Has anyone made any hay?

The farmer where I keep one of my horses has cut and baled and was putting it in the barn this evening. That yard there is grass albeit poor in the fields but at the other yard we’re having to feed loads of hay as there is nothing in their current paddock.
 
Still waiting for the farmer to come and cut ours - think he must be busy as everyone wants it doing! It was meant to be last week but they said they thought it was going to rain so moved it to this week and haven’t heard anything yet… in hindsight I think it would have been fine this week but there is some rain forecast for this week now so I’m not sure what’s happening. 🙈
 
Our hayfields cut a week ago yielded 23 bales ( large rectangles) and last year around 140 from 2 cuts. We re hoping for a late cut..just need regular rain to boost grass growth.
 
OH and the farmer he works for got 40 round bales and 520 conventional from one field yesterday. All brought under cover - barn stacking today in between rain showers. They've got about another 35 acres to do for hay.

OH didn't get in until after 9.30 last night and the farmer friend he helps has his b'day today and he's going to be 78. OH is also well into retirement. People like this farmer don't deserve the worry and hit of the farm inheritance tax.

The yield yesterday was higher than they were expecting so the odd bit of rain we've had has obviously helped. Previous fields they'd already done only had a yield of about 65% of normal.

East surrey near Gatwick.
 
I drove past our hay field this morning, it's been cut (and lightly rained on 🙄) there didn't look to be a lot laid on the ground, which is shame as its a pretty wet field so should have been OK in this dry weather.
Will report back when it's baled
 
Previous years we've made enough hay to do our horses for the year but this year I'm having to buy in hay to feed in the fields now and half our hay for the winter. Our yield was about 50% of what we normally get. Hoping we get some rain soon so that we get some good grass before winter.
 
Our hay field yield was 46 good round bales all made in three days before the rain came as everything so dry. However last year we had 90 off that field. Good job we still have plenty of that to go at.
 
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We have 1 field that looks pretty good & 1 that's definitely lacking in height, but still workable. Sadly our bigger problem at is no-one seems to want to cut/bale it for us. We lost our regular guy a couple of years ago as he was struggling to fit us in as he'd taken on extra land closer to home & have yet to secure a new regular for our small (10acres) acreage. It's so disheartening seeing a lovely crop & no idea how to get it into the barn 🙁
 
We have invested in our own equipment. We have the full caboodle for making small bales, but as we aged are now onto big rounds. We still cut and turn the grass, row it up and get a contractor to come and bale.

We really ought to sell the small baler, sledge and flat 8 grab as they will never be used again by us.
 
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rabatsa said:
We have invested in our own equipment. We have the full caboodle for making small bales, but as we aged are now onto big rounds. We still cut and turn the grass, row it up and get a contractor to come and bale.

We really ought to sell the small baler, sledge and flat 8 grab as they will never be used again by us.
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If your baler’s in good working order, there’s likely a decent market with smallholder / horse keepers. There is a magazine called something like ‘Smallholding’, with classifieds.
We’ve been to several farm sales where there seemed to be keen interest for exactly that. But that sort of situation doesn’t often have much room to store tackle, so the flat eight maybe less so.
Tbh, most people as they get older would prefer to handle little bales!
 
Exasperated said:
If your baler’s in good working order, there’s likely a decent market with smallholder / horse keepers. There is a magazine called something like ‘Smallholding’, with classifieds.
We’ve been to several farm sales where there seemed to be keen interest for exactly that. But that sort of situation doesn’t often have much room to store tackle, so the flat eight maybe less so.
Tbh, most people as they get older would prefer to handle little bales!
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We keep meaning to get it out, put a few bales through it to shine it up and put it in York Machinery sale. However transporting it there keeps stopping us. Being cautious and not wanting everyone and his dog coming for a snoop round has put us off advertising it.

If all the bales can be handled from a tractor seat, then large bales are a lot easier for those of us drawing our pensions.
 
rabatsa said:
We keep meaning to get it out, put a few bales through it to shine it up and put it in York Machinery sale. However transporting it there keeps stopping us. Being cautious and not wanting everyone and his dog coming for a snoop round has put us off advertising it.

If all the bales can be handled from a tractor seat, then large bales are a lot easier for those of us drawing our pensions.
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I’m sure it will sell. Almost tempted myself, discovered my nicely tedded hay fields bare - oblivious nephew been round with the bloody forager! Cut him out the Will.....
I meant subsequent handling for use, not fetching and stacking, for us pensioners!
 
rabatsa said:
We have invested in our own equipment. We have the full caboodle for making small bales, but as we aged are now onto big rounds. We still cut and turn the grass, row it up and get a contractor to come and bale.

We really ought to sell the small baler, sledge and flat 8 grab as they will never be used again by us.
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We used to make our own small bales too but are past it nowadays. Our lovely neighbour makes us round bales and we lead them in with our own big flat trailer so much easier. Also if it rains after baling they don’t suffer
 
Speaking to a local contractor, he said he'd just got 100 big wrapped bales of silage off a client's fields. Last year, same fields, he got 700.
My hay man said his straw crop is about 30% down (it's30% shorter than last year) He won't do small bakes of hay any more as it's not cost effective for him- too much handling for what he can charge for them.

He also said that local dairy farms had forward-bought all the silage he can make this year.

I've just booked my hay and straw from him for the next year - luckily fewer horses than in previous years, so it won't test his resources too much.
 
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Speaking to a local contractor, he said he'd just got 100 big wrapped bales of silage off a client's fields. Last year, same fields, he got 700.
My hay man said his straw crop is about 30% down (it's30% shorter than last year) He won't do small bakes of hay any more as it's not cost effective for him- too much handling for what he can charge for them.

He also said that local dairy farms had forward-bought all the silage he can make this year.

I've just booked my hay and straw from him for the next year - luckily fewer horses than in previous years, so it won't test his resources too much.


Eta in Shropshire
 
We've finished. There's a 10 acre field that on a good year we have 1100/1200 bales off, on a bad year 600 odd, we have had as little as 400 odd. This year only 200 odd! We have only 40% of our usual amount so we'll have to let some customers go. Hay will be expensive this year.
 
Just had ours delivered, 31 round bales from just under 8 acres, had worse and had better so I'm happy
Farmer said one of his own fields only made 14bales from 23 acres!
 
Just had ours delivered, 31 round bales from just under 8 acres, had worse and had better so I'm happy
Sorry, bloomin forum what's its playing at
 
Starting to think investing in our own gear might be our only option, but barely have time to fit in everyday life so would have preferred to stick with a contractor. We are also not from any sort of farming background, so will probably endup as a giant disaster 😂
How easily does having someone coming in to just bale for you work? For some reason the balers terrify me!
 
I buy in as don’t have quite enough land to warrant someone coming to cut it.

I had it delivered 10 days ago and had ordered 110 small bales, farmer cuts small to order but otherwise big bales.

I only had space for 70 (had some of last years still in store) as I’d underestimated what I’d use before getting this years in, but I’ve crammed the lot in as I’m expecting there to be shortages and I was amazed he’d not upped his price.

Farmer was telling me he’s about a third down on what he’d normally make overall.
 
We only have 3 acres and usually rotate through all 3 of the 1 acre paddocks. Now my mare has been diagnosed EMS all 3 horses are on a track round one paddock off the yard and on full time hay only, which is a pain. However, it's meant we can make hay off one of our well rested acre paddocks for the first time since we've been here (10 yrs)- 75 small bales, cut and baled last wk. Small potatoes to most of you but to me it's something I never thought I'd do in my life, and very satisfying.
 
The dry spell’s hitting hard most of southern and eastern England are in the same boat, with very little hay cut in May. Some western and northern areas (Wales, parts of Yorkshire, Cumbria) have managed a first cut thanks to more rain, but yields are patchy. If this keeps up, straw and hay will be tight, and feed costs could spike. Farmers are holding off panic for now, but another dry month would tip it. Might be worth looking into alternative forages early if your ground’s parched. Fingers crossed for a break in the weather.
 
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