[doganjo]

I'm very much a novice as regards hay - how do you tell good stuff from bad or not do good stuff?  Is it just by smell?

[faith0504]

smell is a good in dictator, you cant beat the smell of nice fresh hay, if it pulls out in big clumps stuck together  thats an other sign its not so good, if its dust that is not good, and if it has any blackness or mould on it thats not good. hay should smell sweet and be dust free

[robert waddell]

smell     must be sweat
color preferably green
definitely no mould or ragwort
you can get meadow hay timothy hay  or rygrass/timothy hay
any part you are not clear on just ask
where are you getting you hay from just now

[waterhouse]

and as dust-free as possible. 

You know good hay when you see/smell/feel it.  Everything else is what is for sale around here!

[dyedinthewool]

We have managed to 'make' our small bale hay this year though not until Sept, so not exactly 'good' hay.  We had to get a contractor in as we don't have the equipment as yet... We had 100 bales from just over an acre.  Having read the prices paid on here we got off lightly cost us £250.  Early next year (as soon as the snow goes and we can get onto land) we intend to lime (grateful for all the information gleened from forum members ) then give the paddocks a good going over with the harrows and top seed with a good pasture mixture, hopefully this will improve the sward. We can't plough and seed which would be the ideal situation.

 Our little flock of 8 are munching it quite happily. It does smell very sweet and is surprisingly still green. Just hope it all lasts until next summer. Snow still on the ground -though I did hear dripping coming off the sheep shed tonight - maybe a little bit of a thaw?

[robert waddell]

hay cut and baled at the right time self seeds with a square baler(small)

[waterhouse]

Liming is one of the most effective things you can do to acid pasture, and most pasture gradually becomes acid.  Get a soil analysis done and that will tell you how much lime is needed.  We needed 10 tonnes per hectare and it took a while to find a contractor willing to do a few hectares.  We use "inch to dust" lime which means that you get up to golf ball sized bits of chalk which break up in the rain over some weeks.

Make sure the contractor can get his kit through your gates!  Our guy was delivering more than 10 tonnes a load.

[fifixx]

I have been quoted £60 a big bale in Dorset.....does anyone know a good dorset/somerset source that won't break the bank?

[robert waddell]

in the end it all comes down to supply and demand you are creating the demand and they are controlling the supply

[dyedinthewool]

Liming is one of the most effective things you can do to acid pasture, and most pasture gradually becomes acid.  Get a soil analysis done and that will tell you how much lime is needed.  We needed 10 tonnes per hectare and it took a while to find a contractor willing to do a few hectares.  We use "inch to dust" lime which means that you get up to golf ball sized bits of chalk which break up in the rain over some weeks.

Make sure the contractor can get his kit through your gates!  Our guy was delivering more than 10 tonnes a load.

I did a PH test it was between 5.5 and 5. we have aquired a small Vicon spreader (our Christmas present to ourselves... sad or what) and want to use the granular lime - comes in 600kg bags from our local farm suplies. Presume we can put on once the snow has finaly gone and the soil has thawed out a bit more. It's only about 2.5 acres we have to do. Thought I would ring the 'lime' people up and find out how much they say we would need to apply.
Sorry didn't mean to hi-jack the thread.

[waterhouse]

Wow that's acid.  Ours was 5.54 and 5.67 and the recommended lime dose was 9.6 and 8.3 tonnes per hectare not to be applied at more than 4t/ha at a time.  I have a spinner but the loader is on the same tractor and I didn't fancy shovelling it all by hand into the spinner.

[dyedinthewool]

Wow that's acid.  Ours was 5.54 and 5.67 and the recommended lime dose was 9.6 and 8.3 tonnes per hectare not to be applied at more than 4t/ha at a time.  I have a spinner but the loader is on the same tractor and I didn't fancy shovelling it all by hand into the spinner.

I' m from the 'acres era'  hectares don't mean a lot  so did a Google calculater  2.5 acres = 1.01 hectares; if you use granular Lime apparently you use a lot less per acre/hetare - haven't found that bit out yet... and as you say it has to go on in Two parts - one this year and one next - less is best as too much can lock up the grasses/plants absorbing other nutrients they need.

[waterhouse]

Ah but you're buying 600kg of lime so you'll have to convert that to pounds if you want to stay properly imperial.   I learned imperial at primary school, metric at grammar school and can switch almost seamlessly between them.  Except for fuel consumption in litres/100km which doesn't work for me.

I note my haylage bales each weigh 20kg (44lb), trying to get this thread back on course, which is just over 15p/lb (three shillings) at the last price I paid.

[robert waddell]

thats £337 per ton in old money or new money
back on course i think

[faith0504]

how much does that work out at a bale? how many bales in a ton??