# Buckwheat for hay?



## seiowapicker (Feb 11, 2012)

Hi I just joined here a while back and want to thank everyone for such helpful information.The question I have today is can buckwheat make a good emergency hay crop if I have a failed planting of another crop or to try to double crop the field before going in with a conventional hay mix in the fall. Thanks


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## sedurbin (May 30, 2009)

I don't have any experience with it, but these guys at Cornell say it will work.

Buckwheat Information


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## Don Pine (Feb 2, 2012)

I would think there would be better hay options in those circumstances (perhaps one of the millets) and at a lesser expense. That said, I do raise a dab of buckwheat most years to feed my bees. I hadn't considered baling it, but I think it would get very rank if allowing enough time for the bees to get much good from it.


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## TBjorkman (Apr 2, 2012)

I'm the author of the information sedurbin linked to (thanks for that!).

Don Pine is right that there are usually better options for second crop hay than buckwheat. The instances where buckwheat makes sense has been where the season is really short (Foothills of Adirondacks, northern Maine) and your second chance is brief. Even then, it makes sense only if conventional hay is unavailable or too expensive. (Often emergency forage need strikes a whole region at the same time.)

Don Pine also raises the bee-forage vs cow-forage question. You can only get one of these benefits from a buckwheat planting. The hay value drops right off after flowering begins. Typically, flowering begins 30 days after planting, and the hay value peaks at 35 days. (That is when the the field first turns white from flowers.)

In SE Iowa, you'd have a lot more choices than the far northeners. Bucwehat could b the best choice if you are only five weeks from the first frost (too late for millet), have good soil moisture, but can't find hay to buy. Figure on 1 to 1 1/2 tons of dry matter per acre. That's not much biomass, but it is a really short season. You might consider broadcasting some red clover at the same time to provide winter cover.


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