Growing Timothy hay

[Exfarmer]

Can you still apply ethofumesate / Nortron to new grass leys for control of volunteer barley? How late dare I go for drilling do you think? Dessicating the barley tomorrow and ought be cut 3rd week July - twice over with discs and press, power harrow and roll then I was going to leave for the rubbish to grow and drill in September.

Norton would slaughter Timothy only safe on ryegrass

 

[Clever Dic]

I have used Nortron on Timothy at 5 li but it needs to be well established. I also tried Triumph several years ago and killed 70 acres completely .
Drill it very shallow and into a firm fine seedbed. Roll thoroughly . I found timing less important than conditions sooner be later but not run out of moisture. We are cutting another 45 acres tomorrow and it's still really good quality plus it dries so much quicker than ryegrass. Timothy is naturally lower in sugar than ryegrass so is very popular with some horsey folk who worry about laminitis .

 

[super4]

Can you still apply ethofumesate / Nortron to new grass leys for control of volunteer barley? How late dare I go for drilling do you think? Dessicating the barley tomorrow and ought be cut 3rd week July - twice over with discs and press, power harrow and roll then I was going to leave for the rubbish to grow and drill in September.

I have found ethofumesate does not really kill the vol barley, can use falcon at 100ml/ha in ryegrass, just don't write it down and don't overlap and the ryegrass needs to be strong.

 

[eagleye]

I used to rake some for neighbour growing haylage, biggest swards I ever raked, later than italian and much heavier also big second cut. second year better than first as mentioned above and its still going 6 years later.......

 

[z.man]

presume you dont have BG on your farm, but ho many years do you grow it for seed, is it a one year crop or do you combine it several years before ripping up? And are the volunteers a pain to deal with in following crops ?

no blackgrass here, can be grown for seed for several years depending on how clean the timothy is, its inspected similar to seed grain and can be cut for hay for a few years after no longer seed quality

timothy can be a strong volunteer plant but round-up pre planting of the following crop + any othello type chemical in the following wheat would make short work of it

 

[franklin]

Are there many differences between varieties of Timothy? I am going to be shopping for some, and wondered if any were better? And by better, I am not after the last bit of yield but just some strong establishment and the like.

So for establishment, after winter barley, would you plough it and start clean with the possibility of my crappy ploughing, or work it with discs / press / rolls to get a stale seedbed before drilling? Would you drill twice and cross over, or use a grass harrow? Seeding depth, or better on the surface and repeatedly rolled down? Or direct drilled? How late would be too late for autumn? Barley looks to be off next week subject to weather.

 

[Great In Grass]

Are there many differences between varieties of Timothy? I am going to be shopping for some, and wondered if any were better? And by better, I am not after the last bit of yield but just some strong establishment and the like.

Not a great difference in the varieties apart from ground cover, my growers tend to take two varieties and mix them on farm. Timothy is slow to establish I would say optimum soil temperature would be 7-8dC, it is also a very small seed approximately 4000 seeds per gram.

I'll PM the RGCL list.

 

[franklin]

Not a great difference in the varieties apart from ground cover, my growers tend to take two varieties and mix them on farm. Timothy is slow to establish I would say optimum soil temperature would be 7-8dC, it is also a very small seed approximately 4000 seeds per gram.

I'll PM the RGCL list.

Ta. I think all the Timothy in our meadow mixes are "Erecta" but could be wrong?

 

[Great In Grass]

Ta. I think all the Timothy in our meadow mixes are "Erecta" but could be wrong?

Yes most probably (very popular), now dropped off the list but still available one of the cheaper ones too.

 

[Flat 10]

A 50:50 ryegrass timothy mix (with the right varieties obviously) is also good to sell into the horse trade. Each grass having its own strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Grassman]

Have a bit of a love-hate with Timothy in leys.
It's very good in a wet season at keeping standing if it's a wet June whilst ryegrass leys go flat.
However for haylage it's a problem as the stubble is like a bed of nails and punctures the wrap.

 

[Ash's Mum]

Very interested to read this thread - I'm a horse owner and looking for a supplier of late cut Timothy hay anywhere in the Warwickshire/Leicestershire area. I have been buying it from a lady who grows it for herself and sells the surplus, but that supply is about to tail off I fear. So any contacts to potential suppliers would be much appreciated.

On a more general note ... there are an increasing number of horse people who are trying to find low sugar/low carb. hays for their leisure horses, who need to be fed enough bulk of forage to guard against ulcers and avoid laminitis, which are just two of the issues facing us if we feed highly nutritional hays to horses in light work. I have a feeling that as more and more owners go down the route of having hay analysed and consulting nutritional experts in the field (which is a definite trend where I am) there will be an expanding market for this type of feed. Marketing hay with an analysis already done and available to potential clients could be a worthwhile sales tactic?

 

[franklin]

There are always folk after the more "washed out" hay for the laminitis.

 

[T C]

What timing would a late cut timothy be cut in the north of the country ? Would it be too far gone by the 15 july ? Think it would classify for EFA fallow in scotland as long as nothing is done between 01/01 and 15/07.

 

[z.man]

quite often we're only about half way through hay by the 15th usually hope to be finished by the start of august have got young hay sown out with above option in mind not sure if lack of fert will see it with less life left in it though should maybe have added clover then sprayed out after the first year

 

[franklin]

What timing would a late cut timothy be cut in the north of the country ? Would it be too far gone by the 15 july ? Think it would classify for EFA fallow in scotland as long as nothing is done between 01/01 and 15/07.

Dont know if there is something specifically for Scotland, but in England we can top our fallow provided we dont take a crop. So could top any early growth and cut it for hay later on.

 

[bobk]

Very interested to read this thread - I'm a horse owner and looking for a supplier of late cut Timothy hay anywhere in the Warwickshire/Leicestershire area. I have been buying it from a lady who grows it for herself and sells the surplus, but that supply is about to tail off I fear. So any contacts to potential suppliers would be much appreciated.

On a more general note ... there are an increasing number of horse people who are trying to find low sugar/low carb. hays for their leisure horses, who need to be fed enough bulk of forage to guard against ulcers and avoid laminitis, which are just two of the issues facing us if we feed highly nutritional hays to horses in light work. I have a feeling that as more and more owners go down the route of having hay analysed and consulting nutritional experts in the field (which is a definite trend where I am) there will be an expanding market for this type of feed. Marketing hay with an analysis already done and available to potential clients could be a worthwhile sales tactic?

You make some very valid points , imo laminitis is caused more from haylage than hay, some of the gear I've seen being fed to horses is rocket fuel , better fed to cattle really , not because it's poor just far to strong for a horses diet .

 

[glasshouse]

Very interested to read this thread - I'm a horse owner and looking for a supplier of late cut Timothy hay anywhere in the Warwickshire/Leicestershire area. I have been buying it from a lady who grows it for herself and sells the surplus, but that supply is about to tail off I fear. So any contacts to potential suppliers would be much appreciated.

On a more general note ... there are an increasing number of horse people who are trying to find low sugar/low carb. hays for their leisure horses, who need to be fed enough bulk of forage to guard against ulcers and avoid laminitis, which are just two of the issues facing us if we feed highly nutritional hays to horses in light work. I have a feeling that as more and more owners go down the route of having hay analysed and consulting nutritional experts in the field (which is a definite trend where I am) there will be an expanding market for this type of feed. Marketing hay with an analysis already done and available to potential clients could be a worthwhile sales tactic?

plenty in scotland.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Have a market for big bale Timothy, pm me if you have any, thanks

 

[glasshouse]

quite often we're only about half way through hay by the 15th usually hope to be finished by the start of august have got young hay sown out with above option in mind not sure if lack of fert will see it with less life left in it though should maybe have added clover then sprayed out after the first year

baled timothy hay on 12 august in 2012, same as 1985. started w barley same day too. it was the only chance both years.
2012 hay was not the best, but nobody had better and it sold like hotcakes.