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Trying to make the best of a bad situation. Had very good crops until hail on July 17th, then farm wide on July 19th, 2 more hail storm after that, but not significant compared to those two. The good news it everything regrew very well. The bad news, we have frost forecast for this week, possibly as low as 7 below, with a few nights around -1 to -3. The worst hit has basically no pods that survived, all grass green; the best might have 2/3 grass green the remainder is mostly colour changed. The regrowth has no seeds that will even roll yet, just squish.
Today was the last warm day before the frost, so my decision was to leave it standing for these past few hot days and try to fill at least a few more, rather than swath ahead of the frost and likely shrivel most seeds to nothing. Then gamble that the frost won't be as bad as forecast. So committed to that now, not enough days or heat left to swath now before the frost. So assuming that some of the immature pods survive, do I leave it standing and try to straight combine? When I swathed similar crop last year, the pre hail pods shattered very badly by the time the regrowth was ripe enough to swath. If I leave it stand will that in any way help to remove the green seeds, or is that theory irrelevant after a frost? Or if it gets that cold, I expect I will likely have no green seeds to worry about, as the green pods won't fill at all?
The canopy is surprisingly thick, and getting matted and tangled in most places so I don't think it will shatter too badly, and there will be some protection from frost.
Am I better off with single digit yields of good grade, or respectable yields of poor grade?
Anyone have any happy ending stories to give me some faint hope?
Last year had hail on a slightly later date, a bit less damage, and the regrowth made it, yielded spectacularly, but we had a very hot August and September, had the opposite this year. No heat since before the hail.
The first picture has virtually no pods that survived, the second picture is some the least damaged, has a few ripe pods down in the canopy.
Today was the last warm day before the frost, so my decision was to leave it standing for these past few hot days and try to fill at least a few more, rather than swath ahead of the frost and likely shrivel most seeds to nothing. Then gamble that the frost won't be as bad as forecast. So committed to that now, not enough days or heat left to swath now before the frost. So assuming that some of the immature pods survive, do I leave it standing and try to straight combine? When I swathed similar crop last year, the pre hail pods shattered very badly by the time the regrowth was ripe enough to swath. If I leave it stand will that in any way help to remove the green seeds, or is that theory irrelevant after a frost? Or if it gets that cold, I expect I will likely have no green seeds to worry about, as the green pods won't fill at all?
The canopy is surprisingly thick, and getting matted and tangled in most places so I don't think it will shatter too badly, and there will be some protection from frost.
Am I better off with single digit yields of good grade, or respectable yields of poor grade?
Anyone have any happy ending stories to give me some faint hope?
Last year had hail on a slightly later date, a bit less damage, and the regrowth made it, yielded spectacularly, but we had a very hot August and September, had the opposite this year. No heat since before the hail.
The first picture has virtually no pods that survived, the second picture is some the least damaged, has a few ripe pods down in the canopy.
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