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Tennessee Hunting Forums
Quality Deer Management
implementing a plan, who helps you?
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<blockquote data-quote="Hunter 257W" data-source="post: 4162125" data-attributes="member: 12277"><p>Most people who would cut your hay would want to cut whatever was already growing in the field. I don't know how many, if any at all, would be willing to spray, disk and re-seed a field for hay. I'd think anybody planning to do that would want at least a 3 year signed lease to guarantee they recoup their investment. Also most crops that make good hay aren't very good deer feed. Alfalfa is one exception. The problem with alfalfa though is that the leaves contain most of the food value and they shatter and fall off easily once bailed. Alfalfa hay is also very sensitive to getting wet. You really need to put it in square bales and keep it in a barn and not many farmers still have square balers. If you bale it with a round baler and let it sit out in the weather you pretty much ruin the hay. Even if you put the bales under a shed, there is no good way to feed round bales without exposing them to the rain. One alternative planting that might be worth looking at would be a grass with lots of Whitetail Institute clover mixed in. That way you have most of your hay volume as grass but enough clover growing in the field for deer to graze. </p><p></p><p> If you had the machinery to plant the hay yourself it might work out better for you because that would put you more in a position to get paid for part of the hay yield. A common payoff would be that you get maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of the hay profit.</p><p></p><p> What about row crops? Are there any row crop farms joining or close to your farm where the farmer who is doing that land might be interested in renting yours? That could yield you some income as well as providing deer feed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hunter 257W, post: 4162125, member: 12277"] Most people who would cut your hay would want to cut whatever was already growing in the field. I don't know how many, if any at all, would be willing to spray, disk and re-seed a field for hay. I'd think anybody planning to do that would want at least a 3 year signed lease to guarantee they recoup their investment. Also most crops that make good hay aren't very good deer feed. Alfalfa is one exception. The problem with alfalfa though is that the leaves contain most of the food value and they shatter and fall off easily once bailed. Alfalfa hay is also very sensitive to getting wet. You really need to put it in square bales and keep it in a barn and not many farmers still have square balers. If you bale it with a round baler and let it sit out in the weather you pretty much ruin the hay. Even if you put the bales under a shed, there is no good way to feed round bales without exposing them to the rain. One alternative planting that might be worth looking at would be a grass with lots of Whitetail Institute clover mixed in. That way you have most of your hay volume as grass but enough clover growing in the field for deer to graze. If you had the machinery to plant the hay yourself it might work out better for you because that would put you more in a position to get paid for part of the hay yield. A common payoff would be that you get maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of the hay profit. What about row crops? Are there any row crop farms joining or close to your farm where the farmer who is doing that land might be interested in renting yours? That could yield you some income as well as providing deer feed. [/QUOTE]
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implementing a plan, who helps you?
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