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Location: Pacific NW | Alfalfa, 1st or 2nd cutting? What is your preference and why |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 928
 
Location: Northern CA | Depends on you location and the grower....
We are on the west coast, 1st cutting is traditionally known for having more weeds, but typically has a better bloom, making it a good choice for horse hay. Around here many produces prefer to put 2nd up for dairy hay, cutting it earlier with less bloom, making it hotter, and not as desireable for horses.
Each grower is different and it would vary greatly if they are putting up strictly horse hay or playing the market. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
| recycledrunners - 2018-06-13 12:47 PM
Alfalfa, 1st or 2nd cutting? What is your preference and why
I don’t know what cutting but ideally I like my alfalfa with a lot of leaf, but not to green and rich. My horses are spoiled so if it’s stemmy they leave the stem behind. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 255
Location: Where Tall Corn Grows | 2nd or 3rd cutting alfalfa/grass mix is what I prefer to feed. Last year we were able to get 5 cuttings which was almost straight alfalfa which was too rich for anything other than sheep and dairy cattle. 1st cutting can be stemmy.
Edited by Chicken Fried 2018-06-13 3:46 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| 2nd, colorado |
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 Peecans
| Half the time we only get 1 good cut ... So that's what they get lol. Its been pretty dry the last few years fingers crossed for good crops this year. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1367
Location: mi | I like a mix of both. but I prefer a mix of 1st and 2nd cutting alfalfa/grass mix. Straight grass my horses pick through too much and straight alfalfa first can be stemmy and second can be too rich as a full hay ration. So I always try to have a mix of several cuttings. But a nice alfalfa grass mix hay is the bomb. |
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 Loves to compete
Posts: 5760
Location: Oakdale, CA | never the first cutting of alfalfa and honestly I just make sure its tested to make sure its ok for horses then I really don't care what cutting...........
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | I personally prefer second or third cutting because you'll get more of what you're paying for instead of a mix of alfalfa, grass, and weeds. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| halter_ego - 2018-06-13 2:58 PM
Depends on you location and the grower....
We are on the west coast, 1st cutting is traditionally known for having more weeds, but typically has a better bloom, making it a good choice for horse hay. Around here many produces prefer to put 2nd up for dairy hay, cutting it earlier with less bloom, making it hotter, and not as desireable for horses.
Each grower is different and it would vary greatly if they are putting up strictly horse hay or playing the market.
That’s interesting because we cut ours just as it starts to bloom for horse hay and my dairy guys in Michigan would cut at 1st full bloom and then every 28 days for dairy hay.
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I know nothing about alfalfa cuttings since we dont have alfalfa growers around here in my part of the world, all I know is the alfalfa hay we get here is brought in from out of state and thats why we pay 14 to 18 for a two strang or maybe 24 dollars a bale for a 3 strang bale, sometimes its really pretty and sometimes really stemmy so its kinda a crap shoot for buying alfalfa hay here. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | OhMax - 2018-06-14 9:07 AM halter_ego - 2018-06-13 2:58 PM Depends on you location and the grower....
We are on the west coast, 1st cutting is traditionally known for having more weeds, but typically has a better bloom, making it a good choice for horse hay. Around here many produces prefer to put 2nd up for dairy hay, cutting it earlier with less bloom, making it hotter, and not as desireable for horses.
Each grower is different and it would vary greatly if they are putting up strictly horse hay or playing the market. That’s interesting because we cut ours just as it starts to bloom for horse hay and my dairy guys in Michigan would cut at 1st full bloom and then every 28 days for dairy hay.
So you raise your own? |
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | I feel for you people in texas that have to pay that much for hay.
Really it doesn't matter as much which cutting it is as much as when it was made within that time frame of growth.
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | I just checked our local weekly hay auction results. Looks like most hay is in the $125 to $170 a ton in all packages of hay. So in small 2 string squared which weigh about 50#. They would be about $3.75 a bale at $150 a ton. Or in round bales that weigh about 1,500# they would be about $112.50 a bale. We are spoiled here in Iowa. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | BS Hauler - 2018-06-14 2:28 PM I just checked our local weekly hay auction results. Looks like most hay is in the $125 to $170 a ton in all packages of hay. So in small 2 string squared which weigh about 50#. They would be about $3.75 a bale at $150 a ton. Or in round bales that weigh about 1,500# they would be about $112.50 a bale. We are spoiled here in Iowa.
Wow that is cheap, my neighbor down the road buys it by the ton also but then he's got to pay fuel to get it here, I would buy a few bales from him at about 13 to 14 dollars a bale, but sometimes it would be kinda crapy hay, lots of trash/weeds in it and corn cobs, lol. So I rather spend the extra dollar are 2 and get better bales at the feed store where I buy my feed. But sometimes the hay my neightbor gets will be good but not to offten. Now the coastal, bermuda hay I can buy all day long for 5 to 6 dollars a bale a little cheaper when we get plenty of rain, we got hay growers all over out here. In fact I get my pastures round baled for winter in the fall to sell to a few people. |
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | Most of this is all alfalfa or 75 % alfalfa and 25 % orchard grass. Most of these guys sell at this auction every week. They do not have weeds in this as they want to keep their reputation up. Our hay sales here are all sold by the ton. Every group of hay has how many tons it is and it is tested for feed value. You can go to the web site and watch what it brings every wednesday.
http://fortatkinsonhay.com/
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