Hay making

Excuse my asking but why can't you store round bale hay outside? If it is net wrapped and sat on a pallet you won't lose much as the top acts like thatch. I keep some outside every winter. I used to peel off the "spoilt" stuff until I noticed the ponies picking their way through it eating a surprising amount. They'll even eat some of the black stuff! Strange animals.
 
I could store round bale hay outside but no point - if I have enough good weather to get hay I will have small bale and can then sell some to make the money back - I can store small bale inside too and move it myself rather than having to get farmer to stack it and to clog up yard with it.

forgot again to do the sun dance though whilst at field .... its hammering down here at the moment !
 
amandaco2 said:
I am also dancing for at least a good week of it as I really really want mine cut...its seeded an almost looks like hay already....will this equate to high fibre hay?
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Yes in relative terms tho it also depends on the type of grass - if it is a sown ryegrass it will always be higher in energy than meadow species like timothy.To be both high fibre and low sugar you really want late cut timothy hay not early cut ryegrass (the latter stores quite a lot of sugars which carry on curing once baled, which is why it is a higher risk of heating/setting alight if stored even slightly higher moisture whereas meadow hay even quite greenish looking tends to cause fewer problems). Do you know if the field is mainly ryegrass or if its a wild meadow-y mixture of all sorts?
 
Mine all turned and lined up ready to bale tomorrow. Will bale and wrap 60-70 for haylage, and if the weather holds the rest will be left an extra day for hay. Expecting 100 ish off the whole field.

Not bad for just over 7 acres :) Happy horses this winter.
 
dissapointingly mine was ready back when the weather broke the first time some time end may/june :( but couldnt get someone to bale and wrap it !!

then all the lovely weather we had for the next 2 months has made it flatten - but its on its way back up again and flowering at the moment, so hope to have a good 4-5 days in around 1-2 weeks time to get it cut and made into hayledge. i've got a 1.5 acre field and a 5 acre field needing to be done but looks really thick again this year, usually get 30 bales of 4ft hayledge bales off the 1.5 acre field so hope this year will match it, local hay man got an extra 300 bales over his normal amount last couple of weeks, he said yields are up 30% this year so hopefully there should be plenty around for the winter if i run out ???

think we all need to do a sunny weather dance to make sure we get it all in
 
Mine hadn't gone flat...yet.
We've got lots of rain though,its a pain...
Hmm I will have to check the type of grass as I'm not sure....will be good if it works out as v fiberous!!! Mine all good doers....
 
Horse hay is done, altho the small baler broke and the weather was just about to so unfortunately most of it is round bales (thankyou neighbour farmer for rescuing us and hoovering up the field of rowed up hay in about 30 minutes :-)))) so only 6 are inside the wee barn with the 30 odd small bales we did get in, the rest of the round bales (6) are outside - so I will let you know if netwrapped round bales are any good!

Still have 150-200 small bales of sheep hay to make (once we mend the small baler....) - will be happy once thats done as its making our own hay for the sheep that makes their economics stack up well.
 
finally got it all done :D had to go with large round wrapped bales though so not all good, it took around 5 phone calls to get someone to do it, the usual contactor didnt have any capacity to fit me in. now i will have to manage the unwrapping during the winter which should be fun ! just hope it 'cooks' well now its wrapped.

hope eveyone else has managed to get some in this week, the weather has at least been on our side for once :)
 
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