# When to Spray after cutting Hay Field?



## whitmerlegacyfarm

So I sprayed some of my grass hay fields I just picked up free lease this year roughly about 2 weeks after I got it baled up. Had milk week starting to come up good, so I sprayed with Crossbow, knocked it out real good, but now things heated back up about 2 weeks later and knew stuff is coming up everywhere. Hay looks good and green still probably 30 days or more out till another cutting being just grass hay...

So my questions is can I go back in and spray these fields again with 2-4,D ester or something stronger? I really want to turn these fields around there a lot of decent hay there, timothy and o grass. Or do I just let it go and bale it up when the time comes?

Do you all try and wait a little longer after your first cuttings to try and let all weeds come on? Is there stuff to spray that would let a residue so to provide a little longer coverage? Thanks all


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## Vol

I do spray here when I experience conditions like yours....your 2-4d AMINE dosage will need to be much stronger as weeds and grass toughen up as the summer moves along. I would probably double the 2-4d dosage now or change to a different herbicide altogether. Maybe try pasturegard or another type. But, it is hard to beat the price/value of 2-4d. Quite often many herbs will have about a 4 week waiting period before harvesting for forage....keep this also in mind.

Too hot now for ester...you need amine to keep the spray from volutizing and wandering over in a vapor cloud and killing your neighbors grapes or flowers or whatever they might be growing.... 

Regards, Mike


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## mlappin

Jeez, you guys and your free leases. I have one "free" lease mainly because everybody else is scared to mow it.

Dad had one free lease, mainly to keep the weeds down, drainage was so bad and it had so many snags where they just left the trees grow in the wet spots that even free, it was hard to break even.


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## PaCustomBaler

Whitmer,

This thread is pretty old so don't know if this would be of help. From my experience with milkweed and hemp dogbane (both very similar weeds located in PA), apply a mix of 2,4-D and Banvel or Crossbow right before the first frost. Maybe throw a little N in with it. This makes the plant think it's getting fed, but it is also the time of year when the grass nutrients are being sent back down to the roots in preparation for winter. Thus, you want the foliar spray to be absorbed by the weeds, sent down the stem, and into the roots for a good kill.


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