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Little River, TX | As a blanket statement, mow when its time and to heck with rain, just is not true. Not true if the ground is a heavy clay that is slow to drain. A blanket statement made by TX Extension types working in East Texas sandy soils, and those from our more arid western part of the state is to cut in the rain if necessary.
Two things that are bad happen on both sandy and clay land. Minerals and nutrients are leached out of the hay and the hay's nutritional value goes down. Plus the hay will have been inoculated with mold spores.
With slow drying clay soils we have an additional problem. Here, if I run equipment on wet clay soil, the ground will rut up big time, mud will collect on the tires and eventually the tires will start to skid rather than roll. To add to the fun the spaces between the cleats on the tractor tires will fill with mud and the tractor will loose traction. Then we are stuck in the mud.
The advise to feed the rained on hay at the first opportunity is valid. Here, rained on hay, even if baled really dry, will come out of the barn with mold dust if the weather turns damp and cool.
Some ground will not puddle or pond with a 4" or more rain, while our clay soil will pond with less than 1".
We all must adjust our management for different soil and climate conditions.
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Nutritional value of rained on hay
