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VSS

hay??

has anyone been able to make hay this year?

We have 6 acres to mow and simply have not had a suitable window of weather to do it.

Beginning to think we will have to try and graze it and then top.

www.viableselfsufficiency.co.uk
Cathryn

I am quite worried here as no-one in this area has been able to make anything decent. My neighbour was hoping to this week and then deliver my usual amount - but it has just started to rain heavily. What has been made is really dreadful quality and going black already because it all had to be baled so quickly.
Nanny

we hav emore than 6 acres here - enough we have been told to make 800 bales bur can't find anybody who will come and do it for us

it is so very frustrtating....

all the farmers with equipment are busy on their own land and those that contract out are all busy on the pipeline...

hay this year is going to be very expensive i am afraid

next year we hope to have a tractor and our own equipment so that at leat we won't be waiting for someone else....
Cho-ku-ri

Have managed mine now, but cheated. I got a farmer to big round bale it. It should be safe to 'cure' in the orchard now, and I shall roll them under cover on a dry day. I think the nutritious value will be low, but that does not matter with my two 'good-doers' but I shall add pony nuts and a forage balancer this winter. I hope it will not be dusty hay.
Bebo

Been dry for nearly two weeks around here and it seems that everyone has been frantically working to get the hay in. We don't have enough land for hay ourselves, but our neighbour reckons he's managed to bale more than he'll need for the winter.
Rob R

Perfect fortnight of weather here, ended by a some rain overnight, just after finishing 83 bales of very nice stuff.
Calli

Been a terrible summer over here. Its been too wet even for silage - the bales are just too heavy for the tractors( still small scale fields and tractors here)
Prices and availabilty is going to be worrying this winter.
tahir

Our Rich has been haymaking as weather permits for 4 weeks or so, not doing too bad as far as I know
Mary-Jane

We've given up on the idea of getting any silage off our paddocks this year for the first time. The weather, coupled with over-stocking this year has meant it's simply not worth the time, effort and financial outlay. So we've kept ours topped and we're just going to buy in silage this winter. At least we'll know where we are financially.
vanessa

It's been a dreadful year for hay in France too. By the time they started cutting the first lot, they'd normally have done two cuts. the quality is very poor, as it had been "standing" too long before they could cut it - very low nutritional value. It is certainly going to be an expensive winter!
Nanny

the longer it goes on before we can get anybody the less likely it is that we will have any at all

we have had some on order for about a week and it hasn't showed up

only about 10 bales left at the moment

only 800 sitting in the field
tahir

tahir wrote:
Our Rich has been haymaking as weather permits for 4 weeks or so, not doing too bad as far as I know


Spoke to him this evening, jhe reckons he's only done half of last years total, only got 16 acres to go. Not happy
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