It's Hay Day for alfalfa growers in Southeastern Manitoba.  According to John McGregor from Manitoba Forage Council his Green Gold scissor clipping program says we are at the stage where the alfalfa should be cut for Dairy quality.

McGregor has taken samples in several fields in the region and measured the plants with his PEAQ stick.  But he says the two tests are not lining up this spring.  "The first way we test is taking actual samples in the field and submit them to a lab.  They do a near infrared spectrometer reading on it and they give us back a relative feed value (RFV).  The second method is a predictive equation using the PEAQ stick.  Based on the height of the plant and the flowering stage it makes a prediction as to what the RFV might be."

The lab test is very accurate and the other is a best guesstimate.  McGregor notes what he finds in years like this when the plant is extremely short but has been growing for a long time is it tends to be a lot more mature.  This creates a false reading using the PEAQ stick.  "So it's not quite as useful in an abnormal year.  I always tend to use the lab result as the absolute right way of doing it and when we get a year like this, farmers have to rely on their own knowledge on how alfalfa develops to make the call on when to do their cutting."

He adds Hay Day this year has been established around Thursday, May 24th but rain may put a damper on some first cuts.  "Rain on Friday and Sunday will make it very difficult for farmers who are cutting hay for dry hay to do anything to produce a good quality feed for first cut.  They are going to have to follow the forecast and if they have a window of two or three days they are going to have to get their hay down, get it spread out so it dries quickly and then get it baled."

McGregor says this moisture is not as big of a deal for those growers looking to cut silage.  They only need a window of about 24 hours of good drying weather so if there is a two day break in the weather they will have the opportunity to put down some of the hay and put it up in silage.  He notes for a lot of farmers this is an important cut.  "Last year we had a short crop because of the dry conditions so a lot of the farmers have used up a lot of their feed and some have had to purchase feed from other areas.  I know some farmers right now that are actually cutting hay just to try and have feed from now until they start their first alfalfa cut."

"So far all the fields I have been in looking at alfalfa have come through the winter in extremely good condition," McGregor reports.  "We have some excellent growth there given the fact that we haven't had very much moisture on it.  The new stands look very thick and competitive."

He says the rain now is welcome and will do more good for the second cut than for the first.  McGregor adds recent rain we have had has been limited and is probably under two inches for most of the area and that is not nearly enough for the second cut.

This is the earliest Hay Day since 1994.