Fall Brings Greener Pastures, Another Hay Cutting

It’s November, and farmers and ranchers are cutting hay.

After an exceptionally dry summer, the fall rains and greener pastures are a welcome sight.

Darrell Glaser raises purebred Beefmaster cattle and grows hay in Rogers. This year has been a challenge, but this fall made for a good hay crop.

“Coming out of the summer, it was horrible,” he said. “We were 90 days without rain, but the fall has been better because we’ve had a little more moisture.”

After late September rains, pasture conditions improved and, rye grass started growing.

“Our pastures are fairly green now, and we’ve been able to stop feeding hay to our cattle for a while because they are getting enough rye grass,” he said.

Glaser harvested 104 bales this fall on 60 acres.

“Up to that point, we didn’t cut any hall all summer. All we did was roll up corn stalks. This is the only hay we’ve made since early June,” he said.

The hay quality has been good, too.

“It has been some of the best hay we’ve had all year. We just finished baling and what we baled is going to be pretty good because there was nothing until September,” Glaser said. “We started getting rain and were lucky enough the cold held off long enough for us to make a crop. Prior to that, it’s been corn stalks and cubes.”

The past two years have been difficult for forage production in Texas. Because of that, hay prices have skyrocketed.  Glaser said round bales range from $80 to $100 per bale.

The forecast indicates an unseasonably cold and stormy winter for Texas, so Glaser is preparing now and putting up as much hay as he can.

“We’re doing a little bit more of overseeding our pastures right now this fall with more rye grass,” he said. “I’m to trying to get where we can farm less hay and have a little bit higher quality forage for the winter, and that’s going to strictly depend on when the cold hits and how bad it is.”