For once we got the biggest hay field shut up earlier, and were ready to make hay in June. But the combination of weather and our contractor didn't happen. By the time he had some space in his schedule, the rains had started, and now the crop is as thick as I've ever seen it here, the ground is moist and soft underneath it, so it'll take at least 3 probably 4 dry days to make hay. (Usually it's quite a thin crop and we can often get it baled - small bales - on the second day.) We had a 2-day window in the weather recently, but the contractor said that small bale haylage wasn't an option either, as with only 2 days drying, the bales would still be too heavy for his baler.
So I am definitely feeling that I don't want to shut up the biggest hay field early again! (I shall go back to lambing in there, and I lamb second half of April, so the field doesn't then get shut up until well into May.)
We've made small bale hay here in September before, but that was with a much thinner crop, so we will be lucky to get any hay this year now. However, I remember one year we managed to make small bale hay in September up on Hadrian's Wall, so I shan't completely give up hope yet! Also, we could make big round bale hay if we had to, which can be baled a bit damper and left to air in the field if necessary. (We can just about manage to use big round bales of hay, although it's a faff, but we don't have enough stock to get through a big round bale of haylage before it goes off - plus we don't feed haylage in the fields as it destroys the soil structure.)
I am fairly confident we should still get some small bale haylage from the smaller field, which was shut up later (expecting to be a second crop, but we've not managed a first crop yet...) So hopefully we'll get the haylage we need for the cattle (who we house over winter.) But I am ruefully expecting to be keeping the bigger hay field as winter forage for the sheep, and buying in hay for the ponies and some for the sheep when they need a bit extra towards the end of winter. Thankfully there's a local farmer makes rough old untreated hay which is perfect for the ponies, and the sheep will eat when they need it - and the farmer always has hay if we need it, he's been a godsend many times! He charges a sensible price too. But it's going to be galling buying in poorer hay for more money than it would have cost to make our own, when we should've had more than plenty of our own...