Depressing weather forecast

Penny Less

Penny Less

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10 March 2009
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Now youd expect this to be about orrible wet windy weather, but its the forecast for SE england, and long range its going to be DRY. God help us, the grass has gone brown and crunchy and its only spring ! Panicking about hay now, this is the third dry year in the south. Its going to be another hard year for horses, a lot of horses abandoned or pts in our area over the past few months, and its going to get worse. Mother nature seems to be throwing a lot of curve balls lately with the weather, tornados, earthquakes etc. IS THE END OF THE WORLD NIGH!!
 
I'm in Beds/Herts and I would LOVE some wet and windy weather! Our field looks greener just from the rain the other day but we really need some proper wet weather to get the grass to pick up. Not looking forward to the hay issue either!
 
Eh? Did the rain miss you lot then?
Ok....so it's been a bit on the light side, but I KNOW its been raining coz I got caught in out hacking Monday, and its been kind of "drizzly" ever since!
What IS bizzare is that my fields are looking nice and green, but my front lawn looks like I attacked it with a blow torch:confused:
 
This is very strange, My fields and garden are bone dry and we have cracks in ground even with the rain on bank holiday Monday and a storm 2/3 weeks ago. The grass has grown a bit, but not much.
My mum's work takes her all over the south, from Lands End-Dover and south of M4 corridor. She went to see a farmer today in Guildford who said that they hadn't any rain since a storm 2/3 weeks ago.
Bizarre how the rain fall in some parts of the south, but not the others......
I also live on a farm, and was talking to the herdsman today. He was saying that even if we get rain now he can see that food prices for animals and humans will go up even more than last year. I just hope that his glass ball stops giving off a cloudy picture and we do get the much needed rain!
 
It's been chucking it down for far too long in S Wales too! Back to mucker boots last few days. Forecast is warm/hot as we go into the weekend which is just about par for the course because we're off to Malta on Tuesday. Sigh.
 
Decent rainful in Aberdeenshire too, tho the harder grazed areas havent really taken off after the drought earlier in the spring. But the rested fields grass is now knee high (you prob didnt want to know that....).

On the upside for you guys, you have 4 seasons of which 3 might be nice ish at times, whereas we have 2 months of summer and the rest winter with 3 feet of snow and -20 temps :-))
 
I too am getting worried (and I can't believe i'm saying this) about the prospect of all this dry weather, we have had no rain to speak of in South Essex in months. Everywhere is crisp and the dust is blowing around like the sahara dust bowl :( the hay and straw isn't growing so yields will be done again, and the ground is so hard and cracked you can barely trot on it. My first ODE is in July but it looks like I won't be going - far too hard :(

Sorry, rant over!
 
I'm in Guildford and yes it's right we have had no proper rain for a couple of months. Had a heavyish shower last weekend but that's it!!!!!!!! :(.
 
Jeez! Talk about the North/South divide!! :p We had the most amazing April, hot and sunny. May has been a total washout with wind and rain aplenty. Now we are in June it has stopped raining (for the moment) an is warm but cloudy and dull. Let''s face it....we horsey people are never happy. :o
 
So i probably shouldnt mention we are cutting & baling our haylage this week then? We've had plenty of rain & just needed the dry weather weve now got so we can cut & bale :)
 
I'm in Herts too and i'm praying for rain, no it's not pleasant to work in but with the hay shortage (desperate need here!) i was going to turn out the liveries 24/7.....but with barely any grass growing i'm in a quandary!
 
I have been on at the OH for a couple of years to move further north because of cheaper property prices, now its because of the weather! I personally am not a hot weather person even without the grass/hay scenario, would probably cope quite well with the wet and cold. He wont budge though !
 
We had a couple of good old downpours last week, before that, the last decent amount of rain we'd had was back at the beginning of March. At the beginning of this week my field was looking a little bit greener from the recent rain, but it's already dried out completely and is crunchy and brown again.

Not good at all is it :(
 
mattilda said:
Jeez! Talk about the North/South divide!! :p We had the most amazing April, hot and sunny. May has been a total washout with wind and rain aplenty. Now we are in June it has stopped raining (for the moment) an is warm but cloudy and dull. Let''s face it....we horsey people are never happy. :o
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^^^^^This^^^^^ It's been nothing but really BAD wind and rain for ages!! And just like you've said, dry now but dull and grey :( Come on sunshine, we need some of that now! :)

We'll swap with the South for a bit :D
 
Gorgeous George said:
I too am getting worried (and I can't believe i'm saying this) about the prospect of all this dry weather, we have had no rain to speak of in South Essex in months. Everywhere is crisp and the dust is blowing around like the sahara dust bowl :( the hay and straw isn't growing so yields will be done again, and the ground is so hard and cracked you can barely trot on it. My first ODE is in July but it looks like I won't be going - far too hard :(

Sorry, rant over!
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This. Minus the hunter trial bit - not that brave.
 
It is depressing, my fields haven't really recovered from winter, I've never had that happen before. Everywhere is rock hard and dry and I don't even want to garden.
 
It's ridiculous, I have a better tan than I usually have at the end of the summer!
Grazing is really poor. Suppliers warning of haylage shortages, prices rising etc. We seriously need some rain.
 
I'm in the South East, we've had hardly any rain, and yet, for the first time in years, I've got loads of grass. Rosie is fat!

I was in the feed shop the other day and overhead a woman berating the fact that she was having to feed haylage at this time of year and her field is a dustbowl.

On my drive to work, I pass several farms, and they've got good grass growth and have just made a cut (will look tomorrow, see if it's hay or plastic wrapped). It's strange the way some have got loads and some haven't, albeit the same weather.

So don't panic yet!
 
Thinking about it the only 2 times we have had noticeable rain since early March has been when Keysoe have had an ODE on. Roll on 3rd July for the next lot!
 
madhossy said:
I'm in the South East, we've had hardly any rain, and yet, for the first time in years, I've got loads of grass. Rosie is fat!

I was in the feed shop the other day and overhead a woman berating the fact that she was having to feed haylage at this time of year and her field is a dustbowl.

On my drive to work, I pass several farms, and they've got good grass growth and have just made a cut (will look tomorrow, see if it's hay or plastic wrapped). It's strange the way some have got loads and some haven't, albeit the same weather.

So don't panic yet!
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Thats because al lot of people dont have the land to rest it;

I have nearly 6 acres for just two ponies; I only use half an acre from April to October and 2 acres for the winter, the rest gets left for nearly a year then cut for hay, which I use very little of because they live out; my neighbour buys it off me!
 
It's so dry here in Hampshire, it hasn't really rained since Feb. I'm not complaining though, I love it!! I love warm, dry weather I'm really not a person who like the cold.
We have plenty of grass at our yard but with 95 acres between 10 horses we are lucky. My TB has been out since April and he got too fat so he is coming in during the days now.
yesterday was the first day when I thought the grass was starting to look yellow.
The hard ground and soft school is irritating. I've canceled a ODE and a SJ competition that was on grass as I don't want to ruin my horses legs. I also haven't been able to do any canter work as our hacking is over lanes and fields. I miss riding over a sandy common!
I'm not going to lose any sleep over it though, I will just do flatwork comps on grass and jump where there's a surface.
I'm too happy being warm for once! :)
 
AngieandBen said:
Thats because al lot of people dont have the land to rest it;
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True, but even rested land won't recover without rain, parts of my field haven't recovered from winter because the mud went straight to concrete rather than soft fertile ground in Spring which allows new shoots to cover it.
 
Don't worry people, I'm moving back to East Sussex mid-July after 10 years in Spain - it's CERTAIN to rain then lol ;) (hope so anyway because I'm bringing my 2 horses back with me :/ )
 
I've had rain here in Wales but it did no good, my mare and foal think the're living in the Sahara. The mare was eating thistles the other day but she is a little strange. There is a lot of herby stuff to eat but not much in the way of grass and this field is old ley, never topped and has an underground stream feeding it.
 
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