# Teff - How'd It Work For You This Summer????



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

Question for those of you that planted teff this year. How did it work out - the good, bad and ugly? Any lessons learned you'd care to pass on? If you were making small squares - any trouble selling it; what was/is the impression of the buyer? 1, 2, 3 cuts? Tons per acre? What was your fertilizer plan (read nitrogen application #/acre)? Any trouble with dry down? Using a straight mower or mower conditioner to cut it?

I'm going to plant about 6 - 10 acres into teff next year in some fields I'm recovering over the winter and would appreciate hearing how your teff experience went this summer.

Any helpful tips are much appreciated.

Thanks!
Bill


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Bill-I have grown teff in Va 3 years now and each has been a vastly different experience. I will try to condense what I have learned as much as possible without letting the script sit for several days and then edit which would be my normal approach. As far as I know, my growing conditions and Clines in western NC are the only ones on Haytalk like yours that have teff experience. Not dissing anyone else that I may not know about. OK,

I really like teff hay, sell it for top dollar but will not grow teff again unless I was dealing with a real serious weed problem in a field that was run down and I wanted to establish OG or timothy in. Same would apply to alfalfa, but I don't grow alfalfa. Why?


Too hard to dry
You need to plant as early as possible to get 3-4 cuttings a year. I am using May 15 as my target date but look at the 10 day for any chance of frost before I do. May 25th is our frost date.
If you plant early, and conditions are good you are cutting in 30-40 days from plant. Cut before it heads, trust me, do it. It is really hard on the short end of the window say June 15-20th to get teff making weather. If like this year, we did not get teff making weather until into July. It had headed out and grown laterally on the ground rather than fully lodging. Think Cline experienced the same thing a year ago and gave up on it. Everywhere that had grown sideways died fully after first cut. did not experience that before. Though last year we had a freak shear wind that flattened the crop and I had some die out from that. 
do conventional tillage. it works better and seed pops out of the ground in 5-7 days if you have any moisture. Roll it tight before seeding. seed with a regular brillion seeder and roll it again with a roller harrow, tines up.
I usually am putting out around 45-50# bales, made 1200 on 14 ac this year in one cutting, 100 bales for first cutting is about average, 50-60 on others. 
 60# N plus whatever p and k you need for any other grass is plenty preplant and mixed in during tillage. No need to topdress, I have not seen any advantage.
Seed right after good tillage and you will not have a weed problem.
My horse hay customers love it, been selling for 7 a bale and could probably get more, just not greedy.
Teff doesn't dry like any other hay you have dealt with and there is a learning curve. When you think it is dry wait a day. It does some funny things like rehydrates in really humid weather.
I cut with a NH discbine, spread to the max. Like the way it leaves much of the hay vertical to the ground for drying. Usually ted 2-3 times.

Not sure if I answered all your questions but would be happy to respond to any followup. rick


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

I planted teff first time this year it will not work in my climate because of limited harvest time frame.

My teff started to head by the time I had a good weather window.

2 nd cut didn't get made because of weather so it will just get plowed down next year.

I can't say anything bad about teff it is just a high time management crop that won't fit my time and work restraints I'm sure it is a good crop it just is not for me.


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

Hayman1 said:


> Bill-I have grown teff in Va 3 years now and each has been a vastly different experience. I will try to condense what I have learned as much as possible without letting the script sit for several days and then edit which would be my normal approach. As far as I know, my growing conditions and Clines in western NC are the only ones on Haytalk like yours that have teff experience. Not dissing anyone else that I may not know about. OK,
> 
> I really like teff hay, sell it for top dollar but will not grow teff again unless I was dealing with a real serious weed problem in a field that was run down and I wanted to establish OG or timothy in. Same would apply to alfalfa, but I don't grow alfalfa. Why?
> 
> ...


This is very good info - thanks!

We are going to try to open up/reclaim about 7 acres for next spring (over this fall/winter) and want to get a bit of revenue off the fields next summer too - so I'm planning on planting teff and next fall, either orchard grass or timothy.

I'm a little concerned about the dry down. While I'd like to add a discbine or haybine to the fleet, I'm not ready to do that due to potential obstacle in the new fields and want something with a breakaway, like a 3 point mounted mower. Dont' think I have enough tractor for a 3 pt mounted mower/conditioner like the Krone Easycut 280 CV. That lack of conditioning, our humid summer temperatures and thunderstorms that narrow the window for getting hay up dry is a potential obstacle in of itself - we'll see.

Did you use any hay preservative when baling your teff hay?

Thanks again for your reply,

Bill


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I've talked myself back into planting teff next year on about 72 acres after talking myself out of it. But my teff experience is different then you eastern guys. Usually got plenty of drying windows just have to have patience.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

My experiences with teff haven't been good and I don't plan on messing with it again. With that being said I liked the teff hay.....really nice stuff......just a pain to raise and harvest. If it is not cut before heading out it will not regrow enough to amount to anything. I found this out the hard way......it rained every couple days for a couple weeks when it needed to be cut, which is not unusual to have happen here, by the time I could cut it was fully headed out and laying flat on the ground. I kept waiting and waiting for it to regrow and not enough of it did to amount to anything. This was frustrating when I kept reading about how well teff regrew for others. The next year I was able to cut it right after it just started heading and the regrowth only amounted to 9 bales an acre which really wasn't enough to mess with harvesting it. Here due to the weather I can not reliably cut it right before heading to ensure I get multiple cuttings and I can't make one cutting of teff hay pencil out as my only yield off the field all summer.

This year I tried to notill teff into dormant timothy stubble after first cutting of the timothy......this did not work out well either. I feel the timothy stubble was too dense for the teff to establish.

For me the teff wasn't hard to dry but would feel drier than it actually was which gives the impression it is ready to bale when it's not. When you think teff is dry give it another day. It also rehydrates quickly form damp ground or dew. If the ground is damp don't let the windrow sit too long before baling or the bottom of the windrow will start getting damp.


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## Hawk40 (Jun 28, 2015)

Teslan said:


> I've talked myself back into planting teff next year on about 72 acres after talking myself out of it. But my teff experience is different then you eastern guys. Usually got plenty of drying windows just have to have patience.


How early can you plant where you are?
I have a field vacant this season but need it for something else the following spring so it's about all I can do in that window. Don't think oat hay sells very well here.
But I have frost into early June, wondering what kind of yield I could get with that late start.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Hawk40 said:


> How early can you plant where you are?
> I have a field vacant this season but need it for something else the following spring so it's about all I can do in that window. Don't think oat hay sells very well here.
> But I have frost into early June, wondering what kind of yield I could get with that late start.


I tentatively will plant around May 15. We still have a 50-50 chance of frost the first week of May. Of course we will see how the spring seems when it comes. The first time I planted I got 4 cuttings, but we don't usually get a first frost until October. So if planted around May 15 I would plan to cut 1st cutting around the 1st of July. 2nd cut the 1st week of August, 3rd the 1st week of Sept. Then depending on the weather a 4th somewhere between the last week of Sept and 1st week of October. Course we could have snow the next of Sept, but that's rare. Also I noticed the first time I raised Teff is that I cut it at the recommended 4 inch height. Well it will start growing to fast then again before you can get the hay off. So I will do my usual grass hay cutting height of 3 inches.


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

OOne and all I believe Tiff will work between alfalfa plantings.

I like the idea of using a Brillion planter as that is what I use for alfalfa. Used it to plant radishes also.

I am considering selling my NH Diskbine. Just not enough use for it. I do not use a conditioner mower for bermudagrass. I do not use a conditioner for June or September to avoid blister beetles. So that only leaves April & May for conditioning.

My NH 411 Diskbine is modified to cover all the ground behind the mower. The doors are removed and have the NH after market swath spreader added. Result is 95% of the ground is covered with cut alfalfa.
This speeds the drying some but not enough compared to using a simple Disk Mower.May trade for an 11 ft disk mower. Keep my 7 ft disk mower as a backup. I have removed the swath board from my 7 ft mower and just run on the down hay. I run on the hay from the NM 411 Diskbine with no ill effects.

Mowing at 11.5 mph with the NH 411 I have to down shift two gears for the sharp turns.

Here we also have the striped blister beetle. Fifty of these is a lethal dose for a 1,000 animal. (Five for a 100 lb goat) The grays and black BBs are not near as lethal.

ne and all I believe Tiff will work between alfalfa plantings.

I like the idea of using a brillion planter as that is what I use for alfalfa. Used it to plant radishes also.

I am considering selling my NH Diskbine. Just not enough use for it. I do not use a conditioner mower for bermudagrass. I do not use a conditioner for June or September to avoid blister beetles. So that only leaves April & May for conditioning.

My NH 411 Diskbine is modified to cover all the ground behind the mower. The doors are removed and have the NH after market swath spreader added. Result is 95% of the ground is covered with cut alfalfa.
This speeds the drying some but not enough compared to using a simple Disk Mower.May trade for an 11 ft disk mower. Keep my 7 ft disk mower as a backup. I have removed the swath board from my 7 ft mower and just run on the down hay. I run on the hay from the NM 411 diskbine with no ill effects.

Mowing at 11.5 mph with the NH 411 I have to down shift two gears for the sharp turns.

Here we also have the striped blister beetle. Fifty of these is a lethal dose for a 1,000 animal. (Five for a 100 lb goat) The greys and black BBs are not near as lethal.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Sorry, Bill, I missed your question back a while ago. I don't use preservative. Our last killing frost here is between May 15-25 so I am ready to go by may 15, look at the 10 day forecast and plant accordingly. I think you need to really aim for July 1 as first cut date in your situation with no discbine although, you may get a similar result by tedding really slowly right after cutting. We need July 1 heat as a hedge against the drying problem which is why I am not doing teff again unless I want to condition a field for replant.

Teff takes 4-5 weeks from germ to cut here, cut when it is about 20" tall before heading and cut 4"stubble height. It will be ready to cut again in 4-5 weeks. You will probably only get 2 cuttings, but possibly 3 if you are lucky assuming you will want to no-til OG in the stubble. Kill it with Rup. If you don't you risk too much competition with the new seedlings before frost.

Lastly, I don't use preservative. rick


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