# Iowa Grass Hay



## TC Hay (Jun 29, 2019)

Looking at seeding down 30 acres of a good grass mix for horse hay in central Iowa. We currently have 60+ acres of alfalfa/grass mix, just looking to fill a need/gap in the local market. Im open to anything, but looking for a high yielding quality mix.

I appreciate any advise.

-TC


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## Jimmy Bartlett (Aug 17, 2015)

TC,

I'm curious to see these replies as well. Most of the cool season grasses give one or two cuttings in the spring and then go dormant in the summer heat. Teff is a decent annual option during the summer. I seeded three different grass blends last year in small patches to try answering this same question. You can get some ideas from the seed companies with forage mixtures.

options to possibly consider: Lacrosse - Versa grass mix, Welter - Mix #10, Albert Lea - Grass Hay Mix #2, Millborn - #3 Hay & Pasture mix. The Millborn is one that i haven't seeded yet.


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## TC Hay (Jun 29, 2019)

Jimmy Bartlett said:


> TC,
> 
> I'm curious to see these replies as well. Most of the cool season grasses give one or two cuttings in the spring and then go dormant in the summer heat. Teff is a decent annual option during the summer. I seeded three different grass blends last year in small patches to try answering this same question. You can get some ideas from the seed companies with forage mixtures.
> 
> options to possibly consider: Lacrosse - Versa grass mix, Welter - Mix #10, Albert Lea - Grass Hay Mix #2, Millborn - #3 Hay & Pasture mix. The Millborn is one that i haven't seeded yet.


Appreciate the response. What did you plant and how did they yield??

-TC


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## ttazzman (Sep 29, 2019)

Timothy is prob the #1 grass horse hay....but it's not high yield or very durable....Brome is #2 horse hay is better yielding and more durable but harder to establish....#3 is orchard grass ..is high yielding and durable.....we do a brome /timothy mix it brings top $ but can be hard to keep going....fyi actual seed brome is probably the largest vs timothy being one of the smallest....so they can be interesting to seed ...brome and orchard grass are early maturing here usually mid may but weather will rarely allow harvest at prime...timothy is a June grass we can usually catch in its prime weather wise...so its not a easy choice..gotta think about your weather patterns...we have decided high timothy mixes are lower yielding annually but selling price makes up the difference


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Meadow Brome willl do better in summer then smooth Brome

Fescue will do better in mid summer then some grasses

Orchardgrass tends to go dormant I summer but can get late summer growth that's hard to beat and makes nice hay

1/3 each by seeds per acre would be a good mix

Id still add alfalfa because it will ton up for the yr a lot better you will just have higher grass ratios in spring and fall cuttingsHave stronger alfalfa ratio in mid summer cuts and just market accordingly.


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

I started playing with straight Timothy a couple of years ago to have a grass hay to offer customers along with my alfalfa. The first cutting is huge (3+ ton to the acre) but second cutting isn't much.. So we took 1st cutting off, burned down the field and double cropped soybeans in it.

As a mix you see brome included with it in this area like tazzman says. I'd assume our weather is pretty similar to yours. Good luck.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

ttazzman said:


> Timothy is prob the #1 grass horse hay....but it's not high yield or very durable....Brome is #2 horse hay is better yielding and more durable but harder to establish....#3 is orchard grass ..is high yielding and durable.....we do a brome /timothy mix it brings top $ but can be hard to keep going....fyi actual seed brome is probably the largest vs timothy being one of the smallest....so they can be interesting to seed ...brome and orchard grass are early maturing here usually mid may but weather will rarely allow harvest at prime...timothy is a June grass we can usually catch in its prime weather wise...so its not a easy choice..gotta think about your weather patterns...we have decided high timothy mixes are lower yielding annually but selling price makes up the difference


I wouldn't say Timothy won't yield. I plugged my discbine (didn't know that was possible) last year in a new field of straight Timothy and yielded 10 4x4 bales/acre. Timothy is only 7 lbs of a 20 lb mix. Beautiful hay that ended up wrapped due to weather. We are curious what field will look like this year.

Our seed mix is Timothy/Orchard Grass/Red Clover with Smooth Brome going in with the oats. I wouldn't want to try an accurate seed rate with Timothy and Smooth Brome being mixed together.


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## TC Hay (Jun 29, 2019)

swmnhay said:


> Meadow Brome willl do better in summer then smooth Brome
> 
> Fescue will do better in mid summer then some grasses
> 
> ...


How many lbs/acre would you advise one to plant for each of these varieties if planted as at 1/3,1/3,1/3?

I have a Great plains solid stand 10 NT drill for seeding. Small seed box, Native seed box and small grain box. 7 1/2" spacing.

It was very old alfalfa stand that was mismanaged, so I've tilled and planted beans in it for this year. Thinking about a fall seeding... but I am more than happy to spring plant... Which in your opinion would be better? Or does it matter?

I appreciate everyones input on this.

Thank you!

-TC


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

50% Meadow Brome

30% Fescue

20% Orchardgrass

by wieght.

25-40 lbs per acre alone,grass only

If you have time after bean harvest to get it established before killing frost it would be good but IDK if you will have enough time after beans.We don't here on Iowa/Mn border.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

Of all the grasses I bale it seems the fescues have the best annual tonnage by far. Bear in mind this is mostly unmanaged grass ground that gets fertilizer, herbicide, and little else. Properly managed, ochardgrass would no doubt give fescue a run for yearly tonnage, but I'm really don't care much for orchardgrass given its clumpy root structure and tendency to be hard to dry down after its first cutting.

I won't even entertain the idea of fall planting grass or alfalfa in these parts.


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## Jimmy Bartlett (Aug 17, 2015)

TC Hay said:


> Appreciate the response. What did you plant and how did they yield??
> 
> -TC


TC,

The seedling year i just mowed the oats/grass/weeds mix, rolled and sold to a feeder guy without keeping close track of yield records. This second year I'm watching each plot more closely. I have one field of hakari brome mixed with a little leafhopper resistant alfalfa that I'm most excited about. The hakari has grown pretty well this spring even with our drought. Although once we did get an inch of rain last week, my other patch of orchard responded very quickly and the hakari was steady. My other two little patches are the Versa grass mix and the Albert Lea mix #2. There's some of the soft leaf tall fescue in the albert lea mix #2 that i'm anxious to see. Like you, i was wanting to seed a grass only for the free choice fed horse market and for weed control purposes. Both Cy on here and a local cattle feeder suggested to add 5-10 lbs of alfalfa for the summer tonnage. Cy's suggestion of the three grasses above seems like a smart play to seed early next spring, it is pretty close to the albert lea mix #2. There's definitely a horse market in this area for grass only bales, our challenge seems to be getting more than one decent cutting from the grass only hayfield. I streamed 25gal of 32% on my one grass only (orchard/timothy) strip three weeks ago. The N was expensive and we didn't get any rain. I'll probably try the same play after first cutting on the grass strip just to see if it can make a decent second cutting yield before we get to July.

-Jimmy

Albert Lea Mix #2 is this blend:

40% STF-43

30% HLR Orchard

30% Hakari Brome


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

My ratios were based on seeds per lb to get about 1/3 each

like Jimmy I really liked the Hakari brome,it blows smooth brome out of the water.Seed size is huge compared to other grass seeds so need to adjust rates to compensate


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