hay making

Has anyone managed to get any hay bailed without having to dry out bales? Every bit of available floor space in my sheds has a bale on it, managed to stack 800, there are still hundreds spread out, plus 10 acre of cut grass still laid, its ended up a long hay making season
 

Davey

Member
Location
Derbyshire
I've only done one field of small bale hay. Had half the field baled when it rained hard so picked up the bales that where done and left the rest to dry and baled it two days later.

The stuff I did 2 days later has come out great but the 60 odd bales that got rained on haven't dried out well and when I checked them last night some where warming up! I need the floor space back so I'm thinking I'll just wrap and stack them, I suppose I'll find out next winter if I end up with dry haylage or moldy mush?
 

Davey

Member
Location
Derbyshire
Are you wanting to get a couple of cuts in otherwise its a bit early to be worrying about it?

Mines just small bale meadow hay and I have never cut in June but a week of good weather was just too much temptation! August/ September is when I'd normally be going so may even get a second cut from the field already done.
 

Hilly

Member
Are you wanting to get a couple of cuts in otherwise its a bit early to be worrying about it?

Mines just small bale meadow hay and I have never cut in June but a week of good weather was just too much temptation! August/ September is when I'd normally be going so may even get a second cut from the field already done.
Not worried just would like to get it out of they way before reseeding and straw and claving starts lol take longe to make 9 acre of hay than 300 acre of silage.
 

hang-on

Member
Location
Co Armagh.
25 acres all destined for small bales is still not cut yet, we managed 10 acres the dry week a month ago but listened too much to the forecasters and missed the good weather we ended up having last week. Mrs hang-on keeps tagging me in stuff about a heatwave later in the month on Facebook but I have my doubts.
 

hang-on

Member
Location
Co Armagh.
It must have been a nightmare yearsago before silage was invented, I bet there was some dose of sh!t made lol.
Tbh the lads back then knew how to make hay for that was all they did, I'm only a youngster but I learnt from my grandad. Hay is one of my earliest memories. Sad I know!
 
It must have been a nightmare yearsago before silage was invented, I bet there was some dose of sh!t made lol.
I've often thought this too. But I suppose that in those times there wasn't artificial Nitrogen readily available, or the high sugar varieties of grass to try and get to dry either! Anyone that's ever used a Vicon Acrobat in a thick crop of Ryegrass in June may well agree!
 

Jon 3085

Member
Location
Worcester, UK
ImageUploadedByThe Farming Forum1436265990.461345.jpg

Baled this many all dry, did silage round the outsides and short ground.
 

Clive Tee

Member
Location
Shropshire
Yes we managed to bale 20 acres the other day thanks to our contractor who turned up with 2 x new McHales, all done before the promised massive rainfall that night, which didn't happen :). Forecast looked mixed again though so wrapped the other 20 acres.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
The first and second cut silage idea and sugar levels, kinda made folk lose the plot. A single cut July/August is early enough for hay, the grass has shot, dying off and drying out naturally, so 3 day hay wasn't unusual. Seem to remember we used to have proper summers with at least a couple of hot dry weeks as well.
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
The first and second cut silage idea and sugar levels, kinda made folk lose the plot. A single cut July/August is early enough for hay, the grass has shot, dying off and drying out naturally, so 3 day hay wasn't unusual. Seem to remember we used to have proper summers with at least a couple of hot dry weeks as well.
Yes, but everyone seems to be obsessed by 'green' hay. Will hay made in August be 'green' ?
 

jemski

Member
Location
Dorset
Made 440 bales of lovely stuff in small bales a few weeks ago but it's a bit loose stringed.

Then Made another 240ish last week which got soaked after baling. Got it in yesterday, half stacked half still on the trailer just in case I need to move it out again quick! 24 bales sat in puddles and didn't dry so have dumped those, but fingers crossed the rest is ok. Will be checking it obsessively to make sure it doesn't heat....
Still got another 20 acres to do but not going to panic yet... Need a break from the stress of making it too!
 

rob1

Member
Location
wiltshire
done nearly 6,000 so far about 2,000 more to go, all made well so far, last year had it all in the shed by 29 june, 2012 we were still doing first cut in sept and still sold it all to horsey set, plenty of time yet, I find july hay keeps better than june hay as some of the leaf has gone by mid july ant its the leaf that turns to dust
 

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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