Now no grass - and no rain

Bosworth

Bosworth

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Joined
10 February 2006
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Location
devon
www.ballhillequestrian.co.uk
anyone else starting to struggle for grass? We have had no rain for ages and the fields are definitely short on grass. I was chatting with my contractor yesterday and we have had to make the decision to take whatever haylage we can off the fields as it is starting to burn off. IT is clearly going to be a low yield compared with the last couple of years and having phoned around a couple of farmers it appears that the cost of hay is going through the roof. I have just been quoted £4.00 a bale - small bale - of fthe field. it is in seriously short supply as the grass just stopped growing as no rain. And the other fields ( our summer grazing) are now down to nothing. I don't want to whinge about the weather but we really do need some rain soon or the cost of livery is going to have to go up by quite a bit to cover the high hay costs.
 
Yes, same position up here .... we have been warned of a hosepipe ban here.

I was talking to the farmer yesterday, he cut, baled and brought in some of his haylage this week. He'd normally expect 140 bales off the fields he did, he got 90 :(.
He has also had people ringing him for straw, he doesn't grow that though.

He's warned of a hard, financially speaking, winter to come.
 
someone i our village usualy has 700 small bales supplier only promised him 200 asked if we could supply him, not a chance supply regular customers at a pinch, so see more horses on market as owners realise hay and straw in short and dearer supply.
 
Its ironic. up where we are (NE Scotland) the farmers have been able to take hay and haylage/silage off this week, whereas last year they were cutting it in September as ther weather was so rubbish all summer.

So you might find that hay is available from the far reaches of the north, but the haulage will keep the costs up.

The grass here is waist height.....sorry :-O, we used to be in the Home Counties so know what its like trying to find decent stuff...Lots of farmers are now using it themselves as part of the cattle ration or ploughing it in as fertiliser is so expensive.
 
Our haylage was cut and baled this week (south Gloucestershire)...I don't know if they've finished but to me it looks like a lot less bales stacked. There may be still more to come back from the fields though I don't know.
 
No grass where I am either :-( Am having to feed haylage in the field am and pm. My winter paddock which I leave all summer has a rubbish amount of growth too. Eeek!
 
I think I might be the opposite of some of you, my field had such good grass this spring all mine are now on diets and are fenced away form the lush stuff. We have had no rain for a while and the growth is slowing down now, and to be honest I do not use all that much hay over winter as the horses go in big rested fields during the winter and apart from a bucket a day hold their weight well.
My mare who is due to foal soon will be the exception this year as I plan to leave her foal with her untill next spring she will be the only one recieving large amounts of hay this winter. The others are natives and require very little feed and only had hay when there was snow on the ground, and they still came through winter on the porky side.
 
Long range weather forecast is for a wash out in July and august - so grass will grow and the second cut haylage should be in plentiful supply. We get this panic every year - it's just usually for the opposite reason... too wet, couldn't get machinery on the fields, so couldn't even cut let along bale. This happened the last couple of years up here but strangely there has never been a shortage despite the doom and gloom from the farmers each year
 
Hmm, some of my paddocks are fairly decent, some desperate for rain.
As to the hay - we have just brought in the first 6 acres of small bales, we managed a pathetic 40 bales per acre:( Another 7 acres is not looking much better I'm afraid...
If we don't get a decent second cut, we'll be in serious trouble.
 
I'm not at the point of having to put hay out....but my grazing is becoming decidedly pale and crispy....

Never thought I would be praying for rain......its my first summer of having my own place so I have become somewhat obsessional about grass:D
 
My 4 acre riverside paddock has lovely grass but the other 10 acres are burnt and crispy. My haylage supplier has had 30% less bales per field than last year- i am grateful he has only put it up £2 a huge bale.I am hoping to get some hay off the neighbours field tonight as they are due to bale it today but i have no idea how much they will want for it- we dont know what baler will come - it could be round/heston or small bales.. I have heard others being quoted £3-6 a bale off the field around here :eek: Bucks/Oxon borders
 
Ours are pretty good atm, we are leaving about 4 acres to rest for the entire summer, and hasn't been grazed now for 2 months - that is looking pretty good. The remaining 8 acres have a reasonable covering and still very green. The horses also have a very good covering atm! :D
 
I have grass in half the field and am also feeding some hay at the moment just to give them something to pick at under the trees where they are spending time in this heat.

Our hay man has increased his charges from

£5 - 6 for hay
£3 - 4 for straw and
£27.50 - 40 for big bale haylege

:(
 
No shortage of grazing here. I've got a field full of waist high green grass that I can't let either of mine have. I am struggling to find someone with a small baler to cut it though.

I spoke to a friend who used to do a lot of local baling and he says that most are short of grass and worrying about it, but even with the prices going up he says it's not worth his while time wise for what it earns him.
 
Ooops not to rub it in...sorry but I have loads of grass was even going to cut my field for hay as had too much and have been offered hay for £1.75 off the field
 
We're feeding hay, we've grazed the bottom of the top field (normally cut for hay), and the bottom field has less than usual - baling this afternoon, usually get over 100 bales. Over the road we cut 2 acres of poor, well drained land, usually get 20-30 bales or so as it's that poor, this year there is NOTHING so much so that if it wasn't for the fact there's no fencing you could happily graze a fat laminitic native :( - there's just dried up nothing!

I'm sure we've only had 2 days of rain in 6-8 weeks.
 
I am amazed at how green my fields are, given how little rain we've had! I think it helps that they were fetilized at spot on the right time, for the weather than followed - mid April.

I've just phone another baler to be told they probably won't have the time to cut my field :( So frustrating when I've all this lovely grass ready for perfect hay! Especially as I now have a cushinoid, so I have to hay feed all year round, and can't let her at the nice grass :(
 
My field is looking green still but i think we have had a little more rain than other places and our field is on like a mini b=valley so when it does rain it runs across the field :)
Hay for our yard is looking ok but we ran out last year - they have cut and baled it already - did it last week....but they have been back out with the tractor up to something again so it wouldn't surprise me if they are helping it along a little to get another load off it before weather gives up!
Def not needing hay in the fields - never had to do that until winter!
 
We're fortunate to have too much grass at the moment that Y/O is actually thinking of taking a cut of one of the fields if she can.

The grass is drying out though and I'd like a day or two of rain soon!
 
Just to make you lot feel worse - our fields are looking pretty good. I spent all winter panicking that I didn't have enough grass, and then the grass in the main field grew so much that we cut hay off it! It is less than we usually would have, but the 2 youngsters had been a large section of it, and we didn't really do our usual prep of the ground and grass to cut hay, as we didn't intend to!

3 of my 4 are now all so fat they are off the grass entirely, so I suspect there will be a tonne of grass out there again very soon.
 
Our summer grazing is turning to dust - we really need some rain. Its lucky for us as our porker of a dartmoor is beginning to slim down but people with horses that do less well were alarmed at their weight loss, so the YO is feeding in the fields as well. :( Can't believe I would ever be so delighted to see a forecast for rain!
 
Fields are still good, although very hard and dry, but plenty of grass.

However, we have just bought the hay off of our hayfield. Last year we got 487 bales, this year 226. This is a field kept purely for hay and hayed once a year. Not good at all.
 
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