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Author Topic: Anyone still to cut hay?  (Read 27789 times)

Fieldfare

  • Joined Feb 2011
Anyone still to cut hay?
« on: August 02, 2015, 11:37:13 pm »
Hi all- am I the only one yet to still cut for hay? Can anyone predict when the next high pressure is coming? BBC seems downbeat for August. Do I panic yet?  :fc:

Old Empty Barn

  • Joined Feb 2009
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2015, 12:17:42 am »
Hi, Everyone round here is still waiting to cut  , , , great summer !

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2015, 12:24:26 am »
I was going to post this very question.  Our hay is lying sodden, with very little chance of making it now. The days are starting to get shorter, the sun is less hot.....hahahaha.......nutrition levels have dropped and the grass has rotted underneath.  No sign of a high in the next couple of weeks. Still, in 20 years, this is only the second time we've missed the crop altogether.   Mr F says not to be so pessimistic as we have made hay into August before, but it's never been good quality.  Will start looking for suppliers who can deliver.

I'm not sure what to do with the fallen crop?
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

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oor wullie

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Strathnairn
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2015, 06:25:36 am »
I bought a baler this year and all it has done is take up space in the shed.
Still, at least I still have hope for a chance as the grass in my hay field hasn't been flattened yet - probably because the total growth for the season has only been about 30cm.  There was someone of Countryfile last night explaining how one of the reasons lamb prices were low this year was because grass growth had been so good. I choked and fell off my seat.

I think hay will be expensive this year.

waterbuffalofarmer

  • Joined Apr 2014
  • Mid Wales
  • Owner of 61 Mediterranean water buffaloes
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2015, 09:00:05 am »
Still waiting too. I have 12 big fields to cut yet, the weather seems to be against us :'( still august is usually a good month I just wish the good weather would hurry up I need at least 5 days minimum to cut. :rant:
the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, loving concern.

Scotsdumpy

  • Joined Jul 2012
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2015, 09:13:51 am »
We havent cut ours yet - weve had to ask a contractor this year as when it is time to make, we havent got the machines to do it quickly enough. Our grass is older meadow grass with lots of white clover and other herby type plants and the grasses seem to mature at different times. The latest weve baled (in Aberdeenshire) is september. One of our neighbours used to take a week of in late august to make hay and he always managed it....not panicking just yet!!!!

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2015, 09:37:57 am »
Difficult when the weather's so variable.  Supposed to be fine here all day but a heavy shower at 7.00 a.m.  I have plenty of hay from last year and am going to offer a 7acre field of ours to a neighbour - his was cut and turned once then it bucketed down for ten hours!

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2015, 10:41:07 am »
..the weather's variable every year :)
Ours gets cut ned july/beginning of august and is still waiting..always past it's best but we wait for all wildlife to have finished breeding and flowers seeding. But I would like to see the back of it now so I can finish off afterwards tidying the edges and odd unmowable bits with the topper and get some spot spraying in.

sabrina

  • Joined Nov 2008
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2015, 11:31:37 am »
Farmers were busy making hay last week in Aberdeenshire. Not been a good year for it though anywhere.

waterbuffalofarmer

  • Joined Apr 2014
  • Mid Wales
  • Owner of 61 Mediterranean water buffaloes
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #9 on: August 03, 2015, 12:30:32 pm »
This years excellent for grass growth, but just not for cutting it.
the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, loving concern.

shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #10 on: August 03, 2015, 12:42:55 pm »
Very little hay made on the carse of stirling , so I assume horse hay is going to be expensive .   Have made hay in sept but difficult  .   FLEECEWIFE the last time I  lost a field of hay , I hired  an old flail forage harvester and chopped it ,   often seen rubbish baled and thrown away in field corner to rot  :raining:              Grass growth in Scotland has been and still is very slow  ave temp 5 degrees  lower than norm and  cold nights   .

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2015, 12:55:06 pm »
We've cut three fields, of which we'd hoped to make hay in two, but have had to wrap them all for silage  :( :gloomy:

We've still got several fields to go and remain hopeful of getting at least some as hay.  We have also made hay in September before, and actually it's been good stuff for sheep.

In 2006, BH made 6000 little bales of hay, and only a little silage.  The following year he got one early field of mini-hestons of hay - early June - and the rest of the year it was all silage, and most of that after mid-August.  We even made silage in November one year!

He claims that summers were better and more predictable when he was younger, that you always got the hay finished by the end of July, never needed to make silage, were glad of a wet day to have a rest. 

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Penninehillbilly

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • West Yorks
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #12 on: August 03, 2015, 01:15:22 pm »
The person I buy hay from (from off the field) asked thecontractor to do it early July (I think it was then, there was some good hay being got in) he gave some reason for not cutting, now it's gone over, I'll be looking for it elsewhere, Getting worried, I have 4 (small square) bales left, we go through 1+ a week with the goats.
 
Does ayone use small amounts from large bales, if it's kept covered does it keep?

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #13 on: August 03, 2015, 01:19:19 pm »
Hay doesn't go off like silage, so yes you can use a big bale over a long period of time.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

waterbuffalofarmer

  • Joined Apr 2014
  • Mid Wales
  • Owner of 61 Mediterranean water buffaloes
Re: Anyone still to cut hay?
« Reply #14 on: August 03, 2015, 01:29:20 pm »
I used to make silage but I had some neighbors whose kids kept climbing the bales and poking holes in them. I did go and talk to the neighbors, but they never listened. Now I just cut for haylage and stack em in the building, blummin annoying :rant:
the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, loving concern.

 

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