Starting a Small Hay Farm

Hey there fellow hay talkers,

I hope that you guys could help me out by giving me some of your own opinions, and any help/advice would be awesome. So here is the thing, my mom recently inherited a 1/4 section of farm land after the passing of my grandpa. Also ever since I was little helping my grandpa on his farm I knew that I wanted to some day own my own farm. The quarter have about 145 acres that is farmable since the rest is sloughs. SO anyways what would be the best stuff to plant on it to start out. I was either thinking straight alfalfa or oats for green feed, or oats and alfalfa (if that is possible). Also what would I be looking at when it comes to TON per acre. I know it all depends on soil quality and moisture, (this is dry land I get to deal with). I did some research that I should get around 2.5T per acre with oats and 3.4T per acre with alfalfa. Another thing is on your average year, are you going to get a second cut on straight alfalfa?? I know it probally will not be as good as your first cut but if you are able to get 1/3 or 1/4 of your first cut is that good?? Or should you be getting more than that on a second cut.

Thanks for taking the time to read this everybody I really appreciate it. I hope that you fellow hay talkers will be able to help me out here, and any advice would be gradlly welcomed. ALSO I am not doing this right away but hopefully a few years down the road

 

Starting a Small Hay Farm