# when to bale johnson grass ??



## sandbur (May 6, 2018)

we have free access to 40 acres of mixed bermuda & a lot of johnson grass. it's gonna be fed for cattle, when do you cut & bale so the johnson grass is not toxic ???


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Johnson grass only contains Prussic acid poisoning when the plant has been stressed such as a drought or a freeze. Prussic acid if present when baled will dissipate from the hay after 3-4 weeks in storage. I've fed a lot of Johnson grass hay with zero problems. Livestock will eat fine stemmed Johnson grass before a lot of other grasses.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Johnsongrass is good stuff if handled properly. Cows will literally eat the stuff to death in a pasture-- they'll eat it before anything else and keep it ate off til the roots die. It's like ice cream to cattle...

As TxJim said, prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) is only a problem during the sudden greenup of drought-stressed johnsongrass or when its been damaged by frost but isn't dead. If it's been drought stressed and gets a sudden flush of rain and growth, give it a few days to a week and it should be gone. Cutting johnsongrass for dry hay, if properly cured to dry hay baling moisture (15-18% or thereabouts) the prussic acid will outgas from the stems as the hay dries down and won't be a problem. Just don't greenchop or cut for silage or baleage and wrap it because the prussic acid will stay in the wet forage and won't outgas (at least not rapidly).

The only other issue is, if it's been heavily fertilized and there's drought (insufficient water) to make a commensurate crop (use up the nitrogen in plant growth) it will soak up the fertilizer from the soil and accumulate it in the plant tissues, waiting for rainfall (or irrigation) in order to make quick use of it in a growth spurt. These accumulated nitrates can poison livestock if they eat too much of it (ties up the hemoglobin in the blood so it cannot carry oxygen, turns their blood into something that looks like chocolate milk, and they die of asphyxiation). If in doubt, nitrate test the forage and handle accordingly (can still be fed if mixed with proven low-nitrate feed and limited intake per animal to keep nitrate concentrations below the danger threshold). This is true of many other grasses and crops as well (corn fodder and milo stubble bales, etc.).

I'd LOVE to have a patch of mixed johnsongrass and bermudagrass... best of both worlds-- you've got the tonnage from johnsongrass and since it's taller it's up off the ground, and the low growing, finer stemmed bermuda growing thick down low-- should make a LOT of hay!

The main thing is, don't let the johnsongrass get stemmy... cut it when it's about waist to chest high (3-5 feet) and it should be about ideal. When the seedhead boots, it gets stemmy quick. Getting it earlier it'll be smaller stems and very leafy, which is ideal. If you're sticking to a 28 day bermudagrass cutting schedule (which is pretty much ideal as I understand it) then you should be fine. Stemmy bermudagrass can be a lot harder to cure (more like stemmy haygrazer or sorghum-sudan, which is very similar to it) particularly without a conditioner.

Later and good luck! OL J R


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## TJ Hendren (May 12, 2017)

Cut it when it's waist high and you will have some very good hay. Your cattle will relish it.


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## sandbur (May 6, 2018)

Thank's for the info !!!


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