Has anyone made any Hay yet this year

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 4:52 pm

Don't be silly, polled.

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:33 pm

Had a quick look to see if you'd have far to go for your waterbuffalo, Clive, they seem to be all over the place. Couldn't find any polled ones though. Also, apparently WBs carry their calves for 10 months so does that mean crosses will have 9.5 month pregnancies?

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:39 am

none of my nineteen acres cut yet, a neighbour has just round baled eleven acres and put it straight on the midden as it was rotten. I will wait until the elusive dry spell before I cut any. the feed value will be low so it looks as if some bagged feed may be required this winter. I have heard rumours of hay at £5 a bale for winter, so I hope I am able to make mine soon, a huge bill would otherwise result as when housed I expect to use at least five bales a day. I am considering a round baler and rapper for next season.
Martin. Medway Valley Dexters.

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:56 pm

What special variety of grass did you use, Clive? When I was in south Wales I saw a lot of perennial rye looking so lush I almost didn't recognize it! We just came through a record heat wave (over 32'C) and I am enjoying the cloudy weather although it is quite humid. June was quite rainy so first cut hay took a beating. No excuse for good crops of second, third and fourth but the price is up this year to $6.00 for small square bales (second cut) delivered (but not stacked in the barn!).

PS Perennial rye around here usually goes stemmy real quick so now I am sorry I sowed so much. Orchard grass and timothy is hard to establish and keep going so that leaves tall fescue which is quick to flush in the fall and spring. Makes lovely hay. Clover won't dry down in our climate although I suppose it would have in that heat wave!

ann · Post by **ann** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:57 pm

Am I the only one with hay, we made it in early june when there was all that lovely weather and I am now feeding it to my late calvers as its like the lake district here, and they weren't born with their water wings so have got the little darling inside until we dry up!! Its straw we will be worrying about as all the corn around here is not looking to bright.

May be we can start a swop shop.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:23 am

Kathy

The grass we used is called "Haylage Mix" from Oliver Seeds. It's sold as an equine mix especially for making haylage quickly, and cleanly. It lasts 3-4 years and it's OK for grazing after cutting. It is high in diploid grasses for rapid drying.

This is the make-up of a 14kg bag:
3.0 LOFA Festulolium
4.0 LIGUNDA Italian Ryegrass
4.0 PREMIUM Intermediate Perennial Ryegrass
3.0 CITELIAC Hybrid Ryegrass (T)

It doesn't go really stemmy if left too late like some high performing mixtures and the haylage is exceptional (it's for the horse market). Hay made from it is almost white and the animals will eat it in preference to anythng else they are offered, whether hay or haylage.

We have found it quite fussy. If it doesn't look quite right you have to do something. This year it was looking slightly yellow so we put a little nitrogen on it. Where it had nitro it was great, where it didn't it was distressed.

It can be found on the web at Olver Seeds Haylage Grass.

kenseypark · Post by **kenseypark** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:02 pm

Hi Carole, we're also East Cornwall, Launceston, and as yet not made any hay (for my horses). We did manage to make haylage 2 weekends ago but it got rained on a fair bit, even though the weather forecast was supposed to be dry for the Sat/Sun. It finally got baled and wrapped on the Wednesday and the big tractors that came have 'wrecked' the field. Not quite the words my husband used but you get what i mean. We've got straw in though, really nice straw.

Post by **Mark Bowles** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:38 pm

Fodder update!....
I cut 7 acres on Saturday, a nice day with good drying sunny intervals. The forcast for sunday was rain about teatime so i thought i could nip in and get baled and wrapped before it came. That turned a bit pear shaped when i was awoken on sunday morning at 5am with rain hitting the bedroom skylight, where did that come from, checked the weather sites at 5.30am and they had seemed to have had a "change of mind". It rained on and off all day, overcast but not heavy rain. Monday came and the forecast was good again with clear periods all day and no rain. Baler to come at 5pm. Looking good. Baler turned up at 6.00pm started baling, did 35 x 5 foot square bales then the thunderstorm hit, what a mess, baler picked up the sodden fodder to do 21 more bales, of which we promptly wrapped. The last bale in the chamber before it was pushed thru was leaking water by the bucket load. The field looks a mess, bales still there as we cant get off with the trailer for fear of getting stuck, plus i am wondering if the poor Case 84hp tractor can lift the bales that weigh twice as much as they should.
The contractor said they should be ok and not spoilt, more like silage i think!! May have to feed a bit of straw with it to dry the dexters up a bit, internally and externally.
I was so close to getting it right, if only the contractor had turned up on time..........and the weather forcasters knew what they were doing.
Rant over.
Happy days, 21 more acres to do.
Mark

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:57 pm

Sorry about your problems Mark. I would love to know why the weather forecasters give 5 day forecasts -then change them every few hours, enough to drive people to drink (or suicide) who try to rely on them. I wonder if a barometer is any better, the chap who turns and wraps for us swears by his.

happy hollidays · Post by **happy hollidays** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:47 pm

Funny you should mention the barometer, we have been using ours a lot in the last few weeks and it is certainly more reliable than anything else ! All the money that is spent by the forecasters and it is still wrong! I have managed my washing line by it perfectly. Luckily my hay was brought in having been cut in early June as the farmer has been doing for several years now, says its more reliable in our area.

413rhino · Post by **413rhino** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:01 pm

Nothing cut yet. I've got an inch of water over large areas, I've just rented a small area with hard standing to house cattle and pigs till it dries off. At the moment it's throwing it down again with strong winds and I've got 2 new calves and 7 new piglets out in it. Oh well tomorrow's another day...

Harriet Bunning · Post by **Harriet Bunning** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:37 pm

nothing cut here yet either. And an added problem I'm now finding is running out of grass in the grazing fields - as normally by now my herd would be getting the aftermath in the hay fields. Running out of grass in this weather??! ???

Harriet Bunning · Post by **Harriet Bunning** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:38 pm

(just realised I've posted under my daughter's name - she's actually off for the summer in Madagascar - lemur spotting - and I'm left holding the fort)

-Alison

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 4:21 am

I bet horse hay in small bales reaches £10 a bale this year. And a lot of that may be last years. We've stopped selling ours and are keeping what we've got, after working hard to get customers!

carole · Post by **carole** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:12 pm

As we started the thread, just to keep folks up to date on progress. AS we are in East Cornwall we have not had the torrential rains of the last few days and have now round baled all of our first cut and one field was even dry when cut turned and baled.

Like you Clive I have a feeling that baled hay will be at a premimum even though we have had a very heavy crop. To me it will depend upon how much of various counties finish with ruined crops and what the remainder of the "summer" will bring.

Carole.