# Clair Timothy Leafiness



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

I've got a field of straight Clair Timothy and this stuff is amazing. I have never seen a cool season grass, i.e. orchard grass or fescue with so much leafy material. The seed heads are starting to emerge and we are hoping to cut and bale over Memorial Day weekend. Weather forecast for us is a narrow envelope so the buffered propionic acid is locked and loaded. Might be a must cut/bale in 3 days affair. Given the leafiness of this Clair, the yield is going to be pretty good IMHO. Our fertilizer timing, along with the rains of recent has it really thick. All of our equipment has had a dry run on a small batch of hay and is ready to go. If we can just get the rain/weather to cooperate, we'll have some great Timothy out of this field. Going to hit it after cutting with nitrogen for a second cut too. Normally wouldn't take a second cut, but college tuition looms... 

Anyone have experience with Clair Timothy? I'm liking it. Our other variety in another field is Climax and I'm not to happy with it. This Clair is a strong grass and very competitive.

Bill


----------



## muffntuf (May 1, 2017)

Wow nice to hear- congrats!

how long have you had this field? Timothy is normally hard to establish I thought?


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Clair is a very old time tested variety. The biggest drawback to Clair is that in most years it matures before haying temps arise as it is a early maturing variety. But, in a year like this one where we are having summer like temps in late spring, it is a winner.

Regards, Mike


----------



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

muffntuf said:


> Wow nice to hear- congrats!
> 
> how long have you had this field? Timothy is normally hard to establish I thought?


Second year on this field. I have found Timothy very easy to get established via both drilling or broadcasting.



Vol said:


> Clair is a very old time tested variety. The biggest drawback to Clair is that in most years it matures before haying temps arise as it is a early maturing variety. But, in a year like this one where we are having summer like temps in late spring, it is a winner.
> 
> Regards, Mike


Yea - we purposely planted Clair and Climax varieties to have some time between cuttings; lighten the load and all the hay isn't on the ground when weather isn't working in our favor.


----------



## 2ndWindfarm (Nov 11, 2014)

Pretty encouraging results so far. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate all the way to the barn! Have not heard of Clair as a recommended variety up here. Climax, yes. Most growers up here in my area plant Engmo.

I broadcast most all my new fields. Timothy stands will begin to thin out fairly quick up here with the yields dropping significantly by year 4-5. A heavy stand slows that decline.

Very interested to hear how your harvest goes.


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Next Timothy that I plant will be Crest Timothy. It is a mid-late maturing with good re-growth.....supposedly.

Regards, Mike


----------



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

leeave96 said:


> I've got a field of straight Clair Timothy and this stuff is amazing. I have never seen a cool season grass, i.e. orchard grass or fescue with so much leafy material. The seed heads are starting to emerge and we are hoping to cut and bale over Memorial Day weekend. Weather forecast for us is a narrow envelope so the buffered propionic acid is locked and loaded. Might be a must cut/bale in 3 days affair. Given the leafiness of this Clair, the yield is going to be pretty good IMHO. Our fertilizer timing, along with the rains of recent has it really thick. All of our equipment has had a dry run on a small batch of hay and is ready to go. If we can just get the rain/weather to cooperate, we'll have some great Timothy out of this field. Going to hit it after cutting with nitrogen for a second cut too. Normally wouldn't take a second cut, but college tuition looms...
> Anyone have experience with Clair Timothy? I'm liking it. Our other variety in another field is Climax and I'm not to happy with it. This Clair is a strong grass and very competitive.
> Bill


 If you could I would like to see some pictures comparing the Clair and climax Timothy. It always interests me to see how different varieties preform.


----------



## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

FarmerCline said:


> If you could I would like to see some pictures comparing the Clair and climax Timothy. It always interests me to see how different varieties preform.


Clair:






















Climax:






















The Clair and Climax were drilled into fertilized/lined fields within a week apart. This is the second season. They are both managed with soil sample tests. Historically the Climax field has been a much better field, so the performance of the Clair surprised me. I have another small field I broadcast Clair last September, using teff as a cover crop. It is very thick this year, a surprise.

My thoughts on Climax to date is it is to slow to grow. As such competitive grasses are able to invade - which they have. Not happy about this as IMHO Timothy is a lot of work. Historically we have good haying weather by Memorial Day. I see no reason to drag this cut into June, except to keep from having all the hay on the ground at one time. The lateness of the cut also compromises a second cut as weather starts getting hot and the Climax goes dormant. I'd like a July 4th holiday (read days off from the day job) second cut.

Clair - I'm liking it for its competitiveness against other grasses. It greens up quick and when I hit it with nitrogen, it takes off. Yield is good IMHO. It is a leafy grass which helps it sell in the bale. It is somewhat rust resistant and while cereal rust mite is a threat, I've read Climax is more prone to get it than Clair. Clair produces a good aftermath after the first cut, so between that and a Memorial Day cut, IMHO a second cut is more realistic with this variety of timothy. This year we are taking a second cut.

As we mature in our equipment and technique where we can tackle larger acreage in the same haying window, I might settle on 100% of our Timothy being Clair - we'll see.

YMMV

Hope this helps.

Bill


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I have grown Climax(and Clair) and if I remember correctly, Climax is finer stemmed than the Clair. The Clair can be pretty stemmy in the bale and I have had a horse person or two complain about the stemminess(is that a word?) of Clair. Your Clair looks about right for a big windstorm now....or that's how it treated me when I grew it solo. 

Regards, Mike


----------



## muffntuf (May 1, 2017)

Yes stemminess is a word in the horse world. Mature hay will be more stemmy than younger grass and horses will not bloat as much on a little less mature grass.


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

muffntuf said:


> Mature hay will be more stemmy than younger grass and horses will not bloat as much on a little less mature grass.


 Uh huh, and if Timothy is cut before it makes tails(finer stemmed) then the horse people I have dealt with will be questioning "if this is really Timothy" since it has no rat tails.

Regards, Mike


----------



## SVFHAY (Dec 5, 2008)

Vol said:


> I have grown Climax(and Clair) and if I remember correctly, Climax is finer stemmed than the Clair. The Clair can be pretty stemmy in the bale and I have had a horse person or two complain about the stemminess(is that a word?) of Clair. Your Clair looks about right for a big windstorm now....or that's how it treated me when I grew it solo.
> 
> Regards, Mike


my thoughts also on Clair. Great choice on small acerage that is well managed, nice yield and fast regrowth.But if you don't feed it well or it gets old you have a bale of stems.


----------



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I knew there were maturity differences in varieties of Timothy I didnt realize there was that much difference in Timothy varieties when it comes to growth characteristics so this is an interesting thread for me. It has been a couple years since I grew any Timothy but the variety I mostly planted was Kootenai. It always did well for me. The last year I grew Timothy I planted a patch of Barfleo across the road from the Kootenai and it did terrible.....it was supposed to me later maturing and almost seemed to burn up in the heat before it headed out and only got about 18" high while the Kootenai was chest high when headed out.

Planning on planting a pure field of Timothy this fall as I have a field that is a real pain to get in and out of that it doesn't hurt my feelings to only get a single cut off of it. Currently been planting it in beans but I'm moving towards more hay so I think Timothy might be a good fit there as I can only count on a single cutting of Timothy here.


----------

