FRANKFORT, Ky. — It is the time of year when corn and soybean harvests are finishing and tobacco is curing, but cutting hay is not a usual sight in November. Thanks to ample fall rains during a time that is normally dry in this region, however, some farmers are getting a late harvest of it.
Ray Smith, a forage extension specialist at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, said any time conditions are favorable, hay can be produced. During this fall, conditions were such to give farmers a late cutting. "The main reason a lot of people are cutting hay late is the spring cut of grass hayfields was down this year, but then we had some good rains and had good growth in the fall," he said.
Producers recognized they could shore up their supplies for winter with this late cutting, added Smith. "Often we don’t see it just because people are in good enough shape with their hay production or we don’t have the fall rains to get the growth."
This has been the wettest October in Kentucky since 2009, according to information from the Kentucky Mesonet Weather Data System. The state average for precipitation stood at nearly 5.5 inches.
Smith said while cutting hay this time of year is somewhat of an unusual occurrence, it’s not necessarily rare. "It’s not uncommon for people to cut some late hay. One of our encouragements to people is to think about using what is grown in the fall for grazing," he said.
He did note it isn’t always practical for some producers to graze fields, without the benefit of fenced pastures. He also pointed out late hay is usually of high quality. "It is typically real leafy and lush," he said. "You don’t have as much yield as you do with a spring cut, but you’ve got a good-quality production."
Earlier in the growing season, dry conditions were affecting nearly all crops, including hay, in Kentucky. In fact, many parts of the state were under abnormally dry or moderate drought conditions by the end of July. Some livestock producers were concerned their winter hay supplies would be used up before pastures greened next spring.
Smith said what’s more important than getting a late cutting of hay is good pasture growth this time of year.
"If you would have asked what I thought back in August I would have said we would be in pretty tough shape," he said. "Overall, hay supplies are probably still tight for many farmers because of low production in the spring when most get their quantity of hay put up, but we’re in much better shape than it looked like back in the summer, particularly for some of the drier areas in Kentucky."
Smith emphasized when it comes to fall hay cutting and for those producers with red clover and alfalfa, it is best not to cut between Sept. 15 and early November, to allow those crops to get growth and put energy reserves back in the root system to make it through the winter.
Tennessee weather has seen much of the same. Gary Bates, professor and director of the University of Tennessee Beef and Forage Center, however, said there were not a large number of producers cutting fall hay – and he wouldn’t necessarily refer to it as "fall hay."
"It’s like a really, really late second cutting because we were so late on our first cutting," he explained. "We have some people that have cut hay over the last few weeks, but I wouldn’t consider it an abnormal number. There is nothing I have noticed that has been totally out of the ordinary."
Bates added there is no doubt it is best for livestock producers to let those pastures be used for grazing as opposed to cutting hay at this time of year, particularly if it’s tall fescue.
"The tall fescue quality during the wintertime really does not drop in the nutrient content very quickly, so it’s a lot cheaper for it to stay out there in the field and put the cows out and graze the stockpile fescue rather than try to go to the trouble and expense to make hay and bring it to them later," he said.
