Most challenging year ever?

[Bob the beef]

12 months ago this week I made 1st cut silage , got really good cut and cracking quality, then it pretty much rained constantly until late November. 22nd November we had 4" snow and then it kept coming top fields were white all winter, probably had 6 4"+ snow falls. End of February brought the beast from the east, more snow and bitterly cold winds, which just kept coming, until 1st week May. Then it completely dries up . We have had no significant rain for 7 weeks, grass is parched, my silage parks are all shot but the grass is barely above ankle height, reseeds are a bit of a mess, patchy at best possibly need redone at worst.Stock surviving at moment but looks like going quite hot again over the weekend and into next week.
Going to take what we ve got from the silage at the weekend, but not much chance of regrowth until we get some decent rain. All fodder supples completely run down and we re not getting a chance to build back up at all.
I feel like a Southern Hemisphere farmer.

A challenge it definitely is, trying our patience

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Mother Nature rules

 

[Bob the beef]

Most galling thing is , I was down in @Nithsdale Farmer manor last week at a grassland meeting near Sanquhar, probably no more than 25 miles away and they were swimming in grass, complaining about all the bales they were having to make to keep on top of grass!!!

 

[Nithsdale]

Most galling thing is , I was down in @Nithsdale Farmer manor last week at a grassland meeting near Sanquhar, probably no more than 25 miles away and they were swimming in grass, complaining about all the bales they were having to make to keep on top of grass!!!

The silage fields are bulking up well, but bugger me the grazing ground is short of grass only those understocked seem to have plenty green stuff



We did our silage the first 10 days of July last year. The weather broke as we finished and until May this year, had been sh!t right through. We are back to cold here again this week, feels like autumn we go at silage next week

 

[CharcoalWally]

Following a year of rain, we've had the hottest month we've had for years, but it's turned coolish now.

The weather keeps jumping from one extreme to the other. The heat made grass explode, then the drought started to stress it. If you have grass round here , then it's all in the timing. Any cattle that were turned out early, their grazing ground is fairly bare now. If you held the cows in later, then they're still well off .

Silage has made good growth so far, but this farm always needs rain in dry spells.

I'd rather have this year so far than 2015 or 2017. I'm enjoying it dry overhead .

 

[Bones]

12 months ago this week I made 1st cut silage , got really good cut and cracking quality, then it pretty much rained constantly until late November. 22nd November we had 4" snow and then it kept coming top fields were white all winter, probably had 6 4"+ snow falls. End of February brought the beast from the east, more snow and bitterly cold winds, which just kept coming, until 1st week May. Then it completely dries up . We have had no significant rain for 7 weeks, grass is parched, my silage parks are all shot but the grass is barely above ankle height, reseeds are a bit of a mess, patchy at best possibly need redone at worst.Stock surviving at moment but looks like going quite hot again over the weekend and into next week.
Going to take what we ve got from the silage at the weekend, but not much chance of regrowth until we get some decent rain. All fodder supples completely run down and we re not getting a chance to build back up at all.
I feel like a Southern Hemisphere farmer.

A challenge it definitely is, trying our patience

cut your stocking rate, and enjoy your single farm payment ( for as long as it lasts).

 

[bread bin]

I would agree with the most challenging year ever...but the challenge has been my own doing so cant complain too much. But would agree with the extremes in weather maggots one week mastitisis the next. Big learning curve.

 

[bobk]

Be careful otherwise @Farmer Roy will come on telling us about real weather situations.

 

[Karliboy]

It’s not been the best for me around my way either for me personally

Completely sodden winter and spring then no rain since beginning of May really.
Hoping for a damp day tomorrow if it happens like weather man says.
I’m burning up bad
A lot of it is previous farming issues really for me as I’m way under stocked from where the farm was years ago and we always managed but I’m now trying to correct soil issues ph etc to get things going better with more cover on the ground. Things my parents and grandparents were reluctant to do.
They just kept throwing muck and fert at everything thinking that would solve everything

I could just do with more time away from work and @Kiwi Pete for a neighbor to point me in the right direction

 

[bread bin]

I know we all farm to make money. Its just the affect on me having so many ewes with mastitis, maggots and picking up dead lambs earlier on is what will live long in the memory with me. Analogy i learnt at rugby was K.I.S.S Keep It Simple Stupid. Just on the farm we have overcomplicated matters and this year has found us out. I'm positive for the future, i got plan in my head this year has shown me im on the right track.

 

[Bones]

I know we all farm to make money. Its just the affect on me having so many ewes with mastitis, maggots and picking up dead lambs earlier on is what will live long in the memory with me. Analogy i learnt at rugby was K.I.S.S Keep It Simple Stupid. Just on the farm we have overcomplicated matters and this year has found us out. I'm positive for the future, i got plan in my head this year has shown me im on the right track.

What's the plan

 

[bread bin]

Get most of the heifers calved in march as calve 70 heifers end of feb onwards. Start Lamb 5th of April with outdoor starting 10 days later. instead of 27th of March. Switch to Highlander tups for more maternal traits in the ewe flock, currently have suffolk cross, cheviot mule, shetland cheviots, ncc lairg cheviots and highlanders ewes plus a few other odd and sods. Shear my ewe lambs early september(still getting the odd lamb from a rig that was amongst them). Thats the plan it may change. Get set up properly rotational grazing.

 

[hendrebc]

Be careful otherwise @Farmer Roy will come on telling us about real weather situations.

I wouldnt swap with @Farmer Roy in a million years and i dont think anyone here would either if they had any sense.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It’s not been the best for me around my way either for me personally

Completely sodden winter and spring then no rain since beginning of May really.
Hoping for a damp day tomorrow if it happens like weather man says.
I’m burning up bad
A lot of it is previous farming issues really for me as I’m way under stocked from where the farm was years ago and we always managed but I’m now trying to correct soil issues ph etc to get things going better with more cover on the ground. Things my parents and grandparents were reluctant to do.
They just kept throwing muck and fert at everything thinking that would solve everything

I could just do with more time away from work and @Kiwi Pete for a neighbor to point me in the right direction

Dunno about that one
I probably felt the same as half of you at times in the last 12 months. Last season was a bit dry but largely mild and cool - this year has been pretty savage by comparison.

Higher stock prices, it got f**king wet, f**king dry, then back to cold and wet!

It did, however, snap me out of being complacent that I can always count on more rain "to save the day" in summer..... so the plan is to NOT leave the length of growing season to chance: be more conservative yet more productive is the challenge ahead.
More livestock are the key for us - lazy cycling is the underlying issue for us.

 

[Bob the beef]

Had 15mm rain last night. Not as much as other places nearby but enough to keep us going for a week or two. Looking pretty hot for next week now

 

[Greythundercloudys]

The last year has been hellish here as well , weather, tups not working, and breakdowns, must have spend 7grand on repairs and this year since February dead ewes and lambs down to weather etc, l really don't know how l can afford to get the number back up a bit this autum , hopefully no big breakdown, pm going to the show on Saturday, and going to do my silage next week, it's a nice crop, l only cut it once, so if the weather is going to be as good as they say lm going to get most of it cut and get it made suppose it maybe a bit lighter than normal. We had alot of rain last night, so that will get my rape and reseeds going, . After all the bad weather et's us farmer are really juw a great summer. Fingers crossed it starts tomorrow.