# Is anybody.....



## 4020man (Jun 21, 2008)

Ready to take third cutting off yet? The blossoms are just starting to come out on the alfalfa so it will be a few days yet. How's everybody else doing?


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## haymaker 515 (Jul 12, 2008)

In central ca just started fourth today, I havent got caught up on all the stuff that needs fixin. tonage looks really good here this cutting. Army worms startin to show up.


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## 4020man (Jun 21, 2008)

How many cuttings per year do you get there?


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## haymaker 515 (Jul 12, 2008)

sometimes we can get a late start in the spring, and get an early fall and only end up with five. this year we started cutting at the end of march around the 25th or so. Should have six easy, maybe seven. 
How bout you in illinois, I was reading one of Ohio Hays post and it sounds like rain is always a threat. tedded twice one day just to see the rain come that afternoon. Do you get a warning about the rain, or does it just blow up in the afternoons. Here we are usually safe rain free, June, July, August. September, sometimes we can end up with a freak thunder shower. but thats rare. April , may and Octobor, always a risk. November is just tough. Usually all wrapped up by then. but not always.


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## haymaker 515 (Jul 12, 2008)

sometimes we can get a late start in the spring, and get an early fall and only end up with five. this year we started cutting at the end of march around the 25th or so. Should have six easy, maybe seven. 
How bout you in illinois, I was reading one of Ohio Hays post and it sounds like rain is always a threat. tedded twice one day just to see the rain come that afternoon. Do you get a warning about the rain, or does it just blow up in the afternoons. Here we are usually safe rain free, June, July, August. September, sometimes we can end up with a freak thunder shower. but thats rare. April , may and Octobor, always a risk. November is just tough. Usually all wrapped up by then. but not always.


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## 4020man (Jun 21, 2008)

We can get four sometimes 5 cuttings if the weather is just right. The first cutting got rained right after we cut it. It wasn't supposed to rain but the weather guessers changed the forecast to rain. We usually don't cut hay if there is a threat of rain. The second cutting we got about 1/2 of it off and the rest ended up getting rained on becuase we coundn't unload hay fast enough. Sometimes we can get a little bit of a warning of rain by looking at the weather map or watching the weather. Other times if the conditions are right, they will blow up in the afternoon. We start cutting around mid-May and are done by Labor Day weekend unless we are going to plow a hayfield up, then we will take an extra cutting off that field.


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## JD4755 (Apr 17, 2008)

We just started 2nd cutting around here, everything this year is later than normal, so 2nd cutting is right in with straw so it makes for a hectic few weeks. We get 3-5 cuttings depends how early they cut


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## haymaker 515 (Jul 12, 2008)

Wish i could get paid as much as they do for being wrong most of the time.


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## OhioHay (Jun 4, 2008)

It would be great to be a weatherman, instead of having to survive through thier mistakes. Yes, haymaker, we have to deal with the rain alot. I believe we average 44 inches a year here in central Ohio. The challenge is to get 3 sunny dry days in a row. We mow the first day, ted the next and rake and bale on the 3rd. What really stinks is when the weatherman says its time to go and after you finish mowing, the forecast changes to rain the next day. Has happened more than once. Then we have to either role the dice and see if we get lucky or switch to baleage which eliminates the horse market and the premium that is brings. Some years it isn't bad to make hay in Ohio, but this has been a difficult one.


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## astropilot (Jun 3, 2008)

Here in Kentucky we also need a three day window, but we have had luck with getting hay up with 30% chance of rain that's our cuttoff. I also look at the weather on the net. Try these www.wunderground.com, www.intellicast.com and try googling "prog charts" and you will get FAA forecast. One last thing is look at the water vapor charts it helps too.


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## 4020man (Jun 21, 2008)

We usually need a minimum 3 day window here too. Thanks for the links they have way more info than weather.com


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