[RUSTYME]

Renee , haylage is just cut grass wrapped in plastic and fermented , sort of halfway between hay and silage .
I wouldn't be able to make it as i don't have the wrapper or big baler .
I buy mine in @ £25 per bale delivered , a bale lasts 9 days approx .
The stuff i get can vary in type , depending on the field it was cut from , time of year and moisture content . It can be like meadow hay to almost silage , moisture can vary too , the horses cope fine with all types though .
I have had bees . Lost some due to varoa mites and others to colony collapse . Will be cleaning out the hives again this spring .
I still have a jar or two of home made honey and some wax .
I will also be growing more sugar beet this year , enough to supply all my sugar needs , the waste pulp being animal feed .
I grew a few last year and got a few lbs of sugar , saved a few quid .
I didn't weigh it , but i got about 4lb-5lb of sugar and a a few buckets of pulp from a 15' row of s/beet . The pulp i mixed with the last of my home grown barley and oats . I lost nearly all last years grain due to weather , it got flattened by rain .
I only have 3lb of my old variety wheat for sowing now , will sow that in the autumn and hope !
Will have to buy some oats , barley and rye as i used the last of the seed on the failed crop .
I do have a small packet of oats from a few plants that survived last year  , 200+ seeds , so may get a couple of pound from them ?
Just had home made honey on toast , made from the last of my home grown wheat , ( square heads master ,  2011 ) .
I do cheat and use packet yeast and a breadmaker
though .

[SallyintNorth]

In BH's younger days they used to make haylage in plastic bags - just fill them really full, seal, and there you go.

On one of the Victorian or Edwardian Farm programmes, they showed them making a silage clamp - digging a flat-bottomed trench, filling it with cut grass, covering it with sticks, straw and earth to seal it.  We've never managed to catch the episode - if there is one - where they open it up and use it.  We'd love to try it if it works.

[deepinthewoods]

just to clarify, mackerel are a pelagic species, they are one of the most agressive species and are hunters not scavangers.
now cod, they WILL eat anything. true scavangers like mullet.

[renee]

Renee , haylage is just cut grass wrapped in plastic and fermented , sort of halfway between hay and silage .
I wouldn't be able to make it as i don't have the wrapper or big baler .

Thank you for being so patient with me
I have haylage- this year mine is halfway between silage and concrete because it is frozen solid. I am using a pick axe to split it. Rambo would admire my muscles. No, I was meaning in the future when you have even less money. Stuffing it in plastic bags very rarely works
Up here the older farmers still use the rack drieing sysem, I believe they do also in Wales.
THis hay is my fiend Anders'. He is 85 and this is his last hay harvest. There was no sun this summer-his hay turned mouldy so he has sold his sheep

I forgot you had sugar. I swop eggs for honey but will have my own bees. Here in Jämtland we do not have the V.virus. The E.U says we cannot refuse to import foreign bees but no-one will so we only have our own strain of Jämtlandske bees. second hand equipment from out of the county is also a nasty word for the same reason.

[renee]

In BH's younger days they used to make haylage in plastic bags - just fill them really full, seal, and there you go.

We silaged our fodder maize in Denmark. The animals loved it. Chopped straw in a trench, maize, more straw, blach plastic then drive over it with the tractor to get all the air out. The biggest problem was the crows -ey loved it as well-

[doganjo]

just to clarify, mackerel are a pelagic species, they are one of the most agressive species and are hunters not scavangers.
now cod, they WILL eat anything. true scavangers like mullet.

Thanks for the correction, DITW - I was told they were scavengers by an old fisherman on Loch Long - he told us as teenagers that they'd eat poop that was washed into the Loch.  He must have been wrong, either that or scaring us off so there was more for him.  I don't think there's much cod or mullet in Loch Long. 

[RUSTYME]

Sorry renee , misread your question .
 I will always have some money and i can do a few hours work to get the money for haylage if need be .
I have tried the plastic bag method of making haylage , made good compost !
Last time i looked , the bags cost £2 + each , so forget that !
I do want to avoid using any plastic , but wrap on big bales is unavoidable atm . Hay is way to dear , if you can find it .
I have nearly a 2 acre field that grows good hay , and enough of it to get me through . But taking that field out of the summer feeding means i need more haylage to get through ! Bit of a catch 22 really , as i can't guarantee one cut of hay let alone two . Plus the horses jump the fence to get at it just when it is ready to cut !
They have also eaten 1500 willow plants , 2 apple trees , 2 pear , 2 plum and 2 cherry trees , they like expensive food lol . I'm thinking about selling burgers !

[goosepimple]

Sally - it must have been Edwardian Farm, we've just watched the dvd of Victorian Farm as we don't have regular telly and I didn't see that on it (unless I was putting the kettle on at that time).

[NormandyMary]

I want to grow veggies, but I cant until the boys are fenced in properly. Hopefully we can get it done this spring/summer and get growing next year. OH has promised me a greenhouse so that I can do all my salad stuff. Ive tried doing tomatoes outdoors twice, and each time, they have been attacked with blight. I also want to do runner beans as you dont really get them over here. The boys would be in heaven if I tried to do them without fencing them in first.

[renee]

From a nutritional point of view, the flat bread they make here from barley and pea flour is very useful. I love it with soup.

[Lesley Silvester]

I tried to make bread with dried beans but found it very difficult to grind them.  Any suggestions?

[renee]

Ha, you have got me there. I can buy the flour at a small local mill. It is on an island in the big lake. A ferry in the summer, an ICE road now!!!Chick pea flour is sold at the Ethnic? shop in town. (80 miles away) So my suppliers are local

[FiB]

Great thread thanks Rusty - making me think about growing some suagr beet.  I switched away from layers pellets this year and make own grain mix...... but the thought of growing that grain is mind blowing!  Getting pigs again in a few weeks and would love to avoid pellets. same with the sheep.  I dont trust the so and sos - we cant even trust whats in our food chain let alone animal food. 
 
On a slightly different notel - the 5:2 'diet' (though it is more a way of eating) is having a dramatic effect on my food bill, weight and overall health -  and the more I read about it, the more I believe that it is the way our bodies have evolved to be fueled (not the constant grazing (and accociated disasterous effect on insulin and cholesterol) that has that has become a norm for many of us    - if you have good enough braodband Rusty, you might be interested in the Horizon programme on intermittent fasting and its (positive) effects on the body  http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms?fb_action_ids=10151258734623195&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=.UPwG9-IqE3Q.like&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582#.UQK-UvImbTp .

[RUSTYME]

No bb here now , almost off the system , so only got the mobile to get on the net with .
All depends how much grain needed , but oats , barley , wheat and rye are grasses and grow as easy , although they do get flattened by rain etc lol .
You can get 1lb-2lb per sq yd , even more from millets and amaranth .
Mangels , fodder beet even sugar beet , basically all the same thing , produce huge amounts of food for stock .

[goosepimple]

FiB can you possibly give us the video in a few sentences, don't have time to watch that but sounds really interesting, I tend to graze and starve, graze and starve, forget to eat sometimes when I'm outside busy, should probably have more structure really.