The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: dyedinthewool on July 20, 2012, 02:11:40 pm
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Hi All :wave:
I know you ALL visit this thread :thumbsup: so anyone in West Wales thinking of cutting their hay field yet??
I've put this in the LAND MANAGEMENT thread aswell.
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We are in Derbyshire, and after constant rain the fields are muddy and waterlogged......last night was torrential rain, and again today. We are promised some good weather, but the fields are so wet, it would be impossible to mow, and of course take some drying.
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We are at last getting some sun, but only between the rain showers and nothing better forecast here in South Central Scotland :gloomy:
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A few have cut around here today and a few just doing a few rows around the outside to wrap as silage.
I am going to hang on for a while and hope the weather gets better. At least it's still growing and edable, as once it's down and cut your committed.
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And if it takes much longer it'll all go to seed and be cr#p. Pray for a good fortnight of sun and dying wind :fc:
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I've just been out to cut the chicken pen - grass is about 6" took three cuts to get it down and now it's yellow in the bottom and still wet. So if the hay fields are 18-2' I hate to think whats at ground level. Sun shining and very hot out there and a good wind so that will help to dry things out.
Washing every thing that i can find to make the most of this sun. OH took his jumper off and that went in the wash - he said it was clean yesterday... :innocent: :innocent:
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The ground needs to be much drier imo before we can cut or the cutter will be sucking up mud and we will be baling it.
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The ground needs to be much drier imo before we can cut or the cutter will be sucking up mud and we will be baling it.
this - having seen next door farmers dark brown patches in fields he has done (and his fields drain down onto ours.....) Im not considering it until next week at the earliest. Supposed to rain her Sunday anyway....
Im less worried about the seeds, just want stuff to fill bellies. Last two years we have made it in August and the stock loved it so for us thats ok. (but then we have more land to make hay on than we have buildings to hold hay so yield is not so crucial)
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... well I was thinking of it - but think I will wait a few days for ground to dry a bit more and see if the suggested hot week becomes a bit more definite in the forcast :fc: . Daft question alert - do you need a special machine to make small bale haylage? We ended up makeing big bale haylage last year (contractor) when it looked like the weather would break before suitable dry. I wondered if you could small bale a day earlier than hay and wrap by hand?
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You do need the machine to make wrapped haylage, IMO. :-(( tho you can get small haylage bale machines. However they are pricey - but if the weather carries on like this it might be economic!
By hand I dont think you could get the wrap tight enough.
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Can see my neighbour baling right now out of the sitting room window it was cut 3 days ago and then it pee'd down, dry yretserday afternoon so it was tossed then and then again this morning, he'll probably wrap it tomorrow afternoon. They do say make hay while the sun shines and it is for once alovely evening! High cloud interspersed with lots of blue.
Mandy :pig:
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Well my OH decided to cut, so that's what he's doing. It will get rained on but that often happens here and as long as it's not an endless deluge we usually end up with something edible. We can't wrap for haylage so it's hay or bust. Fingers crossed that Sunday week is hot and dry as forecast - we're pinning our hopes on it. :fc:
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:fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: ;D
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:fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: ;D
x 2 :fc:
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we cut the lot yesterday sssshhhhhhhhhh :fc: :innocent:
I can hear the tedders going so you never know..... :thumbsup:
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After OH had done the deed yesterday, they took all the raindrops off the forecast, but today they have put them all back, plus lots more :P I daren't look any more - we'll just take it as it comes. Other folk round about have cut now too - maybe they thought we knew something they didn't :innocent:
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...or perhaps not - rarely caught out farmer next door has just had the portion not yet silaged baled well and truely peed on by rain for about half an hour. Horrid weather, why cant it just behave for a bit.
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I know - we only need five little days :eyelashes:
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Well the Met office 5 day forecast say's it's going to be dry for the next 5 days is SW wales :thumbsup: - If you can believe them. :D
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We've cut today too. :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: :fc: !!
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It's the annual scarefest :o :o :sofa:
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We're hoping to cut tomorrow :fc: :fc: Very excited - first timers ;D
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North West Wales - not for hay or silage as rain forecast for Monday.
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Well - everything was looking good for our hay cutting - weather sunny and breezy ;D
So, hooked up the International Harvester B23 finger cutter onto our Case 695
Headed into the grass - got 50yards and the blade attachment from the crank disintegrated >:( >:(
OH is doubly pissed off because we bought the fingercutter from our neighbour's grandson and then the next day saw another, slightly newer fingercutter at an auction that went for £100 less! So OH feels he's been taken for a mug by the grandson re the price - and now the blasted thing has broken!
Ho hum - will see if we can get some parts - otherwise we will resort to topping the field and then baling up the resultant grass (after woofling and spreading) because our main intention is to take the growth off the field, not the hay itself if you see what I mean!
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Well the Met office 5 day forecast says it's going to be dry for the next 5 days is SW wales :thumbsup: - If you can believe them. :D
For better or worse we cut yesterday after neighbouring farmer rang the Met Office and they said no rain until Thursday. He silaging like mad.
Sunny and Windy today so drying well, as as we have 'old' machinery Kuhn mower circa 1980's we think; at least this time OH didn't break any blades - but it tends to 'slide over' some of the mowing grass so field becomes a bit 'shaggy' took most of the morning as the 'old' tractor (Grey/gold engine Fergie) had to keep having a rest... in case it blew a gasget, and an old Acrobat - which doesn't do the job properly - we've been hand turning and shaking out the 'green bits'. Only got an acre thankfully and we didn't keep the sheep out until May so ours was still growing and not gone over - still has the flower in most of it.
It's clouded over now :fc: it doesn't rain over night.
Rang the guy who does our small bale baling and hopefully we will get it baled on Tuesday if fit and Wednesday if all else fails :fc: :fc: :fc:
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Hubby still out there cutting now :innocent: (10.40pm)
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Scotland = :gloomy: :gloomy: :gloomy: :gloomy: :gloomy:
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Today in Shropshire we are having the second hot, sunny but breezy day. My hay supplier still have a fair bit left from last year but I've been watching the forecasts as well. We get through a lot of small bales.
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Hubby came indoors at 1.30this morning having eventually finished the cutting in the pitch dark with only the lights from the tractor. I think he kept going over the same bit without knowing it :innocent: :innocent: .
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Hubby came indoors at 1.30this morning having eventually finished the cutting in the pitch dark with only the lights from the tractor. I think he kept going over the same bit without knowing it :innocent: :innocent: .
TUT TUT Blinkers the poor man - you must have had the whip out again...
Glorious weather though - hope it last till the week-end. When do you expect to bale. Have you got your own baler or do you get some-one in.
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Hubby came indoors at 1.30this morning having eventually finished the cutting in the pitch dark with only the lights from the tractor. I think he kept going over the same bit without knowing it :innocent: :innocent: .
TUT TUT Blinkers the poor man - you must have had the whip out again...
Glorious weather though - hope it last till the week-end. When do you expect to bale. Have you got your own baler or do you get some-one in.
These front fields (which he's teddin at the moment) are always big bale haylage cos its lovely meadow grass and so we get contractor in. The other bit up the road we make small bale hay :thumbsup:
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We started cutting today, but just doing the horse hay paddocks and leaving the sheep till later, as the weather window wont prob be long enough to get it all done and in.
Would have started early this morning but the hay mower needed a bit of attention from a hammer :-)))
So just doing one smallish paddock and one even smaller paddock for now, hopefully we will get it in, if we dont we still have the majority and if we do, fabtastic!
We are using 75hp John Deere (1976), hay mower is red and yellow cant remember the make, then a PZ haybob and a New Holland Superliner (very ancient) to bale. Bertha the baler is temperamental to say the least but we get there in the end altho I think OH gets fed up of baling the same saggy knicker elastic bale 4 times in the dark with only one tractor headlight.
Luckily our steading has a number of casual ventilation features (holes in roof) which mean hay dries really well as ventilation is so efficient! We just have to stack the hay away from the buckets catching the drips....
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Wish we could but the ground is still too squelchy and more rain forecast for the weekend. :gloomy: :(
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We are doing ours next week, will be good hay for sheep :)
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We managed to get some bits for the finger cutter ;D ;D
So - I set off to do the rest of the field..... unfortunately had to keep stopping to get out of tractor to clear the grass mounding up on the outside edge of the cutter >:( And also to get under the tractor and cut the prop shaft free from wound up grass >:( >:( so a field of about 2 acres took approx 5 hours to cut!!! And my legs are knackered (CASE 695 is a big tractor to climb in and out of!) and my neck is stiff from having to look oer my right shoulder for 5 hours!
Anyhoo...... swapped to the hayzip (which OH rebuilt after we bought it for £50) and did 75% of the field (quickly ;D ;D ) BUT one of the struts on the hayzip broke :(
So..... OH got the welder out and re-welded the strut and I finished spreading the field.
Did another 'woofle' through twice today and fingers crossed I'll do a couple more tomorrow and then bale wit our Bamford 58 on Fri.... :fc: :fc:
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Hay being made in Aberdeenshire this week :thumbsup:
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Some of mine in the barn now and going to wait till after next weeks rain and get some big rounds in.
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well, baled it this afternoon, following 4 dry and sometimes cloudy days of turning and forcasts of rain tomorrow.... only for the forcast to have changed by the time we had baled to.... SCORCHIO untill Sunday. B******ds. Worse than useless bloody weather forecasts . Bales a bit damp, but for us only so have to see how they go. Hope others making better calls than me :fc: :fc:
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Went out yesterday and bought in 10 big bale meadow hay. Lovely stuff and no rain or sprays.
The farmer is delivering it and stacking it in the barn.
£25 per bale delivered £20 collected off field.
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We got in 35 small bales of lovely meadow hay and then a bolt sheared on the baler...and none of our spares fit. Rain was a comin so after a bit of effort to mend it we called up our lovely neighbour to do the main untouched field, it was all rowed up and ready to bale. As he finished the rain started. Bless him.
So that half a field produced 12 round bales of gorgeous meadow hay to add to the 35 small from the wee bit behind the hoose. The big fields we havent cut yet, they are for the sheep, but at least the horse hay is baled; added to the oat straw we buy in as pony fodder that will do them now.
(http://i342.photobucket.com/albums/o405/lachlanandmarcus/P1020917.jpg)