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Making hay while the sun shines

Nathan Alpers, a farmer in central Missouri, says the weather forecast is finally good for baling triticale.

“For a week, at least in central Missouri, we have basically no chance of rain until late in the weekend.”

Alpers says there’s been consistent rains since Easter, and triticale provides good tonnage and nutrition when harvested at the right time.

“We probably missed optimum quality, but not like last year. Last year, it took off raining when the triticale was ready and it went from three to six feet tall. We got a lot of tonnage, but the quality wasn’t good. This year, I expect the quality will be much better.”

Alpers says he plans to have all the triticale baled by Tuesday.

The other grass on the farm has been slow to grow with the cool, wet April and while it’s likely stunted, Alpers says it’s coming around.

“It took every bit of April 15 for the grass to take off with the cool nights and everything,” he says. “The hay, I drove through a pasture to get to a farm to plant and the hay looks nice. I would guess it to be about two weeks behind, but we’re still in the middle of May. What we have though is good quality, the undergrowth is coming up nice.”

He says dry grass hay, like brome, will likely get a first cutting in early June on his farm and it should be a good cutting.