Beyond dry

[CopperBeech]

Yes it would

Stocking rate of less than one adult per hectare year round and we are suffering now

Agreed! If you could cope now, in a normal year yours be ridiculously understocked.

 

[JP1]

Agreed! If you could cope now, in a normal year yours be ridiculously understocked.

That's always the balance. Some ground it works for foggage. Had three heifers on one place all Winter without supplementary feeding

 

[Al R]

View attachment 1056133
this is a cut only ley, cut 55 days ago, was shut up for 3rd, don't think its going to happen.
dry cows will defoliate now.
but its bloody dry every where here
herbal leys still have a very high DM bite, but not a lot. Chicory, docks and thistles, form most of what is growing now.
chicory, grazing next paddock from a chicory one, son said chicory was in full flower at 6.00am, moved the fence pm, not a flower in site, but it still grows.
plantain looks pretty sick, not worried, they self seed, so will come back, same as w/clover.
Have a red clover ley, that is now consisting of r/c plants, amongst bare soil, all grass gone, the only other green, is fudging docks, even some of them look sickly.

Chicory does that everyday, even last year during the dull/wet august, we have a caravan site on half a field which has chicory in the ley on the other half and it’s purple in the morning and all gone by mid afternoon they keep telling me. The women kept going out picking the plants to have these beautiful flowers on their tables but couldn’t keep the flowers on them

Somehow sheep look surprisingly well!

Stubble Turnips in 6 weeks are like this:

 

[som farmer]

Chicory does that everyday, even last year during the dull/wet august, we have a caravan site on half a field which has chicory in the ley on the other half and it’s purple in the morning and all gone by mid afternoon they keep telling me. The women kept going out picking the plants to have these beautiful flowers on their tables but couldn’t keep the flowers on them

Somehow sheep look surprisingly well!
View attachment 1056512

Stubble Turnips in 6 weeks are like this:
View attachment 1056511

at least they are coming, and will motor if we get rain.
4 years ago, some took 8 wks to appear, as did the weeds, so must have been dry.

stock always seem to do well in a dry time, not sure why, because there looks to be nothing there, we have cattle set stocked, on pp, perfectly happy, and shining, yet hfrs on similar next to them, definitely not happy, but look great.

perhaps now is the time to try some brahma cattle, they like dry weather .......................

 

[jondear]

View attachment 1056133
this is a cut only ley, cut 55 days ago, was shut up for 3rd, don't think its going to happen.
dry cows will defoliate now.
but its bloody dry every where here
herbal leys still have a very high DM bite, but not a lot. Chicory, docks and thistles, form most of what is growing now.
chicory, grazing next paddock from a chicory one, son said chicory was in full flower at 6.00am, moved the fence pm, not a flower in site, but it still grows.
plantain looks pretty sick, not worried, they self seed, so will come back, same as w/clover.
Have a red clover ley, that is now consisting of r/c plants, amongst bare soil, all grass gone, the only other green, is fudging docks, even some of them look sickly.

This was blue with flowers at 8am all shut by 12 pm it's really weird !Cows going in to it tomorrow .Really hope it rains this week ! Please!

 

[som farmer]

View attachment 1056514

at least they have a bite. Our plantain is shrivelled now, chicory still going though, both have lasted longer than the grass though, which has been helpful.

 

[jondear]

at least they have a bite. Our plantain is shrivelled now, chicory still going though, both have lasted longer than the grass though, which has been helpful.

Feeding bales at night .Nice RC 3 cut from last year . Always needed when you make spare in a wet year.

 

[Al R]

at least they have a bite. Our plantain is shrivelled now, chicory still going though, both have lasted longer than the grass though, which has been helpful.

Very little of my chicory or plantain is being grazed if I can help it as I don’t want them to pick them out totally.

wifes just text saying she’s on her 10th call out in 9 hours. I can see 3 fires from the house looking 1 way and she’s at this one below

 

[Wood field]

Very little of my chicory or plantain is being grazed if I can help it as I don’t want them to pick them out totally.

wifes just text saying she’s on her 10th call out in 9 hours. I can see 3 fires from the house looking 1 way and she’s at this one belowView attachment 1056515

That looks like a tinderbox, I can only hope all you farming these areas keep safe

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

How to get things wrong when a plan doesn't work!!

Another picture of what it is like to be really dry.

60 acres planted with Kale and Turnips at the end of May, the few green bits are Red clover that survived being sprayed out as it was a two year Italian and Red clover ley. Would have been best left as the Clover would have kept growing!!
This was going to finish a lot of lambs. With no rain forecast for here I guess we won't even bother to redrill with Stubble turnips. Might put in Westerwolds if conditions come right.

 

[som farmer]

How to get things wrong when a plan doesn't work!!

Another picture of what it is like to be really dry.

60 acres planted with Kale and Turnips at the end of May, the few green bits are Red clover that survived being sprayed out as it was a two year Italian and Red clover ley. Would have been best left as the Clover would have kept growing!!
This was going to finish a lot of lambs. With no rain forecast for here I guess we won't even bother to redrill with Stubble turnips. Might put in Westerwolds if conditions come right.

some of the still green patches left now, later drilled maize, just beginning to stress a bit.
the barley stubble, is a piece we experimented with, dd into sprayed off grass, looked awful for ages, then sort of 'moved'. Came off at about 2.5 t/acre, and a tad over 4, 6 string bales/ac.
Which matched the min-til we drilled. Worth repeating l think, next time we have learnt the knack of doing it.

We are a dry farm, and been suffering for the last 5 years, one thing has become very obvious, anything with ground cover, keeps going. Alas, we have to keep cutting/grazing the grass.

 

[som farmer]

Very little of my chicory or plantain is being grazed if I can help it as I don’t want them to pick them out totally.

wifes just text saying she’s on her 10th call out in 9 hours. I can see 3 fires from the house looking 1 way and she’s at this one belowView attachment 1056515

our chicory and plantain coming back, 10 days after grazing, the only other green, is bloody docks.

 

[Treg]

Looks like we'll miss it again - sigh
View attachment 1055968

Odd map, I'm looking at St Ives and it's not there

 

[Poorbuthappy]

How to get things wrong when a plan doesn't work!!

Another picture of what it is like to be really dry.

60 acres planted with Kale and Turnips at the end of May, the few green bits are Red clover that survived being sprayed out as it was a two year Italian and Red clover ley. Would have been best left as the Clover would have kept growing!!
This was going to finish a lot of lambs. With no rain forecast for here I guess we won't even bother to redrill with Stubble turnips. Might put in Westerwolds if conditions come right.

Just talking to bro in law who had put some in for someone. They'd come up and got started, but had now started shrivelling off, so they turned the sheep in to eat what little was there.

 

[HarryB97]

Red clover and Lucerne still growing all be it slowly. Not enough there to warrant cutting, hopefully top then once we get some rain and get a third cut. Odd how you get some fields with really lush lines of growth and then dead in other places! Glad I always plant deep rooting mixes they are hanging on well, mostley on gravel as well.

 

[A TEAM]

Red clover and Lucerne still growing all be it slowly. Not enough there to warrant cutting, hopefully top then once we get some rain and get a third cut. Odd how you get some fields with really lush lines of growth and then dead in other places! Glad I always plant deep rooting mixes they are hanging on well, mostley on gravel as well.View attachment 1056645View attachment 1056646View attachment 1056647

Do you want some more sheep Harry?

 

[BAF]

Some rain forecast this afternoon hopefully! Hopefully not torrential though! I've been roped into lugging corn this morning trying to beat the break in the weather. They've been held up by the combine trying to set on fire a couple of times over the weekend apparently.

 

[som farmer]

Red clover and Lucerne still growing all be it slowly. Not enough there to warrant cutting, hopefully top then once we get some rain and get a third cut. Odd how you get some fields with really lush lines of growth and then dead in other places! Glad I always plant deep rooting mixes they are hanging on well, mostley on gravel as well.View attachment 1056645View attachment 1056646View attachment 1056647

well you know where your land drains are.

 

[HarryB97]

well you know where your land drains are.

I thought they were but they look far to close and in to many random directions to be drains?

 

[HarryB97]

Do you want some more sheep Harry?

Herbal Leys are starting to not keep up with demand, have bought some more ewe lambs though!