Forage ...how short.?

Spartacus

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Lancaster
What will you do then?
was going to cut all 40 acres as second cut but it isn't growing, also had shut off 20 acres of pasture to grow but that's the only area with water so the cows are back in there now, even though there's some long grass in another field that was shut off due to stewardship, they wouldn't stay in there to eat it though.
 

trewern

Member
Location
Cardiff
Got a bit a hay and another 20 acre to bale that’s been cut today but regrow is poor to none! had some grass cut sinse mid June and about an inch of growth. looking to wean this week, which is later than I wanted but no regrow.. which leads me to feel like unless we have a good soaking in the coming fortnight.. politielty I’m fooked!! And will have to feed bales now which no ones wants to do also worried that won’t be no grass to flush and tup ewes never mind get them into condition for tupping. never seen so little grass this time of year but how can it grow when under full demand by stock in coming months and no rain means more bales which leads to a short fall in winter... so what do people think a round bale of hay going to cost in jan ?
 

CornishRanger

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cornwall
so what do people think a round bale of hay going to cost in jan ?

Depends how soon it rains! Local merchant tells me demand is high now but little supply. There seems to be lots of hay being made, in terms of acres anyway, anyone growing hay to sell could see a high price per ton in the winter but still probably won't make a fortune due to lack of crop
 

trewern

Member
Location
Cardiff
I just think everything is going to hay haven’t seen a wrapped bale this year. Not many reserves from last year and people myself included will be feeding sooner than they had planned and don’t take long to eat through all them acres made not a lot of growth for second cut will have to be grazed feel like it’s going to catch up on a lot
 

Andrew1983

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Black Isle
Have about 75% made this year that we had at this point last year. second cut is looking to be less than 50% of normal. The kicker for me is there is no carry over from last year, had 400ish bales of old stuff at this time last year. If grain and straw price was lower Id be whole cropping some grain but think will just go for ammonia treating some straw, will no doubt be damp ends and under tree bouts that never make great bedding anyway.
 
being sucklers, I usually only do a single cut silage and hay, but because, mainly from of last years poaching rather than the dry weather, I've only yielded enough for 5 months winter feed, had to shut up a lot for second cut, but nowt grown on it yet
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
:eek: What happened?
AAngus Treebridge bull with recessive double muscling gene didn't go well with Blue x cows.
Lost 3 bull calves, one cow dead and two culled. Out of 25!
Calves that have lived are stunning but I'd rather have 25 alive.
36604922_1278487402305071_5647971600142696448_o.jpg


Had to buy another bull.
 

An Gof

Member
Location
Cornwall
Doesn't matter when your fields are burning up before your eyes. I reckon if we don't get rain in the next few days, our haylage will be a total loss, turn the cows into what scrap is left alive and then sell up when it's gone. I can't raise cattle on £25/bale bought-in hay.

What's that? £25? Oh yes, the pee-taking has already begun. Farmer don't need to worry about the government screwing them, they do a good enough job of screwing each other.


What size bale? £25 doesn’t seem out the way for big squares.
Now if it’s pick up conventional bales that’s a different matter.
 

jendan

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
AAngus Treebridge bull with recessive double muscling gene didn't go well with Blue x cows.
Lost 3 bull calves, one cow dead and two culled. Out of 25!
Calves that have lived are stunning but I'd rather have 25 alive.
36604922_1278487402305071_5647971600142696448_o.jpg


Had to buy another bull.
He,s a belter of a calf.I will have to think again,i would have thought Angus onto BB cows would be a good cross and easy calving.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
He,s a belter of a calf.I will have to think again,i would have thought Angus onto BB cows would be a good cross and easy calving.
The AA from North America has been 'beefed' up and now that we ask the question we find that this myostatin gene is well known in the right circles to possibly be present.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

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  • 1
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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