We have hay :) always a great feeling

Fiona

Fiona

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 July 2001
Messages
10,150
Location
N. Ireland
Visit site
After some not very summer like weather in july, we had a wee chink of a few days over last weekend, and I'm so relieved that as I type my favourite farmer is filling our barn with small bales of hay :)

Seemingly he asked someone else to bale it and they aren't v even but I don't care as it doesn't need moved again.

Last year we didn't order enough and had to finish with some big bales opened up and rebaled into small, so hopefully 120 ish bales will keep us going this time.

Might have G&T later to celebrate with hubby :)

Fiona
 
Great news :) I have just secured five 5ft rounds, lovely stuff :) ready to go in my barn when I've built it. We were going to cut hay from our fields, but they are so full of crap weeds its not worth it for a few years until I've sorted the land out.

Very pleased for you! Enjoy that GT.
 
Well done Fiona, have a large G&T! I'm in the odd position of watching someone else bale my formerly owned fields and having to buy some in for the winter. More expensive but a heck of a lot less stressful than the last 24 years!
 
Last edited:
Aw it is such a relief to have hay in the shed. At my livery we have one too many horses (umm.. Yeah well that might be my fault, lol) and the hay shed is super cramped. I have the lion share of 3 pallets and after being on my yard for the best part of six years I've been able to secure the roomiest spot for the hay. I can only really have 30-40 bales at a time so I have to buy throughout the year. One of the liveries whipped me up into a panic saying that nobody she knew had hay and she was lucky to scrimp 5 bales from someone. I only had about 5 at the time so I got on the phone to my regular supplier who made out he had none - needed what he did have was for his cattle. It was almost a blessing though as I hate his hay anyway - always baled unevenly and break apart and there is sometimes sticks in it... So I had to rally round in a frenzy getting numbers of possible suppliers. I phoned a couple who said they had none, but then got the number of a lovely lady with meadow hay. Horses love it - especially the fussy TB (partially due to dental issues I'm having fixed soon! :) ) and it is such nice quality. Turns out she has heaps of the stuff too and she's put me away a years supply - promised to keep it bless her. So I'm happy on the hay front!!
 
Haz when I was on diy I had a lovely supplier like that, as I only had room fot 25 at a time. Well done :)

All new for you this year Llanali :) Well done for making new contacts :) We have no space for big ones, nor machinery to move them :)

What a strange feeling Rowreach. But definitely less stressful x Have you rented out your fields this year?

Well latest count is 175 :) and the baling isn't as bad as I thought. Just some big and some small. The helper oiled the length gauge seemingly and it jumped about lol...

Fiona
 
Nope, sold the farm but staying on in the house while the "new" one is being renovated. The new owner is lovely and has lots of plans, and it is great not having to stress about everything (well I have new things to stress about now, but a change is as good as a rest!). I will be having a tackroom clearout soon btw! :)
 
My goodness no wonder you can get away on holiday. . A new chapter indeed x x

Let me know when you start mucking out the tackroom :) and ill make sure hubby heads down the road..

Fiona
 
175 bales- wow! Bet it looks fab haha. I'm really happy to have them too - makes life much easier. Jealous of all of you that can get away with round bales - I was offered too for free (!!) and I couldn't take them because I just had nowhere to put them - they did however give me a big bag of as much as they could stuff in there which was nice. :)
 
Fiona said:
My goodness no wonder you can get away on holiday. . A new chapter indeed x x

Let me know when you start mucking out the tackroom :) and ill make sure hubby heads down the road..

Fiona
Click to expand...

Will do, there's loads of stuff wanting a new home. And yes, I'm looking forward to a bit of freedom :D
 
Its amazing. Right up to the roof. The cats will be disgusted lol...

Big bales are cheaper but I still like little ones :) Maybe if I'd a massive farmyard and a tractor it would be different though the one year we had to use big bale haylage my mares didn't do well at all on it even though it was relatively dry looking :(
Fiona
 
We had a complete disaster - bailed our neighbour's 'front lawn' and then the bailer broke, a pin sheared so it won't pick up the hay, so we spent most of Sunday evening hand forking our fields (a better crop as we fertilise) into the bailer, while storm clouds floated overhead. Not as efficient, and very hard work.
 
Dubsie - but think of the calories you burnt! You can eat neat chocolate for a fortnight I should think.

I won't have any horses this winter, for the first time in my life, so someone else is making and taking our hay. OH is pleased as it might actually make money this year, rather than costing it, but it is odd and sad. I still have horses at the moment, until autumn.
 
No, they will both be PTS. Both a bit lame, neither rideable, both have had a great retirement.
 
So have we - first 3 tonnes just arrived and we have another 6 to come straight off the field. It's gorgeous stuff too and only found one wet bale.
 
CarolineJ said:
Mine's on the ground, planning to start turning Thursday and bale Friday, weather permitting - fingers are very firmly crossed that the gap we have in the weather for those two days holds!!
Click to expand...

Good luck Caroline. ..

I hope you haven't had the rain we had all evening (we were at pony club :( ) torrential :(

Fiona
 
Fiona said:
Good luck Caroline. ..

I hope you haven't had the rain we had all evening (we were at pony club :( ) torrential :(

Fiona
Click to expand...

It's still on the ground unturned - and we have rain forecast for the next fortnight :( Thank goodness we only cut two of the three fields as I think I'm going to lose this lot, although if by some miracle I do get it in, at least I'll have some low-nutrient stomach-filler for the good-doer! (There's a bright side to everything!)
 
When my OH rings and says 'oh we are off little bailing' and I know its a hint for me to help shift them a little bit of me dies inside!! So rewarding seeing a shed full of hay though.

We led our first load of hay back last Friday night until early in the morning. Some of it was a little damper than we would of liked but all still great stuff- Love seeing the sheds full, its my favourite time of year!
 
I had 5 and a bit acres cut last week, baled on saturday - so guess what I've been doing since then. We got about 700 bales, far too many for my lot so have sold a few and hoping to sell a few more, with any luck I'll sell enough to have mine free.
 
So grateful for it, as weather since hasn't been particularly good :( I'm fed up cleaning wet tack.

I hope you can save yours caroline. ..

I'm sure you will be able to sell yours dornrose, not many people make small bales any more.

Lj - I stayed well away lol. Hay makes me wheeze so I let oh and the farmer get on with it..

Fiona
 
I had a look at it last night and it smells like a very rich haylage underneath, but it's still green - the forecast is saying dry from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday morning. Everyone please do a sun dance in the direction of the north coast of Scotland!!

(Annoyingly I'm away with work from Monday night, but my lovely husband has agreed to take over :D )
 
the weathers been rain/rain/rain where i live so my husband just bit the bullet and cut on friday 28 acres it slat it down all friday after it had been cut, the weathers not looking to bad for sat/sun/mon so hopfully we will have made haylage by then, and my husband has bought himself a small hay baler, which will not used this year.
 
Got nine of twelve acres last night with a great big sigh of relief. Still have three acres rowed up but it rained again last night and the same forecast for the weekend. But then we don't make hay in the Highlands without getting rained on! In fact, the experts cut in a rainy spell in the hope that it will be followed by a few fine days. If it's cut but not tedded, it will be good left even though the grass starts to grow up through it. Yes, quality is lost but that's better than no hay at all. If it's been tedded, just need to row up when it's dried out a bit, then move the row when it's drying and it will still be good for some time. I've only once lost my hay in 32 years here.

Thunder clouds and showers heading towards me across the Dornoch Firth from Sutherland.

DSCN0693_zpsqtwqpfvt.jpg


DSCN0696_zpsvqnja2wi.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top