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Another dry Spring

Dairyfarmerswife

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Shropshire
My dad, who prides himself on predicting the weather, told me when the wind was in the east on 21st March that it would be a cold dry spring and the wind would mainly be in the east until 21st June... He is often weirdly right about these things...
 

Sonoftheheir

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
West Suffolk
Posting this to provoke some heavy showers today!

The spud field below only had 15mm of rain the month before planting, and only about the same since. Have had to start irrigating just to get some moisture in the ridge.

Neighbouring farm irrigating maize to get it to chit.

Talk of water restrictions for irrigating as soon as June.

65C16B90-CBD7-4B74-AC2F-449B2EAD8139.jpeg
0788F727-BC8C-4DC9-9836-3486B1E33246.jpeg
 

serf

Member
Location
warwickshire
Weather patterns have certainly gone ta f**k at the min cold / dry or warm/dry is not much cop for spring when it's the moisture thats needed ,
then get to needing a dry spell in summer ........... !
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
Posting this to provoke some heavy showers today!

The spud field below only had 15mm of rain the month before planting, and only about the same since. Have had to start irrigating just to get some moisture in the ridge.

Neighbouring farm irrigating maize to get it to chit.

Talk of water restrictions for irrigating as soon as June.

65C16B90-CBD7-4B74-AC2F-449B2EAD8139.jpeg
0788F727-BC8C-4DC9-9836-3486B1E33246.jpeg
It's dire

Grass heading but no growth for haylage or grazing
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
We are normally crying out for rain, but May was wet by our standards with over 70 mm.
We have so much grass it is an unusual problem as we don't need any more silage and have nowhere to put Hay. The old saying of "a wet cool May fills the barns with hay" is very true.
We have a 40 acres of Herbal leys which will have to go into silage as it has got away now. Anyone tried to bale this, mostly chicory and Berseem Clover? Will try to mow it and just leave it for 3 days (if it stays dry) and wrap it.

Forecast here is for rain for the next 8 days, with a short dry window and then the Monsoon will continue.
 

capfits

Member
Just tallyed up rainfall for first six months of the year and the grand total was...
306mm.
Not dry by the standards of some of you and it is keeping things ticking along, though hill burns and such are low with reservoirs feeling the pinch.
But what gets me is in a rolling 5 year average we receive circa 1100mm
6 months 800mm does not feel pleasant to my mind.
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
Just tallyed up rainfall for first six months of the year and the grand total was...
306mm.
Not dry by the standards of some of you and it is keeping things ticking along, though hill burns and such are low with reservoirs feeling the pinch.
But what gets me is in a rolling 5 year average we receive circa 1100mm
6 months 800mm does not feel pleasant to my mind.
80 year old farmer in next village and keeps a rain gauge monitored reckons this is the driest Spring he can remember
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

This webinar will be...
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