sheepwise
Member
- Location
- SW Scotland
Here in the West of Scotland we have experienced the worst summer that I can remember with hardly a dry harvest day. We have 18 acres of barley still uncombined and probably now with this torrential rain it will only be salvaged by baling and wrapping.Up until Friday we also had 20 acres of spring oats (undersown with Italian for greening measure} still growing but we managed to get that mowed and chopped as very wet wholecrop on top of the pit. We are probably luckier than some as we had 15 acres of winter barley we got good grain and straw from at the beginning of August although the stubble turnips sown afterwards are pretty much a disaster being soured out with the constant rain.We had the contractor a month ago and did 20 acres of spring barley then, but regrettably allowed him to go away to keep other customers happy with the promise of being back in a week when our oats would be ripe to do with the rest of the barley.His combines are all sitting redundant on other farms with 300 acres uncut. Our silage situation has fairly been helped by getting the oat wholecrop into the pit but it will still be a challenge to see us through to spring especially now with a shortage of feeding straw.Again we were probably luckier than many in that although short on bulk our silage is of good enough quality as we were able to get the contractor for both cuts in rare weather windows. Everyone refers back to 1985 as the worst year in living memory but many around here consider 2017 much worse because in 1985 it did dry up in October which allowed most harvest and silage to be salvaged.I know of farmers this year who have had cows housed since July and no second cut in the pit.There are even some horror stories of some on really wet ground having no forage at all being forced to sell their stock.Probably in 1985 many farmers were dependant on making hay whereas now we don't think twice about getting the baler and wrapper out.
So just wondering what the situation is around the country as I know the north/east has also had it bad.
So just wondering what the situation is around the country as I know the north/east has also had it bad.