# Mowing hay after dark.



## yamaharider28 (Sep 8, 2014)

We are having about 5 days of good weather coming up and I have to work late those days . I am not going to have much daylight to cut hay when I get home from work. So is it ok to keep mowing the hay after dark. Lets say 3 to 4 hours after dark.

Thanks


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## Nitram (Apr 2, 2011)

Sometimes we do it the only way we can. If it doesn't get too wet to cut but you will be trapping more moisture under the hay.


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## yamaharider28 (Sep 8, 2014)

yamaharider28 said:


> We are having about 5 days of good weather coming up and I have to work late those days . I am not going to have much daylight to cut hay when I get home from work. So is it ok to keep mowing the hay after dark. Lets say 3 to 4 hours after dark.
> 
> Thanks


Also I use a disc mower.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Quite a few years ago we had a really hot spell. 100+ temps. At the time I cut hay with an open cab tractor and rather than tough out those hot afternoons, I'd go home and take a nap, then go out and cut in the dark when it was cooler. At that time it didn't get to humid at night so wasn't really a problem. Hay seemed to dry like normal, but in 100 degree weather what doesn't dry. This was alfalfa by the way. Some nights I'd cut till 2am. The big problem on an open cab tractor was the bugs being attracted to the lights.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

As long as you can stay awake, knock that hay down! I find mowing after dark abnormally fatiguing, but maybe that's just me. Or maybe my lights aren't bright enough.


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## ARD Farm (Jul 12, 2012)

I do it all the time. I even set an LED worklight facing to the right side out back to watch the disc machine (I have a side swing NH).

I found out long ago that working at a job for someone else and making hay don't mix well. You can row crop on a part time basis much easier than running hay and I'm blessed in the fact that I own my own business so I can set my work hours at work tailored to my hay habit....

I actually prefer to mow/condition forage after dark, with dew, or right after a rainstorm, because the dew promotes leaf and stem aspiration and it dries down quicker (at least for me, your situation may be different)....

Playing with hay and working for the man (with no control over work schedule) is a recipe for disaster, aka: dark brown hay.....

If I worked at a day job for someone else, I wouldn't be running hay at all. I'd be row cropping.


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

I'm no expert, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

I see no problem with cutting after dark if your mower will do it.

What I think though is that after dark in my neck of the woods = sopping wet hay from the dew. It will burn off the next morning, but i think my total days of drying time might be less if I cut the hay dry from the get-go.

But - again, the ideal is usually in the textbooks, not in the field.

Good luck,
Bill


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## TJH (Mar 23, 2014)

I've read all the dope on not cutting hay until after 10 in the morning to allow the carbs to come into the plant, but like many here I also have a day job. It seem harder each year to do that the older I get. My late dad had a saying that I'm finding more and more legit, "doesn't matter you can't bale it standing up". I'm now in the process of upgrading my tractor lights to LED. Shure do miss him! One thing about this time of year, it won't sun bleach as much.


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## Josh in WNY (Sep 7, 2010)

I finished mowing the last of my hay this year at 10:30pm. It isn't what I wanted to do, but when you have a day job, sometimes you need to sacrifice a little. The hay will be a little more wet, but that will burn off the following morning. The other trade off is that you will loose some nutritional value, but it's better than not getting it baled at all.

I'm not sure I would try this with a sickle style mower, but with a disc mower, it should not be a problem.


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

There is no worst way to put up hay.

Optimal is to start about noon - Noon 30. 
This gives the plant to build up sugar in the stems and leaves. ( Actually the most sugar will be accumulated by stopping the mowing by about an hour after sunset in a high desert climate)

The little stoma/stomata in the leaves will shut in about an hour after the sunlight is gone. Until the stomata in the leaves close moisture will exit the plant rapidly.

So HERE I try to be done mowing by 3:30 pm. In theory the crop will have built up 4% to 6% new sugar. 
Until the plant tissue is dead the plant will loose moisture but importantly will loose sugar through respiration.

Hay dropped into a windrow may take tow or three days for the leaves to dry enough for respiration to stop. Respiration results in lower quantity as well as quality

HERE we loose 2% to 3% sugars to respiration between 3:30 & dark. 
Cut the hay just after sunrise the hay will loose sugars until the tissues are dead. Not much different than mowing at 10 am or at 5 pm.
Not much different than animals grazing. Animals will do better and prefer forage grazed close to sunset.

You and I will never notice the difference, but the animals will.

In NC it is better to cut hay and drop the hay out in a wide swath.

With the direct rays of the sun the moisture in the leaves and stems will be heated by the sun. This will create a increased vapor pressure, and the steam will exit the nearest opening. If the stomata are open then the moisture streams out through the leaves. 
If the stomata have a reason to close they will not open again the next morning, laying on the ground. Then we are dependent on conditioning the hay to speed the drying.

A good bit of this is questioning how many angles can dance on the head of a needle.

The facts are leaves will pick up dew moisture, day or night regardless. The thing is the stems will dry down slower than the leaves. The leaves rehydrate in the night dew, BUT the stems only slightly. Very slightly. The dew moisture is a surface moisture, makes the leaves soft and limber but the surface moisture burns off rapidly.

Many times the leaves can be dry enough to bale by sunset the first day, while the stems are still 50 or 60% moisture. This will delay the drying of the hay under a windrow. You can do what I used to do and flip a windrow two or three times to get a uniform hay moisture.

An interesting tid bit is hay dropped into a windrow will be too heavy to be supported by the stubble. So the hay will settle down to touching the ground, delaying drying.

Talked too long now


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