actual experience. I won't buy 2nd cut normal hay for the reason that I don't feed grain except to pregnant mares in the last 3 months and want qood quality hay. When the stallion is finished breeding everyone and is pastured with the gelding, they get second cut hay or half/half 1st cut and straw.

As far as feeding the mare corn, she makes an idiot out of herself when she gets so much energy. She gets hay, beet pulp and some alfalfa hay along with a little mineral pellets.

The guy would do the deal if I asked him, just don't want to be unfare.


Dave

I could actually mow it myself (have a sicklemower on the tractor anyway). His only work would be planting/maintenance and his use. Main fertilizer is manure that he gets from me anyway and his own.
I'll talk to him then.

Thanks,

Dave

Cant hurt any by asking. I was thinking of doing something simular a few years ago. One field I have about 7 acres is pretty weedy, milk weed golden rod ect. Well I know a dairy farmer up the road, so I was gonna ask him if he wanted to plow it up, rotate corn, alfalfa ect for a few years and keep the crop. Then I would pay him to reseed it back to hay. I dont have any large tillage equipment or a seeder. Well his dairy barn burnt dowm in 07 he rebuilt, but I never asked him. Figured he had enought to worry about.

If you already have a working relationship with him, should work out.

Alfalfa likes a lot of P & K over the 4 year period, or it gets thing. It doesn't need any N. So you might not get the best deal from just manure application.... It can cost $75-150 an acre to get the fertility set up right for an alfalfa field. Best to get most of the P & K on before you plant, it's harder to get the K worked into the ground once it's planted.

Seed on an acre could be 20 lbs, which could be close to $100.

Machinery costs to plant an acre - I'd have more invested in driving there than actually doing the work, so as a farmer I'd just smile & not worry about that - no cost.

If you cut your own, should work out. You might want to let him take 1st & 2nd cut so he can make his silage when it works for him; then you cut the 3rd & 4th - if there is any - so you can 'play' with the stuff and not mess up his cutting schedule.

If you cut the acre a week after he does his other fields, that acre will be out of step the rest of the year & not work out well for him. So perhaps it would work out best with a schedule like this.

My worry as a farmer is that the schedule gets messed up & I end up getting no hay from it, or have to travel around extra just for an acre - road travel can easily cost more than the value of the hay.

So if the seed & fertilizer costs were covered, I'd do it for you & then not worry about if I got hay or not from it. The machinery part just be nice to help out a neighbor, let him play with his land.

Just trying to give you a little perspective of what I'd be thinking about.

--->Paul

(quoted from post at 10:22:19 03/07/10)
Just trying to give you a little perspective of what I'd be thinking about.

--->Paul

Click to expand...

That's what I asked for......

We'll work something out. Maybe I'll just plant a pasture mix and put it up myself once a year. It's already plowed and gone over. I could harrow it and seed it with my broadcaster. He doesn't do silage other than corn. The alfalfa gets cut and fed fresh (cows are in tie stalls here for the most part and don't see the sun.

I'll see what he thinks.

Dave

HEYAVE
I have a small 6 acer, spot that I bail just for
goat hay for a friend. 2 years ago I had some left over nitrogen I put that on that small 6 acres, was that ever a mastake {not realy} OMG
I got three cuttings of pasture mix hay, the best I have ever taken off of that 6 acres.
LATER.GOTA GO
JR.FRYE

You are only talking about 3T or less of hay. I don't see how your neighbor would want to get involved for 3000 lbs of hay. And I don't understand how you can't take care of 1 acre of hay yourself. You could do that with a lawnmower and a garden rake!

Gordo

have him plant, maintain, chop, and store in his silo, then agree on how much you can pick up every winter. Not sure if horses can eat silage though? The bad part is you hardly get to use your tractor.

We had two big draft horses through WWII due to the shotage of gasoline. Those horses were worked hard cutting and raking hay, cultivating, spreading manure, pulling wagons at threshing time, etc. We Never, Never fed them alfalfa. There might have been a few sprigs of it in the "horse hay" we fed them but that hay was predominently timothy and quack grass. Along with a ration of whole oats and fresh water, that's all they got. No corn, no alfalfa, no clover, no pasture. They lived well up into their 20s and were two beautiful, healthy horses. It always makes me wonder why and how people get away with feeding their horses such high protein feed.