It’s official.

Our main hayfield is now gone. I went through 2 weeks ago and sprayed it down with Roundup (Glyphosate).

Unfortunately, the temps dropped and the sun left the day after I sprayed the field, so it might not have had as much chance to work as it should have.

My plan had been to spray the field, wait 2 weeks, burn the field, then lightly disc it and then seed with a brillion-style ground seeder.

Erik had different ideas.

He didn’t want to burn the field (which would have gotten rid of extra sod and made for clean ground), he instead opted to till the whole field under.

The field was hard-packed clay . . . not such a good idea.

Since it hasn’t been tilled up in well over 20 years, tilling left giant lumps of clay. Tilling 3 times total helped break them up into golf-ball size lumps, but still not enough to plant grass on.

Now with 3″ of rain expected over the next few days, we stand to lose the entire field to washout.

Our second hay field (previously the teff field) will fair better. This was also sprayed to kill weeds and perennial grasses, but we didn’t till it, I used a field drag on it instead. This toothed contraption sank rows of teeth 1″ into the soil and ripped out all the grasses.

If it rains, the grassy clumps will protect the fragile top-soil.

This field will be solid “smooth brome” grass. The larger 8 acre field will be solid orchard grass. The guys online all said we won’t get much for cuttings off the fields this year. However, the orchard grass variety I chose was rated for 16 tons the first two years of planting. That’s about 8 tons per year . . . typical is a bit over  2 tons per cutting per acre (or about 80-100 50lb bales per acre)! 8 tons per year would be 320 bales per acre, or 2,560 for our 8 acre field PER YEAR.

Last year we got maybe a ton and a half per acre for THE YEAR. If we got 100 bales off each acre this year, each cutting (200 bales per acre for the year) we’d STILL be doing better than every other year we’ve had, and have more to look forward to for next year.

Bottom line, I’d be very happy to at least average 100 bales per acre, per cutting. Really.

The brome field I’m not sure. Everyone across the board said brome is hard to plant, and takes forever to grow thick. Well, we’re only doing 2 acres of it, so I’m not overly worried.

Fingers crossed on getting the hay to grow. Erik found some new liquid fertilizer stuff to buy for the fields, which should boost nutrition and help the grasses grow. We have a 3 acre field off to one side that I’m hoping to fertilize, then cut the wild grasses off from for hay for our group.

It’s going to be an interesting year.

Last week I made it out to a horse rehabilitation facility which was going to work with and train our newest horse, Dezzie.

As we chatted, I happened to look down and find a huge stalk of Teff Grass hay. Excited, I help it up and said “Ah, you’ve fed Teff Grass, isn’t it awesome?”

The owner looked at me in horror, “No! It’s terrible! Our horses lost tons of weight on it and even our vet said Teff is bad horse hay!”

I looked at the girl in shock! Bad horse hay? I don’t think so!

But looking at the stalk in my hand, she was partially correct: this was in fact BAD horse hay! This hay had already started to seed, and it was past cutting prime. Some grasses like Brome and Timothy ae flexible with cutting and don’t lose nutritional value quickly. Others, like Teff and Orchard MUST be cut at a specific stage to ensure all nutrition is available for the animal who will be eating it.

Who ever had sold the girl this Teff, was basically conning her into it. He knew it was no good. You don’t grow hay and not know when to cut it. Now, whether or not she told him she had starved, rescue horses, I don’t know. But incorrectly cut Teff is bad for starving animals!

Lets get the facts on Teff Grass:

Taken from http://teffgrass.com/feeding-teff

Let me be clear – I researched Teff BEFORE I decided to plant it last year.

Teff is similar to the nutritional profile of Timothy, but, as the website suggests, the feed value lowers when you wait too long to cut it. Having grown it myself for hay, and fed it to my horses AND cows, the animals did VERY well on it, and slurped it up like spagetti! I had to be careful feeding it because they loved it so much they devoured their rations faster than other hays!

BUT . . . I also paid VERY strict attention to when I harvested it, and I cut it right at the correct stage of growth. I even got two MORE cuttings off it later, which were equally good!

Why Teff?

It’s fast.

Teff Grass can be cut 45 days after planting, and every 4-6 weeks there after. It gets thicker each time you cut too!

It’s an annual.

Unlike other grasses, Teff is an annual, so it dies in winter. It’s a “warm season” grass so it performs best in HOT weather. This makes it ideal for southern or western states where “cool season” grasses won’t grow for most of their grazing season.

It’s also good for northern states who need pasture during the short-lived summer months, and want to fatten cattle faster.

Being an annual, it allows farmers to keep something growing in their fields between major crop plantings, yet still get a paycheck from.

So if I love Teff so much, why am I not planting it again?

I would! BUT, I’d most likely plant it for summer pasture for the cows. At the moment I don’t have an extra area to plant as my previous area will be planted with Brome grass. Teff is perfect for farmers harvesting a winter crop such as wheat or brassicas.

Honestly, I’d rather just plant Native Grasses, which are also warm-season, but are perennials so they grow thicker each year. Native grasses are some of the best hay you can feed a horse but that’s a topic for another post!

Bottom line: Teff is excellent grass and hay. But do your research on it before you decide to buy it, so you can go to your hay seller with confidence! Or ask for a nutritional analysis. Or get one done yourself!

Teff Hay at correct stage for cutting, photo taken while cutting first cutting (note the stray timothy heads that snuck into my field?)

Photo of Teff Hay drying in the rows. Being a thin grass most think it dries faster and bale it too quickly. It dries at the same rate as other grasses, so don’t rush it!

*Doesn’t it look like an overgrown lawn?