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Growing Hay???
SOB, maybe someone else can answer your question about growing hay, but it seems to me that you'll have to provide a lot more information. What kind of grass do you have now? What part of the country are you in? How much rain do you get? What are you going to do with the hay? Will it be for cattle, horses, goats, etc.? Some critters will eat things that others won't. In my part of the country (central Texas) there's very little alfalfa grown because we don't get as much rain as it would like. Coastal hay is popular, but you'd need to kill off some weeds and if you don't already have coastal, you'd need to plow, sprig, etc. to get it started, then thereafter fertilize and keep the weeds down. Then there are several varieties of hay that are actually grains that are planted each year, so plowing and planting is done again every spring.
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Growing Hay???
SOB, I believe your best bet would be to call your county extension agent (I'm assuming every state has them) and ask what would be best. I'll bet he/she will send you a lot of literature. Of course, goats eat grass and hay, but they're actually "browsers" instead of "grazers", i.e., would rather have leaves, twigs, etc. than grass, so they would probably require supplemental feed (I fed mine too much expensive feed, so they got real fat, and ate so little grass that I had to mow it), and I finally sold all of them. They're great for brush control if you have proper fencing. Sheep, on the other hand, will usually keep the grass grazed (mowed) pretty short, but I've had no experience with raising them and don't know what kind of hay they should have. Without knowing for sure, it sounds to me as if you could just use the pasture for sheep and goats, but if you really want to cut and bale hay, you have to plow and sprig or plant and plan on taking a year or two to get started. I have two neighbors in the hay business, and I've worked for them some the last few years, and they bale a variety of hays and the type of cutter used, as well as baler set up depends to some extent on the coarseness of the stem or stalk of the hay being cut and baled. They have some coastal fields to which they do nothing but fertilize each year with a weed killer mixed with the fertilizer, they have some Johnson Grass to which they do nothing but cut and bale, and they have some big fields that are plowed (big, heavy disks) each year, anhydrous ammonia applied, and then they plant "haygrazer", grain sorghum and hybrid sudan mix, or millet. They also cut and bale a lot of rye grass early in the year for other people. I assume you know that you'd have a tremendous investment in equipment unless you just hire someone to do the cutting and baling. But there are just too many variables (climate, soil, planned use, etc.) for me to be much help to you. Maybe someone in your area who knows more than I will respond.
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