# Ouch. I just learned I should not cut my prairie hay a second time.



## triguy46 (Mar 24, 2009)

Is that correct? boy its looking good, green, tall, no weeds.


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

You sub substitute grazing with haying, The way of prairie hay is for it to be grazed periodically not continuously.

If you do not take off more than half the growth and give it time to recover you are ok.

The climax condition for these prairies was to graze with heavy animals every year or so. Give the grass plenty of time to grow between grazing, and to burn off the old growth every 3 to 5 years.

Plus there are a lot of different grass species that qualify as prairie grasses. Each has their own set of rules to go by.

Switch Grass if going for hay is cut two maybe three times a year, if fertilized. Going for BioMass you cut it one time a year. 
Gamma grasses can be grazed maybe two times during the year.


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## Guest (Aug 7, 2009)

What is really interesting is that Missouri Dept of Conservation or the Department of natural resources or the Nature Conservatory or what their current name is, is baling prairie every other year only on some of there 30,000 acres of state owned prairie state parks style parks, and the balers buying and baling the hay for resale have differing opinions as to the best method of preserving prairie forage. It is an interesting mix of return on investment for the contracting hay baler and the balance of nature conservations with the government regulations.
Give me some input with what's up in your neighborhood
I am very concerned with the happenings in agriculture that are affecting or going to affect all of us in agriculture in the near and distant future
Thanks
Alan
800 283 7107 8-5 m-f central
417 682 1532 cell


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm (Feb 11, 2009)

The plan we worked out with the USDA grass specialist is to graze our prairie grass area hard until June 15. Hay it or let the cattle eat it down to dirt until the 15th but get it all the way down by the 15th, then we don't touch it until next year. The cattle eat it like stock piled hay the next spring when they get moved back on it. Our prairie grass gets better every year, but then I guess we get more pheasant and deer than prairie grass bales off of it


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## triguy46 (Mar 24, 2009)

It was the MO. site that I read about only cutting once. However, that was after being told by a co-worker/cattleman who told me that. I no longer graze this, so it will be cutting and baling next june. Will see how it progresses.


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