Hay making 2022

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
šŸ¤£ Well......ah.......no. Given hay making the finger here any way. Months of hassle just to get offered Ā£20 / bale ( or less ) from horsey women bale kicker types.

Screenshot (1228).png


Still........TBH...........we needed a drop of rain. 3 things you can rely on these days, dry April/ May, iffy June hay making, and a soggy August combining fiasco..
 

Spencer

Member
Location
North West
Unless we have some proper rain through June, looking like about 1/2 the normal rainfall here for the 1st 6 months of the year.
Met office long term forecast basically saying they haven't a clue if it'll be wet or dry!
Met office long range is terrible..!

Is basically the same all year.. ā€œdrier in the south and east, wetter in the north and westā€.. and thatā€™s it šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø My high school Geography teacher told me that 20+ years ago šŸ¤¦šŸ»
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
Met office long range is terrible..!

Is basically the same all year.. ā€œdrier in the south and east, wetter in the north and westā€.. and thatā€™s it šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø My high school Geography teacher told me that 20+ years ago šŸ¤¦šŸ»
But last year, here in sunny Essex, not 15 miles from the driest place in the UK, it drizzled or rained every 3 days until September whilst you lot basked in the hot sun. Or at least they did in Scotland.
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Met office long range is terrible..!

Is basically the same all year.. ā€œdrier in the south and east, wetter in the north and westā€.. and thatā€™s it šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø My high school Geography teacher told me that 20+ years ago šŸ¤¦šŸ»
This time it's " confidence is low as to whether it will be drier than average or wetter than average"šŸ¤£šŸ˜†
Might as well say they haven't a clue!
Are they saying it won't be average though?šŸ¤£
 

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
Met office long range is terrible..!

Is basically the same all year.. ā€œdrier in the south and east, wetter in the north and westā€.. and thatā€™s it šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø My high school Geography teacher told me that 20+ years ago šŸ¤¦šŸ»
This time it's " confidence is low as to whether it will be drier than average or wetter than average"šŸ¤£šŸ˜†
Might as well say they haven't a clue!
Are they saying it won't be average though?šŸ¤£
They've got computers and satelites and all manor of gizmos and are no more accurate than when they had a lump of seaweed and a fir cone :banghead:
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
After very hot today not looking good for next few days.
Rushed hay and all those sayings etc?

Rushed hay, in the first few days of June?

Surely itā€™s a freak year when you can make decent hay in June? I have some in the shed that I am still using in the lambing pensā€¦ made 6 years ago.
I hope to replace it sometime, but it wonā€™t be for sale.
 

Mark C

Member
Location
Bedfordshire
Baled about 30 acres of haylage yesterday. First year italian. Decent amount of bulk. Just going to chuck some fert on for second cut now. Looks wet tomorrow/monday so worth the risk. Will be into hay as soon as it warms up and remains settled.
 

Simon Chiles

DD Moderator

theboytheboy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Portsmouth
What are peoples thoughts on how much a shower or two of rain matters on hay?

How many mm can you reasonably not worry about if the next day is looking good?

We could have cut some a few days ago but forecasts were saying rain so held off.......

The showers we had were not much more than a heavy dew and the wind and sun today has dried it off fine.

Obviously in an ideal world we would have no rain on hay but does a couple of light showers really matter?
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
What are peoples thoughts on how much a shower or two of rain matters on hay?

How many mm can you reasonably not worry about if the next day is looking good?

We could have cut some a few days ago but forecasts were saying rain so held off.......

The showers we had were not much more than a heavy dew and the wind and sun today has dried it off fine.

Obviously in an ideal world we would have no rain on hay but does a couple of light showers really matter?
I don't think that it matters that much especially if the grasss is fairly recently mown.

It gets less ideal as the hay gets nearer being dry.

Therefore the number of mm can't be said, depnds on the type of grass, volume of grass, maturity of the grass, wetness of the soil, temperature, wind etc etc.

Making hay is an art, it also relies on luck, ability and willingness to ted, baler availability and so many more things.

I am still practicing and have rarely got it all correct but I hedge my bets by having some grass cut nearly all of the time between May and September.
 
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Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
If it was as easy as looking at that youā€™d think theyā€™d get the forecast right for more than 3 days ahead.
It seems to give a good indication of what will happen long term.
Basically, it will predict if a high pressure system is on its way at how long it will last.
Or in this case not itā€™s way and what the small one there is not lasting more than a day.
 

robs1

Member
What are peoples thoughts on how much a shower or two of rain matters on hay?

How many mm can you reasonably not worry about if the next day is looking good?

We could have cut some a few days ago but forecasts were saying rain so held off.......

The showers we had were not much more than a heavy dew and the wind and sun today has dried it off fine.

Obviously in an ideal world we would have no rain on hay but does a couple of light showers really matter?
In a bad summer often have to cut just before rain so you can make it during a few days dry spell, rain doesnt harm green grass but can ruin it when almost fit to bale as it soaks in and is often hard to dry again for some reason. Easiest way to make hay is to leave it till mid July as its dry already, if only we had decent long range forecasts we would need to spend days turning hay in june when in july one turn and bale is often enough
 

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