Re: Organic hay production

From: Steve Diver (steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU)
Date: Wed Sep 18 2002 - 16:45:23 EDT


Mike -

Sanet is a good place to find information and resources on
sustainable agriculture and organic farming practices.

The exchange with Clarence Walker was a side issue.

Here's how I see organic hay production.

First, are you raising organic hay for high-quality forage
to be sold to horse farmers or dairy farmers, with
the intention to obtain a premium price?

Or do you want to cut hay on your farm and store
it for winter feeding to your cows?

This is a basic question that effects your approach.

For on-farm hay cutting, organic hay can be done
with rotational grazing. Weeds are better controlled
with rotational grazing and therefore no herbicides are
sprayed for weeds. Likewise, you will rely on nutrient
cycling and legumes mixed in the forage stand to obtain
sufficient fertility instead of applying commercial
fertilizers. Of course, animal manures can be spread raw
or they can ideally be composted first. The hay will
be mixed forage. With rotational grazing and perhaps
strategic overseeding, the forage quality can be very
good.

That is a fairly straightfoward organic approach. With
sufficient acreage, you can take one or two cuts of hay
and still have plenty of forage to graze.

On the other hand, if you are planning to raise high
quality hay for horse farmers, you may consider the
following.

To establish a specific forage like alfalfa or timothy,
you will be looking at tillage of the existing land, sequential
tillage to knock down weeds and vegetation, followed
by stand establshment. A very good seed drill is important.
You want to obtain excellent stand establishment. The idea
is to establish a clean forage that is relatively weed-free. You
can supply optimum fertility through mineral fertilizers and
compost applied pre-plant. A hay stand like this will last
2-4 years in pretty good condition. You can overdress
with compost as needed. But after 3-4 years a pure
stand of alfalfa or timothy will have more weeds and/or
more species invading and it will require rotation or
re-juvenation.

Hay shows are commonly held in conjunction with the
county fair. Usually an Extension agent or somebody
else travels around to farms taking hay samples and
sending them to the state lab for forage analysis.

Farmers like to look at hay and pick up and smell
it and look at the forage analysis results and hear
from the top forage growers on farming practices that
resulted in such high quality forage.

Some aspects of organic farming are just straightforward
and hay production without herbicides and chemical fertilizers
is one of them.

Steve Diver


Mike Bosko wrote:

> Alrighty then.... I think I got the point. My question was indeed
> posted to the wrong group. Sorry folks, hadn't intended for it to
> sway that way. However I did get a few private emails pertaining to
> my post that did help toward my goals. Thanks, and we can officially
> consider this thread dead. Thanks! -Mike

.



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