Slough hay

[Sheepwheat]

Cut and baled a few sloughs for a neighbor. It is a thigh tall grass, and I can’t find the proper name of it. Rough leaves, doesn’t form a seed head that I can tell. Sheep don’t love it but they do eat it some. What is the grass called?

[Tucker]

Cut and baled a few sloughs for a neighbor. It is a thigh tall grass, and I can’t find the proper name of it. Rough leaves, doesn’t form a seed head that I can tell. Sheep don’t love it but they do eat it some. What is the grass called?

Likely reed canary grass. Has to be cut early to be of much value.

[shtferbrains]

Bullfrog alfalfa?😊

[Sheepwheat]

Not reed canary. This stuff is very rough leaved and does not head out, just stays grassy. Seems to like sloughs that hold water until June.

[Happytrails]

You have it right Sheep. It is slough hay. Quality isn’t great but beats snowballs all to heck.

[shtferbrains]

I used to consider that kind of stuff 40 below hay because the only time they whould eat it was when it was real cold and they will eat everything you put out.
The problem with that is you have to feed the most nutritious you have then because they will loose condition quickly unless you can pour the grain to them.
Sell that and buy something better.
There is always some looking for the cheapest.

[Sheepwheat]

I used to consider that kind of stuff 40 below hay because the only time they whould eat it was when it was real cold and they will eat everything you put out.
The problem with that is you have to feed the most nutritious you have then because they will loose condition quickly unless you can pour the grain to them.
Sell that and buy something better.
There is always some looking for the cheapest.

Yeah I’ve thought about selling it for sure. It’s just 17 bales, but with hay values as they are…. I’m not positive I really need it for our sheep yet, depends on the rest of fall and the way winter unravels. In deep winter weather, we do feed more barley too, so that is an option as well. I’m gunna roll one out next week and see just how much they hate it!

[burnt]

When the topic of slough grass comes up, I often think of Laura Ingalls Wilder's book,"The Long Winter".

In a desperately long, harsh winter, all supplies ran low. For endless days, Pa Ingalls would head for a slough through the deep snow and biting wind and haul home all the slough grass he could pack.

Then he would twist the hard, coarse grass into "sticks" to burn in their stove and Wilder describes how his hands would be cut and bleeding from this endless task.

Apparently it was not an uncommon practice in those days, a vast amount of grass would come out of the sloughs and it made okay fuel.

Wilder paints such a vivid picture of the harshness of that winter that I got chilly reading it - in July!!

[WiltonRanch]

Here the first year cut off a slough is junk. Bedding and gut fill at best. The next year the red top comes if you’re lucky and makes better hay. I cut a cattail slough and baled it off. Could probably cut another 30 acres but experience tells me not to get too overzealous unless it is still dry the following year. It’s on rented ground to boot. Rest of the low spots we’ve been getting worked down and reclaiming land once farmed. Sloughs that dry once you don’t touch cause you’re wasting your time.

[shtferbrains]

Cut a field for a few years that had a lot of wild mint in the low spots. You could realy smell it when cutting.
It's a big money crop in Oregon I think.
Wondered if we could grow it here?

[WiltonRanch]

Cut a field for a few years that had a lot of wild mint in the low spots. You could realy smell it when cutting.
It's a big money crop in Oregon I think.
Wondered if we could grow it here?

Lol. Lots of that in our slough hay this year. Kinda stinks.

[LEP]

Lol. Lots of that in our slough hay this year. Kinda stinks.

When I was a kid Dad would cut sloughs and we would fork it loose on a one ton and fill a couple stalls in the barn. When I was too young to fork the hay my job was to jump on it to pack the truck. I remember bouncing away at it when I got too close to the edge and boom landed on the ground. If was soft and spongy so didn’t hurt.

It definitely smelled like mint. The thought takes me back.