Air July 9, 2003

Thank you Gary, and good morning everyone. If you aren't making it to the No-Till Soybean Plot tour in Dickinson county this morning you can still make the one in Riley county west of Leonardville tomorrow morning. Call me for details or simply go 4 miles west of Leonardville and 1 mile north. That's basically one mile north of US 24 on Lasita (la - SIGH - ta) Road in Riley County.

With the record or near record wheat crop, some producers are just now getting harvest wrapped up. In the meantime some bromegrass has been cut for hay very late. It would be well worth your time to take samples from your different cutting periods and have them analyzed for quality. I think you will find some very serious declines in forage quality as the cutting dates moved from late May to early June to early July. Once any forage moves past the vegetative state and into the flowering or reproductive stage, quality quickly goes to heck in a handcart. So what you have to do then is categorize your hay resources and match your livestock's needs to the resources available. Or in other words, don't use your best hay when all they need is what your average or poorer quality hay will work. But now that brings us up to the next forage resource, native hay or prairie hay. Believe it or not, it's time to get started cutting your native hay. When you look at the long term studies we always see terms like cutting in early July in southern Kansas and mid-July in northern Kansas. To me, anytime after July 10th is mid July. From July 1st to August 1st, we don't really gain as much tonnage as you think we might. In all reality we may be only gaining about 500 pounds of dry matter. But when you look at how much the crude protein falls from early July to early August, you actually end up losing total pounds of protein. So you get more tons of indigestible dry matter and fewer tons of usable crude protein. Additionally, you do the grass plant a favor by harvesting in July. Those grass plants, which have been severely stressed, have 6 to 10 weeks of good growing season after the July harvest date to restore root reserves and build up a larger grass plant for next year. So do your grass and your livestock a favor. Get that native hay cut and baled during July!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2003.

Return to Radio Home Page

Return to Ag Home Page