A real farmer knows that the nutritional value of hay is highest at it's peak. Everyday after peak is a day that drops the value. Once the hay gets to the point that it is standing dead grass, it is no longer hay, but straw.
So, if you cut your hay when it is at it's peak, and it gets rained on, the rain will turn the hay a nasty color, but, as long as you can get it to dry out to the moisture proper for baling, it is still nutritionally value hay. I see classified ads all teh time that say, "hay for sale, never rained on." but, they don't tell you that it was baled in july or august. In my climate(and your climate will vary) the orchard grass becomes most nutritional at the 3rd week of may-1st week of june. So, you cut the hay when it is ripe and the forecast looks half decent. Give it 2 days of dry, including the day you cut it, check the moisture, then bale it. If it isn't dry enough, give it another day, then bale it. If it is borderline, go ahead and bale it, and salt the stack. salty hay is better than straw. Horses love it, as long as you give them plenty of water.
If it does get rained on, it turns an ugly color, but, it is still much better than baling too late.
as far as predicting the weather, there is not a good way to do it without knowing what teh jet stream is doing, and knowing where the high and low pressure areas are, and basically, you can only make as good of a guess as teh forecaster does.
Unless you have my knee. My knee hurts like sin if it is going to rain soon. I've had a few false alarms, but the humidity was 100% on those days.
You can almost feel rain coming, and you can watch for cloud movement, but, you are at teh mercy of it all.
I hope you get yoru hay put up, regardless if it looks rotted or not. rotted good hay is merely "turned silage." It's much more apetizing to the horses than old dead straw from grass.
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Today's Featured Article - Sunday Drives - by Cowboy. Summer was finally upon us here in Northern Maine. We have two types of industry up here, one being "Forestry" (Wood Products) and the other "Farming" (Potatoes). There is no shortage of farm tractors and equipment around here! I have been restoring old Farm Tractors for the past 6 years, and have found it easier and less expensive to hit all the auctions and purchase whole tractors for parts needed. My wife who works at a local school, and only has weekends and summers off, while on t
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