Time of cutting Harvest date is the most important factor in hay meadow management. It affects forage quality, yield, stand composition and regrowth. Maximum quality and yield cannot be achieved in the same harvest. Highest herbage yield occurs late in the growing season, but 75 percent of hay has been produced by mid-July. Cutting in early July in southern Kansas or mid-July in northern Kansas is the best compromise between yield and quality.
High quality is as important as high yield.
Crude protein and available energy levels decline with increasing maturity, and after early July the nutritional value of prairie hay drops rapidly. Total pounds of crude protein removed from a meadow are higher in July than in August or September. Delaying harvest to obtain higher yield affects more than hay quality. Cutting native hay in August or September does not give the warm-season perennial grasses sufficient time to rebuild carbohydrate root reserves before frost. Repeated late-season harvesting diminishes the vigor of perennial grasses, and undesirable weeds and annual grasses invade.