Hay Judging

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Hay Judging
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Collin County Hay Show

• Lord, when will this drought end

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Limits to Production in 1999

• Dry Winter
• Wet Spring delayed harvest
• Drought
• Lots of low quality hay and forage
• Limited fall growth
• Winter pasture (?)
• Grasshoppers Armyworms (?)

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2000

• Cattle prices continue up
• Maintain hay supplies
• Efficiency
• Rebuild pastures
• Weakened
• Replant (?)

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Winter Pasture Management

• Variety Selection
• Method of Planting
• seeding rate
• early yield
• Fertilization
• Nitrogen
• Soil pH effect on PK
• Grazing Management

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Forage Selection

• Cool Season Forages
• Annuals
• Ryegrass
• Small grains Rye, Wheat, Oats
• Clovers Arrowleaf, Berseem, Crimson
• Perennials
• Tall Fescue
• White clover

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Clovers
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Winter Annual Grasses
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Stocking rateAdequate Fertility Management
Required

• High Productivity
• Stockers, Dairy, etc.
• 1 acre/1000 lbs initial animal weight
• Rotational graze early
• Bring in help later
• borrow cows
• silage, baled silage
• Hay (may)

• Overwintering
• Dry cows, cow/calf
• 1/4 - 1/3 acre per AU
• limit graze, a few hours per day
• graze out in late march/april
• manage to bring in Bermuda in May

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New Varieties

• Several on the market
• Ribeye, Lafayette, others look good
• Ribeye has very early grazing
• NONE have been tested in a severe Texas or
  Oklahoma winter
• Until then standard recommendations apply.

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Planting Method

• Prepared Seedbed
• Earliest Grazing
• Best nutrient mixing
• Lower Seeding Rate
• Reduced competition
• Most expensive
• Money
• Time
• Poor Footing

• Sodseeding
• Uses nonproductive land
• Later Grazing
• Poor nutrient mixing
• Higher seeding rate
• Least expensive
• Greatest competition
• Better Footing

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Sodseeding Method

• Broadcast
• Small seed, fast
• Poor Seed/Soil contact
• Sod Competition
• Limited Nutrient movement
• Phosphorus and Soil pH limits subsoil rooting
  pattern

• Drill
• Large seed, slower, most expensive
• Reduced Seeding rates
• Best Seed/Soil contact
• Reduced sod competition
• Nutrient Placement

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Early Ryegrass Yield as Affectedby Seeding Rate
and Method
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Soil Fertility

• P, K, others Soil test
• pHgt5.7
• Nitrogen
• 60 units _at_ planting (prepared seedbed) or at 3
  leaf stage (sodseeded)
• 60 units in Feb.
• 60 units in April (as needed)

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Tall Fescue

• Fall management
• Nitrogen (60 units) in August
• graze early, establish white clover
• 30-90 units P for white clover seed
• allow stockpiling in October/November
• Graze moderately

• Spring Management
• No N after Jan. 1
• Manage for white clover growth
• graze hard from mid March - mid June
• no rebreeding or late trimester dams after March
  1
• rest after late June

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Intensive Grazing
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Grazing management

• Graze very lightly early
• knock tips off to encourage tillering
• Limit graze during mid winter
• limit to a few hours of grazing a day unless
  ample has been planted
• Graze hard and heavy in Spring
• Winter pasture growth outstrips animal needs.
  Harvest excess if possible

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• Making Hay

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Stage of Harvest

• Digestibility is a function of maturity
• Crude protein is a function of maturity and soil
  nitrogen.

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Maturity effects on Digestibility and Crude
protein.
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Liebergs Law of Limits
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Soil Fertility

• Soil Test
• why guess
• Nutrient Removal
• your bank account vs. the pastures

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Nutrient removed (lbs/ac) by grazing and hay
forage management.
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Proper Baling

• Harvest Promptly
• overmature easier to bale
• Bale Moisture
• gt22 fire
• lt15 leaf shatter
• Bale integrity
• Tightness
• method

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Bale Storage

• Uphill
• Clear overhead
• Ends together
• Rows 3 apart

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Round bale storage

• Do
• avoid lighting other fire hazards
• pack flat ends together
• line east-west when possible
• tight wrappings
• well drained
• cover (?)

• Dont
• place where fire can occur
• store around moisture
• use loose wrappings
• allow animals free access to storage areas
• waste hay

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Rebuild Pastures

• Lots of open ground
• weeds
• Fertilizer
• Soil Test
• Repair, replant
• economics

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Weed control and fertilizer effect on
Bermudagrass Yield (lbs/ac)
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Summary

• 99 got rough (again), 2000 should be better
• Plant needed winter pasture
• Rye/ryegrass is production standard
• Dont plan on feeding hay, but have a plan to
  feed hay.
• Effectively and efficiently harvest and store hay
• Rebuild as needed