- Location
- sw scotland
Or just wait until the sun comes out.
Similar on the Swiss Alps and, as I understand, part of a greater plan to preserve the chocolate box landscape. I think I have read somewhere that the average Swiss household contributes in excess of 2k CHF.yep exactly this. Visited Austria a few years back when they were in the middle of hay making season. Most folk seemed to be gathering it up with small self propelled forage wagons and then heaping it into barns and turning big fans on:
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I will never forget the smell of that Alpine meadow hay, absolutely beautiful. It was obvious though that tourism/skiing money was behind the job - most farms had under 10 milk cows but a new Fendt on the drive!
The Swiss run things properly .Similar on the Swiss Alps and, as I understand, part of a greater plan to preserve the chocolate box landscape. I think I have read somewhere that the average Swiss household contributes in excess of 2k CHF.
Found this:
At 51% of farm receipts, Switzerland has the third highest level of farm subsidies in Europe after Norway and Iceland. ... A narrower measure, which excludes damage to the environment, puts the average monetary cost per household at around CHF 2,570 p.a., more than 3% of a gross median Swiss salary.
I guess alpine Austrian farming might be similar?
We had a go at "barn blowing" hay years ago with a 3phase fan from a grainstore . We built the stack with a tunnel to take the wind sock and hand stacked the lot to ensure the gaps between bales were minimised. Had some nice early hay. We were not very scientific but I would guess another day of sun would have made the whole thing unnecessary. We did have a temp probe to monitor stack. Flow meter was a piece of light cloth. A complete waste of time, effort and electricity was our conclusion.
Common complaint south of CarlisleA bit of an aside, but I am on a small baler Facebook group. I'm amazed how quickly some make hay down south and how some seem to think it's ruined if it gets rained on! Further than that, I'll not comment except to say some have little experience of the real world!
You cant wait till the sun comes out.Well i waited till the sun came out, but it fudged off before I could get it baled and we got an inch of thunder rain last night
I did that, last nights thunder splatter was not in the forecast when I cut it. Should have been ted half a day sooner, but was sheeting the silage pit Wished I’d put the dam hay in there as well, but it’s on the grassing block 8 mile awayYou cant wait till the sun comes out.
You need to cut iin the rain, looking six days ahead when3 dry days are forecast
I assume the landscape is preserved for aesthetic/tourism reasons as much as supporting small farmers. The Swiss are ultimately business orientated plus they have plenty of CHF from all the financial help they have given to non Swiss.The Swiss run things properly .
They dont allow foreigners or city types to buy up and destroy thr landscape and communities.
A model long forgotten in uk
No help to you but I have found that the round bale stood out for a least a week can make a difference. I cut a new ley for a neighbour in 1998 then was hospitalised. Dad turned it and Bro came on the weekend to bale. We used to use the acid treatment and the rate was stepped up. The whole lot went wrong. It probably needed at least another 2 days of sun but they tried to beat the forecast. Late May hay, even if mostly, even if not entirely RG can be tricky to make as well with sap in the stems/nodes.Just condemned about 100 ton of hay from reasonable horse forage to cattle hay.
Ryegrass is a bitch..usually sell about 500 ton a year into racing and never once made it without going on my dryer.
The 100 ton was not quite quality enough to put on my dryer so tried natural..and buggered it up. Do not ask me how to make hay I have to cheat to do it.
Or just wait until the sun comes out.
Maybe hay would be easier made if we chose what grass we grew with more care? What is recommended? (Clearly, not ryegrass!).