Hay Production

Testament to our commitment to hay production is well illustrated by an open station tractor in Kansas. Not having a cab on the tractor shows well this tractor is used during hay season and not year round feeding cattle.

No hay field is perfect. Even our best efforts will result in weed and grass in a new alfalfa pure hay stand. The grass is more problematic. This amount of grass (lower left picture) will be ignored and it like the weed will be harvested with the next alfalfa cutting before seeds are produced. Grass such as crab grass will pioneer by root and spread requiring spraying if prolific before the alfalfa field is four years old. During those first four years grass spraying is an option. After four years the entire hay field may be turned over, or rolled in large round bales for cattle.

The alfalfa field in the two pictures above was planted in the previous September of this late April picture.

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