Cuting height

The subject of cutting height came up on an article on the Cow calf weekly forum.  I would like to tell you folks of my experience.  I have received a lot of good knowledge from this group and would like to reciprocate.

 

Rotary swathers tend to scalp the pasture.  My experience with a pull type rotary swather did not allow me to raise the cuterbar enough to prevent getting into the white part of the grass.
I cut grass pastures native to Central Oklahoma.  Most of the grass is Bluestem and the accompanying forbs.  Due to my age and physical limitations to watch behind the tractor, I bought a couple of old OMC Sickle type self propelled swathers.   The headers have wide steel roller gauge wheels.  I set these rollers as high as they would go, approximately 8 inches.  My hay fields are small areas that the larger farmers will not rent.  I am in the middle of a housing boom invasion.  A 30 acre field yielded 45 bales on the first cutting at the new height last year.  The second cutting yield was 110 bales!!  This field never yielded more than 2 bales per acre with the rotary swather.  Instead of spraying herbicide for weeds, I now fertilize with 90 to 125 lbs/acre with a blended fertilizer 43-4-0.  This was made by blending 500lbs of 18-46-0 with 5500 lbs of 46-0-0.  The phosphate is used as a catalyst for the nitraogen.  More Phosphate does not appear to yield more forage.  I cut this pasture 3 days ago and the only weeds seen were a few small patches of silverleaf nightshade.  Nightshade is extremely hard to kill with selective herbicide.  I am planning on using a grass works weed wiper to kill the nightshade.  Any advice would be welcomed about eradicating the nightshade.
The wet spring we experienced this year did not allow me to fertilize,  so the yield is from the fertilizer I applied last year.  The 30 acres made 45 bales on the first cutting and 35 on the second without fertilizer this year. 

With my "new" sickle type swathers I have put my herbicide money into fertilizer and reaped a lot more rewards.   The article states what I had thought when reading about what happens when the green part of the grass is cut.  With no green leaves, photosynthesis cannot convert sunlight into nutrients and the plant has to use the reserves in the roots to make a new green leaf before it can begin to grow.  
The use of sickle versus rotary is the old way but in my case it saves fuel and spraying. 

Cuting height