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Farmers in Tennessee are going to be extremely busy over the next few weeks in their hay fields.
Lee Maddox: Trying to Make Hay. Welcome and hello again everyone, for Tennessee Home and Farm Radio, I’m Lee Maddox.
Daniel Rodgers: We’ve been certainly making glad for the rain we’ve gotten it’s made the hay crop look good this year. We’re just ready for a few dry days to get started harvesting and see what it’s going to turn out.
Lee Maddox: Farmers in Tennessee are going to be extremely busy over the next few weeks in their hay fields. Greene County’s Daniel Rogers has several varieties he’ll be working to harvest.
Daniel Rodgers: We have everything from just your your normal meadow grass, the annual grasses and things in it that we put up for our own cattle to use. We run a cow calf operation with we also do a lot of small grain we raised some wheat triticale and some rye that we bale for straw as well. And then we also have some alfalfa that we put up and some pure orchard grass that we use, mainly in the horse premium hay market.
Lee Maddox: Daniel Roger says he’s hopeful for favorable weather conditions the rest of this week to continue cutting and baling on his hay crop, statewide farmers intend to harvest some 1.76 million acres of all hay. That’s up 48,000 acres from last year. So far, it’s been a mixed bag on the quality for Phillip Berry in Wayne County. His harvest looks like it will be delayed by a couple of weeks.
Phillip Berry: Usually start cutting around the fifteenth of May but this year is looking like it’s gonna be around the first of June. Seems like I don’t know if it’s because the hadn’t had as much heat or it didn’t warm up till last week around here. So hay ain’t really got much fodder, but I can tell a big difference from this week and last week.
Lee Maddox: Likewise, Daniel Rogers says he’s seeing variations as well in his different hay crops. He thinks from a cool dry April in East Tennessee.
Daniel Rogers: We noticed on some of our small green it seemed to be off a little bit this year. We’ve actually already mowed our first cut of orchard grass and it was one of the best crops ever had.
Lee Maddox: Making Hay in Tennessee. For Tennessee Home and Farm Radio, I’m Lee Maddox.
