Hay Making 2021

[robs1]

Cut some thick second cut thursday as a dry week promised, had half hour heavy rain yesterday and no sun today, now rain forecast for wed then friday the monday and Tuesday wouldnt trust the ,bloody forecasters to tell me what day of the week it was

And this morning had another dollop of unforecasted rain getting wrapped tomorrow, one more piece of second cut and two bits of light third cut to do and 2021 hay making can be consigned to history

 

[robs1]

old age makes me forget why we stopped hay, and made silage, youthful dreams make things seem better, than what they actually were. These days, the best hay is what arrives on a lorry, and is probably cheaper, and no crappy stuff. Short of grub, we have fed a lot of hay, to the dairy, last winter/summer and winter before that. It's actually been quite cost effective, the results suprised us, hence hay making again, to continue feeding some, best we have this summer ............ arrived on a lorry !!!

Have mentioned this before but when bocm had their knaptoft experimental farm going they had a small herd fed on hay and brewers grains, they gave the best milk had the best health and the biggest margins, the only problem was they bought all the hay in, and yes of course it was the best hay, if only we had golden summers

 

[Devil's advocate]

They seem to be pushing hay for organic herds in Europe.

 

[onthehoof]

One less load to find shed space for

 

[Pan mixer]

I like feeding hay, it keeps the cows a bit slimmer and cleaner I think amd I like the smell of it.

So far this year only one decent big bale of hay made and that was in the baler when it came from somewhere else, I still need about 300 quads to add to the haylage.

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

Finished yesterday after unforecast drizzle in the morning, started as I got to the field to row up . Cue, going home and leaving it till late in the day with some sun that eventually came out....
Only 2 little paddocks but near 170bales from around 1 and half acres. Lovely smelling stuff. Some a bit borderline but sod waiting any longer, esp as today been dull and overcast with light rain.

 

[som farmer]

our dairy all last summer, had 1 feed/day forage rape, 5-10 kg hay, 1 feed grass pickings, and cake in the parlour, and milked better than this, up to your eyes, in grass, has made me think a bit. The biggest down side to hay, is, no standard/consistent feed value. Which is why we converted to silage, but, we will feed hay this winter.
They turned their noses up at hay 10/14 days ago, they don't now ! With the sh1t flying well, on the grass, something to slow it up, should be good, although in the minority in thinking that.

 

[Simon Chiles]

A neighbour said that the weather was just like 1958, I am not old enough to remember that year. They were combining in January.

Here’s the 1958 record for you.

 

[Pan mixer]

View attachment 980358View attachment 980359

Here’s the 1958 record for you.

It really didn't look fun then.

 

[som farmer]

quite pleased with this, getting it on here, as well as the pics ! This is the same field as before, 3 grazing's later. Now l have nearly got the hang of this, hopefully more will follow.
Tomorrows pics, will be interesting, the maize after the hybrid rye, sown 6th june, 10ft high in places !
we have had a close/calving cow, go walk a bout, so sons been walking through the crop, 3 hours looking, no success yet.

 

[som farmer]

should have been on another thread, but it's chicory in the dairy pasture, this would actually be 4th round.

 

[Pan mixer]

should have been on another thread, but it's chicory in the dairy pasture, this would actually be 4th round.

Looks good, must be awkward controlling thistles in that though.

 

[onthehoof]

There are some really remarkable weather events that happened over the last 500 years or so, as someone said recently we are actually in a period of relatively benign climate over the last 50 years

 

[Fendt516profi]

quite pleased with this, getting it on here, as well as the pics ! This is the same field as before, 3 grazing's later. Now l have nearly got the hang of this, hopefully more will follow.
Tomorrows pics, will be interesting, the maize after the hybrid rye, sown 6th june, 10ft high in places !
we have had a close/calving cow, go walk a bout, so sons been walking through the crop, 3 hours looking, no success yet.
View attachment 980363View attachment 980365

Do you know anyone with a drone?

 

[som farmer]

Looks good, must be awkward controlling thistles in that though.

bloody nightmare, them and docks, cows will happily eat young dock leaf's, but with clover, chicory and plantains, which the cows love, it's topping and spot spraying. You don't get something for nothing !

 

[som farmer]

Do you know anyone with a drone?

no, not local, she can't be very far away though. we hope.

 

[aangus]

1,154 little ones baled yesterday, not the best, but certainly not the worst. 254 in and stacked, 900 for customer to get in and they didn't want to pay us to do it. 1% chance of rain on BBC, less than 5% chance on the Met, nothing on Google. 2.8mm we've had. Couldn't make it up. We would have had the lot in and stacked if they'd got us to do it, 25-30p a bale extra.

Had 11ac of our own that would have gone today, it's been rained on 4 or 5 times now, not much, but fearful it might make it dusty now....

Does he still want them

 

[som farmer]

cow turned up at neighbours, with a calf, 1/2 mile by road, which she must have done.
finished hay for the year yesterday, 70 chopped wrapped haylage bales.
To be fair, a good day of sun, and it would have come. The sun hasn't appeared, and with TB test, and another 40 acres of clover bales to wrap, took the easy route ! Fusion balers are great things, two jobs in one.

 

[Handy Andy]

I've got 13 acres on the ground at the moment. Cut a week ago Wednesday, not turned till Saturday then twice Monday which was a glorious day here, in the vain hope of round baling yesterday. Then it got wet Tuesday morning. Not had much in the way of rain on it but it's just damp every day. Don't think there's much chance of getting it tomorrow despite the promised dry day. Proper rain coming at the weekend or so they say. It's not the best quality grass, past it's best and quite a few docks in it so not worth wrapping up. As I've no stock anymore it was destined for the trade, and as hay is apparently so cheap this year I don't think it's going to be worth bothering with even as bedding.

 

[ffukedfarmer]

I've got 13 acres on the ground at the moment. Cut a week ago Wednesday, not turned till Saturday then twice Monday which was a glorious day here, in the vain hope of round baling yesterday. Then it got wet Tuesday morning. Not had much in the way of rain on it but it's just damp every day. Don't think there's much chance of getting it tomorrow despite the promised dry day. Proper rain coming at the weekend or so they say. It's not the best quality grass, past it's best and quite a few docks in it so not worth wrapping up. As I've no stock anymore it was destined for the trade, and as hay is apparently so cheap this year I don't think it's going to be worth bothering with even as bedding.

Same story here, but with 45 acres down. I am not convinced that hay will be plentiful as although certain areas have had a good time (Hereford mainly from reading a certain member on here!), plenty have had a really tough time. Myself and many of my neighbours won't be much more than halfway through