# Coastal hay yield, fertilized vs not fertilized



## Haybarber (Aug 12, 2009)

I have had an applicator quote "1/2 inch of rain + 200lbs fertilizer = 1 ton hay/acre"

I am unsure if this is accurate and there must be many variables, but with the above quote as a "given" what would be the estimated yield of the same acre over identical period of time with the same amount of water, without the fertilizer?

Thanks!

Forest


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

First off there is roughly 40 lbs of nitrogen in a ton of 12% protein bermudagrass hay. Roughly 25 lbs of N in a ton of 8% CP hay. In the second case you can expect maybe 2 cuttings of hay plus a little grazing.

A fair rule of thumb is we can expect maybe 50 lbs of nitrogen free from the air. This will produce 2 maybe 3 tons/A of low quality bermudagrass hay. This will need +/- 12" of rain for each ton of hay.

With luck and planning we might get 5 to 7 tons/A of hay with 300 lbs of Nitrogen, using 8" maybe 6" of rain per ton of hay. This means all the essential elements including micro nutrients are adequately available. In this situation we can expect 12% CP if harvested at 42 day intervals. Cut at a 28 day interval and the yield will be less, but the quality will be higher.

Depending on the genetics we can try for a ton of hay for each 3" of rain, if we apply 800 lbs/A of real nitrogen.

Pushing yield above 2.5 Tons/A can be a pain to bale with small square bales. For round bales or large square bales, it is not a great challenge to bale a 3 tons/A cutting or better. In fact it can be a lot of fun kicking out 40 (6 X 5) RBs/ hour, &/or 5 bales/A.

But 200 lbs/A of some kind of fertilizer top dressed and betting on a half inch rain to incorporate the material may be a gamble.


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