Beyond dry

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Saw 2 big smoke plumes from work this afternoon. Pretty sure the big one was a combine and whole field going up. It appeared like they got the one nearer the Wrekin under control very quickly but the one at Roddington was a biggy!
Trouble will be is if we get a deluge now it'll run straight off and flood everywhere! Some steady constant rain through the nights and warm balmy days is what I want!
Walkers at High Ercall. "Big and Scarey" was how it was described to me... Crop and stubble I believe.

6 engines in attendance, 6 cultivators with neighbours creating fire breaks! Could see it from a distance, a little white wisp of smoke, then 5 mins later it was a massive black plume.

And another combine and some crop, in Lydbury North... :(
 
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farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
Walkers at High Ercall. "Big and Scarey" was how it was described to me... Crop and stubble I believe.

6 engines in attendance, 6 cultivators with neighbours creating fire breaks! Could see it from a distance, a little white wisp of smoke, then 5 mins later it was a massive black plume.

Another combine and some crop in Lydbury North... :(
Did they get it out before nightfall? With the wind we had in Shropshire last night the speed of any crop fire would have been dramatic!
 

bluebell

Member
Many livestock farmers are having to feed the, silage, hay, grub, they made earlier, to see them through the winter, will many decide to just reduce the livestock numbers, or buy in feed to get through the winter, two choices, its not at all about being "overstocked", this dry, hot period, is not just here in the UK, but right across alot of europe , ( the river danube, a major, supply route carrying alot of cargo, throughout europe, is at a record low height? so low that if rain dosnt come soon to increase the depth many barges, thus cargo will stop being moved).
 

BAF

Member
Livestock Farmer
Walkers at High Ercall. "Big and Scarey" was how it was described to me... Crop and stubble I believe.

6 engines in attendance, 6 cultivators with neighbours creating fire breaks! Could see it from a distance, a little white wisp of smoke, then 5 mins later it was a massive black plume.

Another combine and some crop in Lydbury North... :(
It was a fair fire from what we could see in Picklescott. About 13 miles as the crow flies and you could see there was the field on fire and the black smoke coming off the combine in the middle of it.
Did they get it out before nightfall? With the wind we had in Shropshire last night the speed of any crop fire would have been dramatic!
They must have got it contained fairly rapidly - within a couple of hours - because we noticed it moving heifers about 330 ish and the smoke had subsided before I knocked off at 7.

I know a girl who works in the firebrigade and she said it's been a nightmare this year. A couple of weeks back they'd gone back to check on one fire from the day before which was still smoking but essentially burnt itself out when the boss man said the field next door was on fire. A spark had come up out of the ashes and carried on the wind over the fire breaks into another standing field of wheat.
We narrowly avoided a combine fire at work the other day. The tractor driver noticed a tiny bit of smoke coming from the bottom of the auger. They got it all opened up and a plate had been rubbing on a belt and boyscout style slowly making a pile of dust turn to embers. Wouldn't have taken too much longer to go from smoldering embers to blazing inferno. And if that had gone up I don't think they could have physically got enough hands on deck to stop it before it got to the farm buildings and chicken sheds and its tinder dry all round them.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Walkers at High Ercall. "Big and Scarey" was how it was described to me... Crop and stubble I believe.

6 engines in attendance, 6 cultivators with neighbours creating fire breaks! Could see it from a distance, a little white wisp of smoke, then 5 mins later it was a massive black plume.

And another combine and some crop, in Lydbury North... :(
Apparently, the massive plume of black smoke was a stand of conifers near the old Hangars. Looked like rubber and machinery from down here in Longdon on Tern! No machinery caught, thank goodness.
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Every group on full feeding here now. 1200 ewes and dry yearlings on hay, 600 lambs on hay and 500 on a hopper. Be the most food Iv ever fed in a month in my life. It going to take some coming back now but when it does it will be like a second spring with all the shite about and every plant eaten.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Every group on full feeding here now. 1200 ewes and dry yearlings on hay, 600 lambs on hay and 500 on a hopper. Be the most food Iv ever fed in a month in my life. It going to take some coming back now but when it does it will be like a second spring with all the shite about and every plant eaten.
Sure is taking the shine off the job... :(
 

DanM

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Country
Every group on full feeding here now. 1200 ewes and dry yearlings on hay, 600 lambs on hay and 500 on a hopper. Be the most food Iv ever fed in a month in my life. It going to take some coming back now but when it does it will be like a second spring with all the shite about and every plant eaten.
What you feeding in your hoppers? Being quoted £380/ton for prime lamb nuts… its about only time my sweats been cold of late 😱
 

andybk

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Mendips Somerset
Neighbour has just recorded 101 f / 38.3c here at 750' , we had some drizzle 10 days ago ,neighbours fertilized silage fields greened up , now looks like sprayed with round-up , even the docks have gone yellow ,he hasnt had a lot of luck buying that keep , (after 2 very cold late springs on top ) I have put hay out with selling rams but they havnt eaten much yet ,they are running 20 acres of dead yellow grass stubble ,recon they have lost half a condition score , I hope we get some rain soon , my heart goes out to those lower down
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Just thought I would show what really dry looks like!
You lot that have some green don't know how lucky you are, best part of a thousand ewes on silage here.
Luckily the ditches are dry on this farm so only have to look at them once a day to refill feeders! Other farms where teh water has gone to mud we have too look at twice a day to pull the poor beggars out.
 

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som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
bugger all we can do about the weather, the only positive note, it will reduce amount of ag produce, which may push the price up.

Looking at the weather effect, less grain from Ukraine etc, why haven't prices rocketed ?
seems to me, the politicians, and the green zealots, just cannot, or not want, to see there is rather a large problem coming at them, at quite a sppeed.
Just heard on the TV, drought going to last till next year, its all down to the climate emergency.

What scares me, is the amount of rain we need, to actually get back to normal, like 10x av rainfall . Been told this week, small store cattle have seriously dropped in value, hardly surprising really.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
bugger all we can do about the weather, the only positive note, it will reduce amount of ag produce, which may push the price up.

Looking at the weather effect, less grain from Ukraine etc, why haven't prices rocketed ?
seems to me, the politicians, and the green zealots, just cannot, or not want, to see there is rather a large problem coming at them, at quite a sppeed.
Just heard on the TV, drought going to last till next year, its all down to the climate emergency.

What scares me, is the amount of rain we need, to actually get back to normal, like 10x av rainfall . Been told this week, small store cattle have seriously dropped in value, hardly surprising really.
Nah, plenty of time for grass to come and some late silage and what have you....







Guess who has suckler weanlings to sell in 6 weeks...!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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