The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: Fieldfare on August 08, 2016, 01:01:46 pm
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...I'm sure this has been dealt with before but I have cut my hay on Friday, turned it Saturday and Sunday. Overnight on Sunday it was rained on (pretty much soaking it). On Monday the weather has turned blowy and sunny and it is drying a bit. Have been told by a neighbour to leave it until it does dry fully on the top (which would prob. be Tuesday lunchtime if it hasn't rained). If it doesn't dry and we get more rain he said to just leave it.
Does that approach sound sensible? Can I leave it for days untouched if it keeps getting showered upon? I am following the BBC weather but at the moment it seems to change by the hour so difficult to predict the next few days (at least for where I am in Sheffield)...
Any tips would be helpful...
Thanks!
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Yes - as your neighbour says - leave it till the top is dry before turning.
Every time you turn it you lose a certain amount of leaf and the nutritious part of hay is in the leaf. So if you keep turning it when you don't need to you will eventually end up with a pile of crisp dry stalks, with little feed value.
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Yes best to leave it , in showery conditions its better in tight rows than spread out
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The tight rows also allows the ground between rows to dry faster so that you can move the rows on to dry ground or spread onto at least some dry ground
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Hi all- thanks- sadly it is spread and not in rows. The wind and sun today did almost dry it but we keep getting short showers- so didn't get the opportunity to row it up. The next 2ish days look a bit showery also so I guess I am stuck with leaving it spread... my eyes are glued to the weather forecast and the skies! Bring on that high pressure and nice southerly air they are promising!
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Have you got baled now ??
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...yes it rained for a clear 7 days- just left it unturned... then 3 really nice days where I turned it 3x... despite that it baled nice and smells and looks pretty good!
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I am glad to hear that. It is also useful to know as I live in a dry part of the country I get stressed if it gets drizzled on once it is cut so maybe I worry too much about it. We've only had bad hay one year in the last 20. It was a particularly dry May and the yield was low and it wasn't palatable. The horses ate it eventually but only because I wasn't going to give them a choice.
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...Yes it was interesting to see how it 'behaved' with all the rain we had.. I checked it every day and just to monitor if it was turning mouldy (still smelt nice)...and for my own education. The key is, I think, not to turn until the top was dry and weather was going to do some good (warm, dry and blowing). Once weather turned good it quickly dried in fact probably 2 days would have done it.
cheers,