Quick answer: Orchard grass makes some of the most palatable, easy-to-sell hay you can grow, and it mixes beautifully with alfalfa or red clover. Its weakness is heat and drought — in the deep South or a dry July it thins out and stands often need replanting every 4–5 years. Win with it by planting a later-maturing variety, cutting in the boot to early-head stage for quality, keeping potash and nitrogen up (40–60 lb N/acre after each cutting), and baling around 16–18% moisture. It needs roughly 48 hours of dry-down, so a clean rake and good net wrap on the finished bale protect the quality you worked for.
Ask a room full of hay growers what the best all-around grass hay is and orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata, called cocksfoot overseas) comes up fast. It is leafy, palatable, dries reasonably, regrows for multiple cuttings, and horse and cattle customers both like it. But the same growers will warn you in the next breath: it is fussy about heat, drought, and fertility, and a stand can melt away faster than you expect. Here is how experienced hands get the upside without the heartbreak.
Why orchard grass earns the "best all-round hay" title
The appeal is real. Orchard grass is a cool-season perennial that yields well across multiple cuttings, cures into soft, leafy hay, and pairs with legumes to lift protein. One grower laid out the case in a thread literally titled Orchard Grass — The Best All Round Hay?:
"Mixes well with some red clover, doesn't require any insect spraying... aside from lime and fertilizer demands, pretty much a maintenance free hay?"
— VA Haymaker, Virginia · HayTalk thread 24978
That is the draw: a grass that mixes with clover or alfalfa, doesn't usually need an insecticide, and dries faster than straight legume hay. In fact, mixing a little orchard grass into alfalfa is a known trick to speed the dry-down of the whole windrow — the same logic we cover in round-baling alfalfa.
Its one real weakness: heat, drought, and thinning stands
The flip side comes up in nearly every orchard grass thread. It is a cool-season grass, so summer heat and dry spells are its enemy — especially as you move south:
"In a normal summer here orchard grass doesn't do the best during July and August when it's in the 90s every day... if we have rainfall it will stay green and grow a little though."
— FarmerCline, western North Carolina · HayTalk thread 24990
Worse than a slow summer is outright stand loss. The classic failure pattern is a fall-seeded stand that looks full in April, then starts dying in clumps after first cutting once the heat arrives:
"Usually what would happen is in the summer of the first year of a fall planted stand clumps would start dying out after first cutting and would end up with a thin stand. By the second summer it would be thin enough that other weedy grasses would take over."
— FarmerCline · HayTalk thread 73474
Two things protect the stand. First, geography and fertility: orchard grass is happiest in the transition zone and north, on well-drained ground at pH 6.0–7.0, and it is unforgiving if potash (K) runs short going into summer stress. Second, expectations: even managed well, orchard grass stands typically run 4–5 years in the transition zone before they thin enough to rotate or reseed — shorter the farther south you push it.
Choosing a variety: maturity is the lever that matters
The single most useful variety decision is maturity date. Early-maturing types head out fast in spring — if you can't cut on their schedule, quality drops before you ever drop the cutter bar. Later-maturing varieties buy you a wider window and stay in sync with alfalfa in a mix:
"The Crowne Royal matures about 2 weeks later than Potomac, so the quality is still reasonable."
— rjmoses, Illinois · HayTalk thread 22854
A practical shorthand growers use:
| Variety | Maturity | Why growers pick it |
|---|---|---|
| Potomac | Early | Old standby, widely adapted, winter-hardy |
| Pennlate | Late | Heads later — better synced with alfalfa in a mix |
| Crown Royale | Late (~2 wks after Potomac) | Wider cutting window, holds quality |
| Persist / newer lines | Varies | Bred for stand persistence under stress |
Just be a skeptical buyer. As one horse-hay grower who beat his neighbor's Potomac at the county fair put it:
"It is hard to get a straight answer or one that is not motivated by profits from a seed salesman."
— Farmer Mark · HayTalk thread 26734
Ask your local extension forage specialist which lines persist in your county, not just which yield best in a seed catalog.
When to cut: chase quality, not the calendar
Orchard grass quality falls fast once it heads out, so the target is the boot to early-head stage on first cutting — when the seed head is just emerging from the sheath. Cut later and you trade leaf for stem and lose digestibility. After first cutting, take subsequent cuts on regrowth roughly every 4–6 weeks (or when regrowth hits 12–16 inches), feeding 40–60 lb of nitrogen per acre after each cut to drive the next one.
For the horse-hay market in particular, the later cuttings are where the money is — cleaner, softer, and free of the spring seed heads:
"Second cutting is everything in the horse hay business."
— Farmer Mark · HayTalk thread 26734
If your hay is headed for that market, our notes on how to price hay cover why horse customers pay a premium for clean, leafy, second-cutting grass.
Yellow orchard grass? Read it as a fertility signal
A common spring panic is orchard grass that greens up patchy and yellow. Usually it is not a disease — it is hungry. Nitrogen is the first suspect, but sulphur is the sleeper:
"Orchard grass becomes much more green and blue also when S is added if short."
— Vol, East Tennessee · HayTalk thread 43386
Soil-test, top-dress nitrogen (with sulphur if your tests run low), and the color usually corrects by the next cutting. The deeper lesson ties back to stand survival: orchard grass that goes into summer underfed on potash and nitrogen is the orchard grass that thins out when the heat hits.
Mowing, drying, and baling it right
Orchard grass cures slower than you might guess for a grass. A reliable rule of thumb from the field:
"Typically orchard grass takes 48 hours after mowing to be dry enough for baling. I have heard it said on here more than once that alfalfa drys faster when mixed with a grass like orchard."
— Vol · HayTalk thread 22450
Plan on roughly two days of dry-down, conditioning at mowing and tedding if the weather is marginal — see how to make dry hay faster. Rake gently to keep leaf on (a good rake setup matters), and bale dry grass hay around 16–18% moisture; our baling-moisture guide walks through the targets and the heating risk above them.
Then protect the crop you sweated over. Orchard grass hay is valuable — often horse-hay money — so it earns full, edge-to-edge coverage on the bale. Quality bale net wrap sheds water and holds bale shape through handling and storage far better than twine, which matters most for premium grass hay stored outside (more in storing net-wrapped bales outside). One grower's haul shows what a good orchard grass cutting can do: 434 bales off a single field, about 115 bales per acre — a lot of value riding on how well each bale is wrapped and stored.
Orchard grass hay, start to finish
- Match the field and variety — transition zone or north, well-drained, pH 6.0–7.0; pick a later-maturing line for a wider cutting window.
- Feed it, especially potash — soil-test and keep K and N up; a hungry stand is the one that thins in summer.
- Cut at boot to early-head for first cutting; take later cuts every 4–6 weeks with N after each.
- Allow ~48 hours dry-down, ted if marginal, rake gently to keep leaf on.
- Bale at 16–18% and net-wrap for clean, weather-resistant bales — this is premium hay, so protect it.
Frequently asked questions
When should you cut orchard grass for hay?
Cut first cutting at the boot to early-head stage, when the seed head is just emerging from the sheath — that is the best balance of yield and quality. After that, take cuttings on regrowth about every 4 to 6 weeks, or when regrowth reaches 12 to 16 inches. Quality drops quickly once orchard grass fully heads out, so timing beats waiting for more tonnage.
Why does my orchard grass keep thinning out and dying?
Orchard grass is a cool-season grass that struggles in summer heat and drought, and stands often thin after the first hot, dry spell of a fall-seeded year. Short potash or nitrogen makes it far worse. Keep fertility up per soil test, plant a persistent variety suited to your area, and expect to rotate or reseed every 4 to 5 years in the transition zone, sooner farther south.
What is the best orchard grass variety?
There is no single best one — it depends on your cutting schedule and climate. The most important trait is maturity: later-maturing varieties like Pennlate or Crown Royale give a wider cutting window and sync better with alfalfa in a mix, while Potomac is an early, widely adapted standby. Ask your local extension forage specialist which lines persist in your county rather than trusting a seed catalog alone.
What moisture should you bale orchard grass hay at?
Bale dry orchard grass hay at about 16 to 18% moisture. Orchard grass typically needs around 48 hours of dry-down after mowing, so condition at cutting and ted if the weather is marginal. Baling much wetter without a preservative risks heating and mold; net-wrapping the finished bale then protects quality through handling and outdoor storage.
Does orchard grass make good horse hay?
Yes — clean, leafy orchard grass is a sought-after horse hay, and many growers find the later cuttings (free of spring seed heads) bring the best price. The keys are cutting before it heads out, keeping it leafy through gentle raking, and baling it dry so it stores without dust or mold. Second and third cuttings usually command the premium.
The XES Netting team manufactures bale net wrap for round balers and writes these guides so forage growers can find clear, source-cited answers. Every farmer quote in this post is verbatim with a link to the original HayTalk thread — go read the discussions in full.
Featured photo: Cocksfoot (orchard grass, Dactylis glomerata) at Cockington Meadows by Derek Harper, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph / Wikimedia Commons.
