If you mow it with a rotary cutter and leave the cutting there you will not only have lost the first crop you will ruin the second. The clumps of DEAD grass from the first cutting will be there when you cut the second cutting. IF you mow your hay with a sickle type mower of any type those dead clumps plug the sickle.
IF you really want to mow it then mow it like you would for hay and bale it green. Throw the bales in a washout some where. At least the next cutting will have a chance of making some thing.
If it where mine I would do one of two things:
1) Leave it as is until you can bale it.
2) Mow it and make silage bales out of it. Even over ripe hay will make good cattle feed after it ensilages.
It is tough just setting there doing nothing but doing anything to it that leaves the old growth there is just making all your hay this year BAD!!!!
I have seen wet windrows chopped back on the field with a forage harvester. Just point the spout high in the air and the small clippings will spread and they will cause ZERO trouble. A rotary cutter or even flail mower does not cut it fine enough or spread the clipping out enough for them to not be trouble in the next crop.
This is from someone that has raised hay crops for just at 50 years now. I currently have 175 acres of hay. I get around this issue by chopping my first crop 8 out of ten years. I can feed the silage. Some rare springs I can make dry hay out of first crop.
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Today's Featured Article - Hydraulics - Cylinder Anatomy - by Curtis von Fange. Let’s make one more addition to our series on hydraulics. I’ve noticed a few questions in the comment section that could pertain to hydraulic cylinders so I thought we could take a short look at this real workhorse of the circuit. Cylinders are the reason for the hydraulic circuit. They take the fluid power delivered from the pump and magically change it into mechanical power. There are many types of cylinders that one might run across on a farm scenario. Each one could take a chapter in
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