# When to cut??



## farmboy9510 (Feb 16, 2009)

I was wondereing if anyone actually notices a difference when they cut hay that still has dew on it. Also I had a customer come to me yesterday and tell me he wanted to wait on part of his secound cut that I already cut becuase he feels that it would have grown more. There is just odd pacthes in the field that have not flowed so the alfalfas next stage was flowereing I did not feel that it would grow anymore in this time nor would it be worth leaving small pacthes....

Any feed back would be nice

Alex Durham


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

the customer is always right - even when he is wrong! Doesn't matter what he wants - matters only if you can and will acomplish what he wants.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Far as the dew goes, it all depends. I've mowed very first thing in the morning while it was wet enough to actually have water dripping off the haybine. Stopped to load up a steer for processing, loaded a customers trailer with round bales, then went back to mowing. It had just enough dew left to just get your shoes wet when walking thru it and that was ready to bale several hours before the stuff that was mowed first.

I'd say it all depends on how good a job you do mowing. I was still using a haybine and even though it was adjusted correctly it left some clumps in the rows as hay that wet just doesn't flow well. I haven't had my discbine long enough yet to mow hay that wet but am curious to try.

The customer is always right, _only_ if his check doesn't bounce.


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## Heyhay..eh (Aug 7, 2009)

A few years back I had taken up the practice of mowing in the rain or at the end of a rain ... in the evening. This became a necessity as it seemed, for a few years, that we could not put 4 days of drying weather together. I could not waste a no rain day on getting the crop on the ground.

I learned that there was no real damage to the hay if it went down in the rain and took rain for the next 12 hours. Once it began to dry though it could not take a big rain 1/2" or more. For mowing I found that you had to toy with the ground speed to find the optimum and you had to keep the rpms on the high side of the pto line.

Now it seems that the weather forecasting is more of a crap shoot so who knows when to cut or when to bale. Last night was a case in point. During the day the hay was so dry it dropped all of its leaf just in the testing. By 9:00 it was set up nice with the dew (about 18%) but close enough. Made 1 bale and it started to rain so packed it in within a few hours we were in the middle of some very serious electrical storms. Needless to say it was a no go today. The hay was like wet mops. We were not to get any rain until Saturday! Go figure?


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## nwfarmer (Jun 16, 2009)

If my hay is moist my NH2550, 16 ft head has a real struggle. I have to becareful of clogs. My NH1112, 14 ft head would walk right through wet hay. I wish now that I hadn't traded up. All I seem to have gotten is a bigger and more comfortable cab. Also quieter because it is all hydraulic.


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

Personally I do not like to mow when there is still dew. Years ago I was told that this just spreads any diseases we may have. 
As time passed I continued to make adjustments. Now I do not cut unless the sun is shining. I cut close to our local solar noon, (1:30 pm CDT). I spread the hay in as wide a swath as I can under the circumstances.

First I want the sun to shine on the hay to encourage that first 30% of moisture to leave the plant through the leaves. (Conditioning has no effect on this part of the hay curing.)

According to the charts I accumulate 4% nonstructural carbohydrates, (Sugars) between sunrise and about 3 pm CDT. The plant will continue respiration until the plant reaches 48% Moisture. Between 3 pm and dark, (48% moisture), the plant will burn 2% of these accumulated sugars. This will give me a 2% advantage over hay that is allowed to maintain it's moisture levels above 48% or that never was allowed to accumulate the sugars in the first place. It should also be true that hay cut early in the day will burn off sugars that are in the crop at sunrise. It is my opinion that this will give my hay good advantage over that cut early in the morning.

I have been told that dew that is laid down with the crop will also be slower to dissipate than dew that is on a standing hay crop.

This being said, there are hay growers who must start cutting early and quit late if they are to finish.

That being said 50 years ago we would start mowing at first light, rake it when finished mowing, and bale around midnight when the humidity got high enough to hold the leaves. That also was when our yield was a good bit lower.


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