[sabrina]

Saw the first new hay for sale on the Inverness Gum Tree this morning, £35 round bale or £4 small. So far no one has had a chance to make in my area due to weather so unless things improve its going to be hard to get. Lucky for me I have enough of last years. Even if the weather improves the fields are so wet. Think the price of all animal feed will shoot up 

[Hermit]

Shetland is always struggling for hay from South, we make our own but it is bad this year. Luckily I just have the goats and some sheep that will have to be on silage. Folk up here are getting rid of stock cause they forcast the shortage. We certainly wont be selling any hay this year and we do have someone that wants to buy some sheep from us so we will be ok I think. When there is a shortage hay is rationed by the merchants up here and that is after the outer Isles such as Foula and Fair Isle are sorted as they do struggle. One year we were allowed two a week from the merchants as Foula was priority, when I asked how Foula was doing the reply was"If they didnt get any hay or other supplies soon  , there will be no ponies to feed!!!  Some folk have private contacts in Orkney that send hay up but I do wonder even if they will be having any to spare. There will be a lot of cheap ponies and sheep  at the sales this year, not to mention all the cattle being got rid of !

[Small Farmer]

I think haylage is going to be he best option again this year.  No-one's made any so far round here (Bedfordshire) that I've seen.

[Hermit]

I dont think they do haylage up here. You either chance the hay or play safe with silage.

[sabrina]

Scary stuff if you have a lot to feed 

[HelenVF]

I'm just pleased I've only got a section a and 2 pygmy goats to feed!

Helen

[lachlanandmarcus]

Our farmer neighbour has given up on hay with his uniform seeded rye grass, he's in the process of wrapping it all for silage as its collapsing too much with the rain.
Our meadow hay on the other hand is standing up (literally) to the rain a lot better, so provided the weather improves we should be able to still make hay.
Hope we can, we are looking to make about 200 odd small bales.....:-) for the sheep and the horses. They much prefer the home produced stuff to anything we can buy in  - the bit left from last year is still a silvery green colour and smells wonderful when you go in the steading.
Last year the sheep only got hay as they werent tupped and it was mild. Even if tupped, if the hay is as good quality, they wont be getting many sheep nuts unless theres lots of snow.

[Roxy]

We are using nearly a big round bale a week on the goats and the smaller ponies which are stabled at night.  Was £35 but shot up over the last week or so to £40.  Few farmers done first cut silage, but fields are left so churned up, hard to see them recovering to do any more, and seems to be raining none stop, so a worry as to where the winter feed will come from - we need a lot of big bales, but storing it is an issue even if we found some.
Only good thing is I do have some winter grazing, which we can keep back, which may help......

[tizaala]

Our Landlord was here 4 days ago ,in the rain , cutting flattened grass for silage, in the rain, with the baler chasing the mower as he went, the wrapper was chasing the baler, they spent the last two days carting and stacking next to our barn, and as each bale was lifted onto the stack gallons of water cascaded from them.
So , thats 300 round bales of compost to feed his sheep and cows on next winter. Be very careful where you buy from this year.

[Small Farmer]

I thought you could make clamp silage with moister grass than bale silage, but even so making it in the rain sounds like a waste of plastic.

[Sudanpan]

We've had 2 dry days now and forecast looks good for the next week 


This will be our first go at cutting our field for hay - it's certainly been battered by the wind and rain so far but is standing up quite well now.


This time tomorrow it might all be cut and drying 


As it is our first go - any tips on knowing when it is dry enough to bale? We have a hayzip and I was intending to fluff it over a couple of times over 2 days - would that be about right?


Thanks

[lachlanandmarcus]

that will be fine if theres no rain and it stays warmish pref with a breeze. Bale it when it is more snap-able stalks than bendable stalks ie it feels completely dry. If it doesnt, dont bale it, and if it gets rained on, re spread it to dry up even if it is rowed up ready for baling, dont risk it.

[tizaala]

Even if it looks dry enough just keep turning and spreading  it 3-4 times a day for a couple of days then let the morning dew dry off it , fluff it up a couple of times to let the air through it then after lunch break row it up and bale, if you have a big shed stack it in piles of twenties on pallets with lots of air space round the stacks and let it cool for a week before building your barn .

[SallyintNorth]

As it is our first go - any tips on knowing when it is dry enough to bale? We have a hayzip and I was intending to fluff it over a couple of times over 2 days - would that be about right?

There was some good advice about when it's dry enough a year or so back ... ah, here 'tis:

It is done when there is no moisture left if you twist a bunch in your hands, but it should still be a pale green and smell sweet. 

How much you work it depends so much on the climate, the ground, the grass, the weather, that it's hard to advise.  Generally friends in Somerset make small-bale hay in 3 days - first day cut + spread, second day woofle, third day row up + bale.  BH reckons 4 days here (north Cumbria) for small-bale hay, Fleecewife up in Lanarkshire reckons it's usually 5 up there.  Farmers from Yorkshire who've moved here (north Cumbria) didn't expect to have to work it at all after the first strowing out - they make silage now   

Generally you can make large round bales a day sooner than small square bales - but leave them to continue to air in the field; you can start fires by stacking them / bringing them under cover too soon.

As I understand it, if the ground and grass are dry to start with and the days are baking hot you can turn your crop to dust with overworking.  (I had to preface that with, "As I understand it", as these conditions have never pertained since my entry into farming...)

Conversely, if it's a thick crop, a wet crop, the ground is wet, and the days are not baking hot nor very breezy, it'll take a lot of working.  BH is passionate about making small-bale hay, he often leaves it spread for a day or two, then woofles once or twice a day until it's ready to bale.  He waits for the dew to be off it before woofling and makes sure he's finished his last woofle of the day - or baling if it's baling day - before the evening dew starts to form.  He likes to bale on a 'killing day' (he doesn't mean it'll kill the helpers, stooking the bales in 17s and 21s - but sometimes it can feel like that!) - baking hot, a breeze is good but not essential.  Haymakers from further south will be shaking their heads at all that woofling - it would turn their grass into snapped sticks.  But up here, if we didn't do as much woofling as we do, we'd have damp hay which would go musty and/or heat and potentially set on fire.

The amount of woofling required will also depend on the thickess of the crop.  A very light crop allows the drying sun and wind to reach the lower strands without turning; a thicker crop must be turned or the lower grass won't dry at all.

So, Sudanpan, as it's your first time, I would suggest that whenever you set off to woofle, you do a little bit then jump off and have a look at the grass behind you.  If it's starting to look brittle, you've probably woofled enough.

Good luck!