Will you have enough feed for this winter?

whelan2

Seems to be a world of silage being made this week, how are ye fixed now? I have enough , hopefully

Bellview

I say we are OK once normal winter...quality of silage good which will help

amacca

Might not be too bad if the contractor would come and cut the thing before it starts raining continuously.

White Clover

amacca wrote: »

Might not be too bad if the contractor would come and cut the thing before it starts raining continuously.

I'm sorry to read that you're contractor has let you down amacca. I'm blessed here with the service we get from the 3 contractors that we use for tedding, raking, and baling. It helps that they keep in contact with each other as they would be mostly dealing with the same customers anyway. Top class service that I'm greatful for. Sounds like other lads could take a few lessons from them.

kollegeknight

amacca wrote: »

Might not be too bad if the contractor would come and cut the thing before it starts raining continuously.

Am on the exact same position. I reckon I’ve a short fall of 50 bales for a 6 month winter and I’ve close to that ready to be knocked. Had the contractor well told in time I wanted it to be cut this week but he never came so next dry day

Timmaay

Still 300 bales or about 60tons DM short, but very little rain since the August Bank holiday so very unlikely to make anymore here. Looking at buying in whatever I can now, working on getting afew acre of beet and a standing crops of grass or so.

amacca

Ah in fairness I'm just nervous autumn doesn't turn out like last year.....I had a meadow I was going to get cut near the end of September and no word of a lie it rained every other day and more solid until it was too late to do anything with it but let a load of bullocks in to mostly trample it....

I'd say the Bermuda triangle has nothing on my place when it comes to local weather ...I'd imagine the lakes around have a big influence........This summer was the only summer it wasn't only a day or two away from rain in my experience.

whelan2

Timmaay wrote: »

Still 300 bales or about 60tons DM short, but very little rain since the August Bank holiday so very unlikely to make anymore here. Looking at buying in whatever I can now, working on getting afew acre of beet and a standing crops of grass or so.

What has this year cost you? Must have been very hard on you?

Mooooo

Have 40 acres to cut and once that's in should be fine with maize to come as well. Was hoping to cut this weekend but have rain or showers most days. Growth still doing ok but the longer cutting is put out the less regrowth comes as well as have extra calves from the spring due to tb I am hoping to keep out as kongbas possible. In calf heifers are motoring thru ground as well. In hindsight should have left off the last bag of fert on the silage and cut 2 weeks ago. If I go clear of tb I may be in a position to buy cows in dec/ Jan but the way that goes round here seems to be a big if. If i don't go clear I may have silage to sell but I won't sell till the spring if that's the case

kevthegaff

I wouldn't like to calculate myself, I'll be ok if I supplement with some meal through the winter months (I normally dont)! Which I probably should.. dairy nuts gone above 300 bro was telling g me this morning. Have a paddock 6,5 acres tried out for brassica and another 50 bales to make if rain stops so it all will help

The Rabbi

Timmaay wrote: »

Still 300 bales or about 60tons DM short, but very little rain since the August Bank holiday so very unlikely to make anymore here. Looking at buying in whatever I can now, working on getting afew acre of beet and a standing crops of grass or so.

https://www.met.ie/forecasts/farming#carousel-soil
It looks like you need a lot of rain to get grass going again.
We have being getting a couple of mm every few days in the form of drizzle.
The moisture seems unable to reach the ground in the silage fields.As soon as the drizzle stops the wind dries it off the leaves.Second cuts testing very high in nitrogen.I'll cut next week,should be ok for fodder then.

Timmaay

whelan2 wrote: »

What has this year cost you? Must have been very hard on you?

I just got the accounts done for 2017, let's just say that was by far the most profitable year here ever (and thank fook we can income average, not a hope I'd be able to come up with the lump sum the tax man would of wanted otherwise ha), the wet summer suited us OK last yr, with good steady growth all year, all the youngstock were out till Jan, plenty of leafy bales with maize so the winter was fairly cheap also. This year the milk price will be about 2c/l less which is about 12k, the wet March cost about 10k in extra feed, lost milk, less grass etc, the summer was prb 15k in extra feed, and this 60tons DM to fill the winter fodder hole will be another 15k, what's that, 50k off the bottom line? Basically last yrs buffer gone.

Who2

Finished drawing the last of my second cut this evening. I’ve enough for a five month winter here of good quality feed. I’ve still third cut to do on a couple of fields which I hope to get at the end of the month.

einn32

Got three cuts off here. Actually had quite a good summer with only one block suffering drought type conditions which meant a week of bales supplementing. This really was a summer for wet farms.

Base price

We are ok for fodder with enough bales of hay, wheaten, barley and oaten straw in the sheds - tbh we do the same thing every year.

We are going to take a late cut of silage (round bales) from my/the brothers farm which we normally wouldn't do. We took hay off it in late July and spread 2 bags of CAN.

My main worry is if we get a harsh Spring like this year with that cutting subzero East wind and snow. We lost 5 calves within those two weeks and another two a few weeks later. I rear a good few calves every year and I have never had such a high mortality rate since I started rearing calves 30 odd years ago.