Good Weather approaching, do I ?

meesha

meesha

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So the ? is, we have a good day today (bit overcast) then 3 days of good weather with rain forecast to come back in on Sunday and rain forecast every day thereafter for the forseeable future.

Do I say to my contractor cut tomorrow and then hope the weather holds out to be able to make hay and if not he will do it as haylage or..... do I hold out for another good bit of weather.... if anyone has any insider info into the wonders of the weather forecast please tell me!! are we going to get a clear 5 days sunny spell anytime soon in Somerset ?

I am desperate to get horses onto the hay field to rest their current paddock so really cant wait until late September to cut !.

I know alot of people are in the same situation ....
 
I am trying to decide this myself. We have three good days forecast but if it rains too soon we lose the crop. I don't know what to do either!
 
Same here, my friend who is cutting my hay not keen to do it, and the feild behind (rapeseed) is being harvested in the next few days so they will either squish a track of my hay or squish cut hay, most annoying :(

If it were me doing it would cut it tonight & hope!
 
The guy over the back from me is cutting as we speak.. I did mine successfully 10-11 days ago now for hay..

Good luck!!
 
I've been waiting for the bloke to cut mine since 2pm. I do not come high on his list of priorities and today is our county show, so I suspect he's in the beer tent. I have just sent someone to look for him. Judging by the long range this could be our last chance anyway, so if I have to go out there with my nail scissors, that grass is going down today!!
 
Nailscissors ! are you mad ! do the job properly - I am going to use a pair of first aid scissors - the jagged ones - thats what I cut my hair with so I am sure they will do the job !!!!!

Good luck to everyone x I will do another sun dance tonight as I would like a few more clear days so I can have hay not haylage but that looks unlikely here !
 
How many days do we need to dry haylage anyway? My contractor seems to think that two days will be ok. We will have to bale on Sat morning as the rain is coming in the afternoon and I just don't know if it's enough time and if I should take the plunge. I don't want to lose my crop but I don't want to wait around forever. Don't know what to do
 
Alphamare said:
How many days do we need to dry haylage anyway? My contractor seems to think that two days will be ok. We will have to bale on Sat morning as the rain is coming in the afternoon and I just don't know if it's enough time and if I should take the plunge. I don't want to lose my crop but I don't want to wait around forever. Don't know what to do
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Ideally I like to get mine as near to hay as possible before baling and wrapping, but there have been years where it's been down 24 hours and I've had to bale it - tbh it has always been grand and the horses don't seem to care. Our weather here is so erratic that I've stopped obsessing about it in the way I used to - whatever happens, we get it made somehow! Two days will be fine.
 
We are also in the same dilemma. Ours has grown so tall it flopped over a few weeks ago which isn’t good, and means it’s still quite damp even though we’ve had no rain today (it rained yesterday).

The forecast shows good weather now until Saturday night, so if it was cut tomorrow it would have to be baled at the latest on Saturday, which isn't long for it to dry.

I just don't know...I'm gutted we missed the hot and dry week we had a fortnight ago - but we were too far down the contractor's priorities to be cut then :(
 
Well my contractor has decided the soonest he can come is tomorrow evening and wants to bale it on Friday evening. How exactly is that enough time!! This is just so stressful. This 'summer' is just so depressing!
 
Just waiting to hear back from my guy. Hopefully cutti.g tomorrow, mine is same, all led on ground dry on top but won't dry underneath till cut! Hay looks extremely unlikely so hoping for good haylage. Ps for turning maybe a kitchen fork !
 
Glad to report that the nail scissors will not be required, all down and much more of it than I thought when it was upright, and now I will not be watching the weather forecasts because what's done is done and they are never right anyway :rolleyes: Whatever happens now it will be baled Saturday (or Friday night if I lose my bottle) and I'm sure it'll be grand :D

Good luck everyone!!! [toddles off to open the wine]
 
Meesha we've got exactly the same dilemma...also in Somerset....also got horses on a near bare paddock and need to move them onto the hay field....wonder if we've got the same contractor too. Stressful isn't it> More nail biting than watching the show jumping!
 
gala said:
Meesha we've got exactly the same dilemma...also in Somerset....also got horses on a near bare paddock and need to move them onto the hay field....wonder if we've got the same contractor too. Stressful isn't it> More nail biting than watching the show jumping!
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I know what you mean, am having to feed my yearling hay so her field is bare! Soon as hay is off have 7 acres she can stuff herself on but who knows when she will get to go on it!

Hoping mine gets cut tomorrow eve, really want hay but at the moment would settle for anything thats good quality :(
 
ElleSkywalker said:
I know what you mean, am having to feed my yearling hay so her field is bare! Soon as hay is off have 7 acres she can stuff herself on but who knows when she will get to go on it!

Hoping mine gets cut tomorrow eve, really want hay but at the moment would settle for anything thats good quality :(
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LOL I know what you mean...ANYTHING will do now (within reason). My lot, 4 of them, have resorted to stripping all the hedges bare and there's no last year's hay to be had in the area for love nor money. I've been trying to graze the horses in hand on the edge of the hayfield, one at a time, but it's not an ideal scenario. On the other hand the smallest of the herd, my Exmoor of previously hippo-type proportion, is looking wonderfully slender and svelte like for once.
 
Meesha, it looks like we have rain in the SW on Sunday. If your man can cut today it can be done, but it would need to be turned at least twice a day, will he do that for you? It's such a dilemma. When we cut ours during that last good spell, the forecast was a bit iffy after the 3rd day, but I took the chance and fortunately we didn't get any rain. It's a worry, but good luck.
 
There was a thread about drama on here - this is just about as dramatic as my life gets !! I am hoping haylage should be fine if we cut Thur turn Fri and Sat then bale later on Sat - does it need to be turned twice a day for haylage ? he may do it - not sure.
 
We're in Somerset and we cut during the last dry spell. Due to the poor contractor's bereavement, two tractors being out of action and the turning thing breaking, it was a real skin of the teeth thing but we got it made and in, just. I was worried sick because the grass was flat and was starting to look rough round the base. The bits at the edges, which were missed, have now started to rot so I don't think we could have left it muvvh longer.
At the time, a farmer friend told me not to worry as we would have another dry spell in a fortnight- well, this is it, so I would say make your hay now if you can as she reckons we'll have a horrible week next week.
We cut a small section on Wednesday before the machine broke. Most was cut very late on the Thursday, turned twice on Friday (which was an extremely hot day althoughh there was a very damp mist until mid morning and I suspect it drizzled in the night), turned again on Saturday morning (again very hot) and baled on Saturday afternoon. It bucketed down all day on Sunday. Out of an 1.6 acres we made 129 smallish hay bales (but very heavy, could barely lift them) and 50 bales of haylage, from the slightly less dried bales around the edges. Would have got another 50 or so if the bales had been a bit smaller and the cutting machine had cut closer and hadn't broken down.
Around two weeks on and the hay is great, much nicer than last years and very sweet and 'fresh'. The short drying time doesn't seem to have hurt it and a couple of farmers have agreed that it's good quality. I say go for it tonight if you can, if not, first thing tomorrow.
 
meesha said:
There was a thread about drama on here - this is just about as dramatic as my life gets !! I am hoping haylage should be fine if we cut Thur turn Fri and Sat then bale later on Sat - does it need to be turned twice a day for haylage ? he may do it - not sure.
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You'll be absolutely fine and no it doesn't need turning twice a day for haylage. We don't turn ours at all, it's cut and spread and left, then rowed up and baled (big round bales) - I've been making it for years, I have given up having dramas about it, it always comes good, sometimes fantastic, and all the local silage boys like to come and see it when I start using it later in the year :D They used to think I was clueless but I've won them round ;):D
 
ha ! northern monkeys ! you secretly have better weather than us ! I knew it all along ! hammererd down with rain here in Somerset yesterday !
 
Ours was cut this morning for hay. Our weather forcast looks clear to sunday which is when it is getting baled and then it will be all hands to the deck to try and get the hay indoors before it rains again!
 
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