Summer of 2015.

Bleating Lamb

Every year and summer is different,this time last year the main problem most people had was keeping grass eaten with the huge growth seen in the Spring.
That's certainly not a problem this year up this end of country anyway,North West,fields are wet,very few fields of silage lifted even in better ground.
Cleaned off two normally dryish fields to improve grass quality for sheep ten days ago,they were barely trafficable,left another 10 acres of similiar ground as thought,'they would dry out sooner than later'....walked it this am,it's a lot wetter now than ten days ago!!Talk of a good weak ahead,
How are things elsewhere in the country?

MickeyShtyles

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Every year and summer is different,this time last year the main problem most people had was keeping grass eaten with the huge growth seen in the Spring.
That's certainly not a problem this year up this end of country anyway,North West,fields are wet,very few fields of silage lifted even in better ground.
Cleaned off two normally dryish fields to improve grass quality for sheep ten days ago,they were barely trafficable,left another 10 acres of similiar ground as thought,'they would dry out sooner than later'....walked it this am,it's a lot wetter now than ten days ago!!Talk of a good weak ahead,
How are things elsewhere in the country?

Growth is poor enough.
10 days away from the first square of cabbage with cauli's and broccoli another few days behind.
On the grass front it's still slow enough.
That being said, the front 'lawn' (bout an acre and a bit) was mown tight two weeks ago and within a week it was back tippin away.

Reggie.

Grass in growing well here thankfully

Birdnuts

I'd say a couple of weeks behind on my place in North Mayo cos we have had the worst of the wind and rain in the NW. A bit of heat would make all the difference.

_Brian

Grass has started growing here only in the last week.
Heavy ground and very wet spring doesn't mix well and ground is very wet indeed. However, this week will dry things well and with grass growing on it should out a good face on things.

Our spring was quite irregular here and other things took centre stage. Stock late out. Silage cutting being pushed out late too.

Base price

Grass growth here in Longford has been dismal. We have had to move two bunches of cattle to two out farms last weekend to ease the pressure on the home farm. We have only been getting about a weeks grazing per field here in the last 6 weeks and then moving cattle on to the next field.
To my surprise considering the ****ty weather, the cattle are thriving which I presume has to do with grazing a shorter sward and the mineral boluses that they got 5 or 6 weeks ago are kicking in.
Silage ground is way behind and has not bulked up. Will let nature take its course and cut it when there is a good enough crop.
The calves don't know if they are coming or going as we have had to rehouse them twice in the last 5 weeks.

CloughCasey1

Luckily enough I'm finding it hard to keep grass ate here. Good dry warm land in North Galway so this weather nearly suits.too dry and we get scorched.

Reggie.

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

Luckily enough I'm finding it hard to keep grass ate here. Good dry warm land in North Galway so this weather nearly suits.too dry and we get scorched.

Same here. It seems to be a feast or a famine around the country

WheatenBriar

Growing like mad here in the East as well thankfully ,ground dry with less than usual rainfall
Looks like towards the weekend we are going to be flooded out of it as there's a very rainy and thundery low with our name on it heading up from the south of France :eek:

Bleating Lamb

Was out this evening through fields,great drying wind blowing,first time this year that there was a noticeable spurt of growth over the last few days...great to see and yr weather are giving it dry for the week which would make a huge difference to ground conditions.Lambs thriving well despite the weather.

Connemara Farmer

Got sunburnt today so Summer has arrived here!

Limestone Cowboy

Raked about 40 acres for contractor today and crops seemed a lot lighter than usual in the places I was.

Bleating Lamb

Got those fields I had left topped this am.....but really wet ground is still only soaking out now......forecast is for rain from Wednesday so said it was better to get them done.
Nice bit of growth over last week and the bit of sunshine def helps the mood;)

KatyMac

Growth very slow here. Have to move to outfarm in the next day or so. Waiting to make sure only incalf cows go as there is a bull in the next field! Have put a horse in under apple trees and given over her paddocks to a couple of cows and their calves. The cows' three weeks will be up this weekend so hopefully there won't be any repeats. I never cut silage much before mid July but it looks as if it will be a lot later this year.

Bleating Lamb

So what so ye all make of the 'summer'...in inverted commas!?....
Up this neck of woods I only know of two men who have saved hay...a lot of people got caught in the week at start of July where there were 3 fairly good days in a row but it rained on 4th day...so they ended up wrapping dryish stuff.

On grass front there was a mighty spurt of grass about 3 wks ago as ground had warmed up but wet ground is soaking....awful heavy spills of rain this week.
Lamb trade and cattle trade are very good at mo so that's something anyway.
So is there much quality hay saved down the midlands and sunny south east?

GreaseGunner

Crops back a good bit here. Fair growth, nothing to complain nor be delighted about.

We find fields are very, very wet. We tore places asunder this year that were like driving across a concrete yard last year. There hasn't been any great drying lately.

Greengrass1

Great grass yr here can't keep it ate.

Just an observation but why is it nearly always dry stock operators that find it hard to grow grass. Even around me here I've loads of grass and my dry stock neighbours have nothing much to talk about

Limestone Cowboy

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Great grass yr here can't keep it ate.

Just an observation but why is it nearly always dry stock operators that find it hard to grow grass. Even around me here I've loads of grass and my dry stock neighbours have nothing much to talk about

Probably because most dairy farmers will spread as much fert as they can within nitrates regs, not the case with most suckler and dry stock farmers.

keep going

The well that couldnt keep up to the cows last year is driving water 2 ft up in the air today, says it all really.

mahoney_j

Best summer in my memory,heat,moisture(neither excessive )and bumper growth.never had as much feed in the yard nor have I kept grass quality as good as this year calves are thriving and growing well and cows milking extremely well in both litres and kg milk solids.only negative is way milk price is going😂😂😂😂

Reggie.

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Probably because most dairy farmers will spread as much fert as they can within nitrates regs, not the case with most suckler and dry stock farmers.

And most sucklers will try to rely more on slurry than gran fert to reduce costs

Muckit

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Great grass yr here can't keep it ate.

Just an observation but why is it nearly always dry stock operators that find it hard to grow grass. Even around me here I've loads of grass and my dry stock neighbours have nothing much to talk about

Easy grow grass if you are putting out plenty of the bag! Many of us poor drystock farmers are half organic and have to rely on mother nature, heat and a bit of rain!

Base price

Grass growth has improved dramatically over the last month due to the weather, getting second run of slurry out and capitalising on good prices by selling stock.

Milked out

Average year really, plenty rainfall but no long periods of warm weather have had to back fence some ground for all bar 2 rounds, well partly just bad luck in that there was heavy rain coming round to wetter part of farm for a few rotations. Had to feed a few bales of silage at the weekend to get back on top of demand which we didn't have to do last year. Not a bad year by any means but could do with a drier july

frogloch

Have never had such a year of grass in a all my life, struggling to graze it. Even have topper on tractor, not proud of it, not ashamed of it either. Probably am a little understocked. I had enough silage for the year between surplaces in may and the first cut. Did a bit of reseeding last year which helped this year,(abergain, aberchoice, tyrella). There seems to be a good bit of hay made here and in Kilkenny, not sure about quality, its still left out in fields with grass growing around bales. I saw one place with round hay bales left out and horses eating the grass and bales. Oh I forgot i'm in wexford.

Sam Kade

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Probably because most dairy farmers will spread as much fert as they can within nitrates regs, not the case with most suckler and dry stock farmers.

Reggie. wrote: »

And most sucklers will try to rely more on slurry than gran fert to reduce costs

Muckit wrote: »

Easy grow grass if you are putting out plenty of the bag! Many of us poor drystock farmers are half organic and have to rely on mother nature, heat and a bit of rain!

Also it's a lot easier to fire out the fertilizer when the milk pays for it whereas with drystock you're creating more bills until stock are sold.

Bleating Lamb

frogloch wrote: »

Have never had such a year of grass in a all my life, struggling to graze it. Even have topper on tractor, not proud of it, not ashamed of it either. Probably am a little understocked. I had enough silage for the year between surplaces in may and the first cut. Did a bit of reseeding last year which helped this year,(abergain, aberchoice, tyrella). There seems to be a good bit of hay made here and in Kilkenny, not sure about quality, its still left out in fields with grass growing around bales. I saw one place with round hay bales left out and horses eating the grass and bales. Oh I forgot i'm in wexford.

Can never fathom how people go to the effort/cost of saving hay and then don't bring it in or at least stack it in a sheltered corner.

So in comparison to last year is there far less hay made?

Reggie.

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Can never fathom how people go to the effort/cost of saving hay and then don't bring it in or at least stack it in a sheltered corner.

So in comparison to last year is there far less hay made?

Seems to be alot made but as you said alot left in fields still and the quality of some hay might be in doubt

Miname

Hay made, enough silage made but il have about 20-30 acres of surplus. I'm happy with how it's going this year but I'm disappointed with growth rates of cattle.

sea12

So in comparison to last year is there far less hay made?[/QUOTE]

Less around here anyway. Small bits cut but were baled up in less than ideal conditions. Need a good week soon or the good quality will be gone out of it

Bleating Lamb

Was chatting to a lad from Tubbercurry (Sligo)...yday,the rain that fell last Sat night flooded a third of local GAA pitch,something that only happens once every 10-15 yrs!!... And there have been plenty of other torrential cloudbursts of rain in NW over last month,nice growth the last forthnight here but growth rate was virtually nil for last wk of July,first two weeks of August.
Thankfully trade is good for lambs and Cattle,lot of men got caught for grass and sold cattle in July for good money.So what's yere 'summer' been like elsewhere?

Milked out

Bad down here in cork anyway. Grazing silage ground here and ground very soft will have to back fence the rest of it on the dry ground and the wet field us only fit for calves if that. Put up wire to break up silage field and use pencil posts and could drive em with sledge no need for crow bar to make a hole. If we don't get a dry spell soon looking at oct housing for some stock anyway. And no power washing done yet 😡

Greengrass1

Sam Kade wrote: »

Also it's a lot easier to fire out the fertilizer when the milk pays for it whereas with drystock you're creating more bills until stock are sold.

Heifer farm only had about 70 units of N if even that.
50 head on 33 acres.
Amd it has pucks of grass on it.
And it's not reseeded ground either.

Willfarman

East west divide this year. Possibly the best year of grass ever seen in the South East after it took off in late May.

Deepsouthwest

Willfarman wrote: »

East west divide this year. Possibly the best year of grass ever seen in the South East after it took off in late May.

Been a superb ur for grass in west cork as well, just a bit difficult to utilise. All in all, not a great summer, but nothing like 2012 at the same. Difficult yr to make silage, hay or fit in reseeding since 20th of June.
Close to doing damage on ground plenty times, but Lady Luck shone on us and we always got the few fresh drying days when we really needed them.

frazzledhome

Willfarman wrote: »

East west divide this year. Possibly the best year of grass ever seen in the South East after it took off in late May.

Dry harsh summer with continuous N wind drying any little rain that fell. 14 tonne grown to date a bit disappointed as we were on track to grow 18 at the start of June.

Place is motoring now as rain finally arrived

Muckit

There will be a fodder shortage in the west this spring, mark my words. Growth has been terrible all summer. Only really greened up about 2 weeks ago, but it's too late now.

Willfarman

A lot of good wexford hay with no market. Lorry men just have no takers.

Bullocks

Muckit wrote: »

There will be a fodder shortage in the west this spring, mark my words. Growth has been terrible all summer. Only really greened up about 2 weeks ago, but it's too late now.

There are some lads not worried at all but I can see things getting tight if cattle don't get out early next year , certainly no good hay around . I was meant to buy a load of last years hay early this year when they were emptying sheds but never got the time

pedigree 6

Willfarman wrote: »

A lot of good wexford hay with no market. Lorry men just have no takers.

Do you think they will put it into shed and store till next spring or just leave out in field? One farmer near me usually sells hay and this year the bales are just left where they came out of baler.

Willfarman

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Do you think they will put it into shed and store till next spring or just leave out in field? One farmer near me usually sells hay and this year the bales are just left where they came out of baler.

Most of It will find its way into sheds but there's always a few characters who leave it to as you say. And yet if ya inquired it suddenly gets worth money...

frazzledhome

Muckit wrote: »

There will be a fodder shortage in the west this spring, mark my words. Growth has been terrible all summer. Only really greened up about 2 weeks ago, but it's too late now.

Well the only grub I'll sell will be at top dollar. Saw fields of hay left out last summer.

Bullocks

frazzledhome wrote: »

Well the only grub I'll sell will be at top dollar. Saw fields of hay left out last summer.

Will the dairy expansion up yer neck of the woods and further south make much odds on straw /hay that would usually be sent west do you think ?

Greengrass1

frazzledhome wrote: »

Well the only grub I'll sell will be at top dollar. Saw fields of hay left out last summer.

Ditto we have 300 bales of haylage off Italian we will sell if it's wanted

pedigree 6

Bullocks wrote: »

Will the dairy expansion up yer neck of the woods and further south make much odds on straw /hay that would usually be sent west do you think ?

Won't make a bit of difference. Demand for hay/straw back this year around southeast anyway.

Bullocks

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Won't make a bit of difference. Demand for hay/straw back this year around southeast anyway.

Demand is back now but some people are a bit shortsighted , a tough spring could change demand a bit

pedigree 6

Bullocks wrote: »

Demand is back now but some people are a bit shortsighted , a tough spring could change demand a bit

Fill the sheds, sell in spring? opportunity?

Willfarman

125 bales of hay on dd in wex and I can verify the quality as excellent. It local to me. 16€ bale.

pedigree 6

Willfarman wrote: »

125 bales of hay on dd in wex and I can verify the quality as excellent. It local to me. 16€ bale.

Whats it worth in the West?

Willfarman

No one buying but I suppose it'd want to make 20 for lorry an to get a twist

Bullocks

pedigree 6 wrote: »

Whats it worth in the West?

Back Conemara €25 delivered woul be cheap hay !