Hay

Tileman

Tileman wrote: »

Well today was a bit wetter than was given. Hope the few dry days early next week hold.

Lets say if the grass hasnt been shook out yet and got rain today or tomorrow but was shook out after, what kind of impact would that be?

I am thinking a loss of quality and colour but would it be significant?

I was watching the weather over the course of the day and things changed rapidly in relation to tomorrow. Normally the forecast is bang on for say 24 hrs in advance.

Dickie10

my hay was very close to fit last night, didnt touch it today but we escaped a good bit of rain, its fairly green fesh still, but cant get a third wetting. i think a shake out or two tomoorrow providding sun comes out might bale sunday or monday. giving dry til wedensday

tanko

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Well today mucked things up for a lot of people

On a separate note has anyone experience of a wuffer/fluffer/ swath lifter?
Are they gentler than a tedder for wilting silage?
I've red clover silage for the first time this year and I'm afraid the tedder will damage the leaves in dry weather?

A Wuffler is a good machine but gentle isn’t a word i’d use to describe them, they give the grass a good battering.

Sami23

Deleted User wrote: »

Lets say if the grass hasnt been shook out yet and got rain today or tomorrow but was shook out after, what kind of impact would that be?

I am thinking a loss of quality and colour but would it be significant?

When was it cut.
If it hasn't been shock out yet I'd say it will be fine - very little impact.
The bigger problem is will you run out of time by Wednesday to get it saved now with temperatures not great and lack of good sunshine ?
Best of luck with it anyway.

Sami23

Sami23 wrote: »

When was it cut.
If it hasn't been shock out yet I'd say it will be fine - very little impact.
The bigger problem is will you run out of time by Wednesday to get it saved now with temperatures not great and lack of good sunshine ?
Best of luck with it anyway.

Wednesday afternoon, hasnt been shook out.

It is a light crop and is in a field that will dry very quickly.

I took a look at it the other evening and it was very dry already

Bass Reeves

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Wednesday afternoon, hasnt been shook out.

It is a light crop and is in a field that will dry very quickly.

I took a look at it the other evening and it was very dry already

If it's light and not shook out you may have a chance. Grass that is left in rows saves away. It increases DM and water is not lodging in damaged/bruised part of the grass from the hay bob. Biggest mistake lads make is not letting grass save in rows for a few days before going in with a hay bob. If by any chance you cut with a conditioner it will be even higher in DM.

You be surprised but if you got 2-3 good days it might be fit

davidk1394

Rain here all morning:(

Bass Reeves

Bass Reeves wrote: »

If it's light and not shook out you may have a chance. Grass that is left in rows saves away. It increases DM and water is not lodging in damaged/bruised part of the grass from the hay bob. Biggest mistake lads make is not letting grass save in rows for a few days before going in with a hay bob. If by any chance you cut with a conditioner it will be even higher in DM.

You be surprised but if you got 2-3 good days it might be fit

Thanks for the detail there. Got around half an inch of rain over night.

Tomorrow is a good day 20 degrees etc and the rain clears this evening.

Will ask contractor about mower.

Got in to the habit of making hay two years ago in a good summer. Its handy as less time feeding and less of the dreaded plastic.

A lot of stress with it in terms of weather. Should probably only cut it during a real good summer and then cut loads of it and put it in the shed but thats hard to predict also.

Bass Reeves

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Thanks for the detail there. Got around half an inch of rain over night.

Tomorrow is a good day 20 degrees etc and the rain clears this evening.

Will ask contractor about mower.

Got in to the habit of making hay two years ago in a good summer. Its handy as less time feeding and less of the dreaded plastic.

A lot of stress with it in terms of weather. Should probably only cut it during a real good summer and then cut loads of it and put it in the shed but thats hard to predict also.

Even dry silage is a different product to feed than low DM silage. Haulage type silage is much easier to deal with,plastic is dry bales are way less likely to fall apart when opening and there is way less bales.

Fir instance I always try to make dry silage. It works out not much more expensive. If I pay to turn it twice it 30 euro/ acre that pays for the plastic and 10/acre left over. Hay cannot be packed as much as silage so maybe 9 bales /acre instead of 7 if haylage. That's 50 euro for hay at 5.5/bale as.opoosed to 56 forward to silage at 8 for bale and wraping.

And less stress

Tileman

Not too bad here. Sun is coming out between the clouds. No real drying though. Need a bit of wind .
Rained a good bit yesterday evening and overnight.

Bass Reeves

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Even dry silage is a different product to feed than low DM silage. Haulage type silage is much easier to deal with,plastic is dry bales are way less likely to fall apart when opening and there is way less bales.

Fir instance I always try to make dry silage. It works out not much more expensive. If I pay to turn it twice it 30 euro/ acre that pays for the plastic and 10/acre left over. Hay cannot be packed as much as silage so maybe 9 bales /acre instead of 7 if haylage. That's 50 euro for hay at 5.5/bale as.opoosed to 56 forward to silage at 8 for bale and wraping.

And less stress

Yes dry silage is good alright and a bit cleaner to handle but still the hay is very handy for a part time person wanting to throw out a few bales after work as less work etc.

Had hay that got rain there last year (around 50 round bales) and it was ok stuff a bit discoloured but still well eaten by the animals.

Was hoping to get 50 or so nice bales this year but sure they will be okish stuff now not the best.

Got nice grass coming so will look to maybe make some additional good quality dry silage as well. Nothing worse that taking the plastic off and getting drenched from wet silage. We might get a nice spell over the coming weeks,

Tileman

Tileman wrote: »

Not too bad here. Sun is coming out between the clouds. No real drying though. Need a bit of wind .
Rained a good bit yesterday evening and overnight.

Had you your stuff in the rows still?

I havent looked at ours yet.

Tomorrow looks good, might look to shake out at 11 am tomorrow.

Tileman

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Had you your stuff in the rows still?

I havent looked at ours yet.

Tomorrow looks good, might look to shake out at 11 am tomorrow.

Yea mine still in the rows. Sane as. Tomorrow looks good especially early part of day. I will turn it out tomorrow .

Sami23

Deleted User wrote: »

Had you your stuff in the rows still?

I havent looked at ours yet.

Tomorrow looks good, might look to shake out at 11 am tomorrow.

Do ye think we'll get Wednesday or Thursday dry or just up to Tuesday lads ?

SouthWesterly

Hay being cut as I write. It was either now or never.

Thursday is to be wet!

tanko

Sami23 wrote: »

Do ye think we'll get Wednesday or Thursday dry or just up to Tuesday lads ?

It might be ok for the east and south east until Wednesday night but it doesn’t look great for the west and north during the day but its a long way off yet.

I’ll never make hay again, am still mentally scarred from saving the “hay” in 85 and 86. Hate the bloody stuff.

SouthWesterly

tanko wrote: »

It might be ok for the east and south east until Wednesday night but it doesn’t look great for the west and north during the day but its a long way off yet.

I’ll never make hay again, am still mentally scarred from saving the “hay” in 85 and 86. Hate the bloody stuff.

Chatting to the guy whose cutting my (his) hay. He said it will either be bailed for hay or he'll wrap it. He has 3 other fields to do that he rents.

Sami23

Sami23 wrote: »

Do ye think we'll get Wednesday or Thursday dry or just up to Tuesday lads ?

Up to Thursday id say, take a look at 7 day forecast for local picture on met eireann website

Tileman

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Up to Thursday id say, take a look at 7 day forecast for local picture on met eireann website

Turned out a smashing evening here. If we could get a few days like that we might be ok. Allot of Hay down around me. Some cut last weekend and was turned out. Allot more cut last Wednesday Thursday and still in rows . I’d say the Haybobs will be busy tomorrow

Sami23

Tileman wrote: »

Turned out a smashing evening here. If we could get a few days like that we might be ok. Allot of Hay down around me. Some cut last weekend and was turned out. Allot more cut last Wednesday Thursday and still in rows . I’d say the Haybobs will be busy tomorrow

If stuff is only turned out for 1st time tomorrow its hard to see it being fit to bale by Wednesday though is it ?

Cattlepen

tanko wrote: »

It might be ok for the east and south east until Wednesday night but it doesn’t look great for the west and north during the day but its a long way off yet.

I’ll never make hay again, am still mentally scarred from saving the “hay” in 85 and 86. Hate the bloody stuff.

That was an unbelievable time. The hay we made pure black dusty poison. The boss man said put it in the shed. I thought he was mad. Then a few years later, during the winter, a man came from Achill and bought what we had of it. You can never tell

Doctors room ghost

A good bit of hay around today knocked and it black looking from a full days rain yesterday.

Water John

Yeah twas brutal in 85 and 86. Stacked half cured hay bales in the field with tunnels running through the stack. Eventually carted all except the ground rows home, then stacked them again. The 'best' we put in the shed. The poorer stuff we reeked and covered with plastic. Funny, the stuff outside turned out the best. A good few neighbours bought it off me for calves.
Best of luck to those taking the chance on this window in the weather.

Jjameson

A good bit around here mowed Wednesday evening. Was flying until today but weather looks a1 for week For south east if you could believe it.

funkey_monkey

Castlekeeper wrote: »

Well today mucked things up for a lot of people

On a separate note has anyone experience of a wuffer/fluffer/ swath lifter?
Are they gentler than a tedder for wilting silage?
I've red clover silage for the first time this year and I'm afraid the tedder will damage the leaves in dry weather?

Have one here. Not used for a few years as we've not done hay recently due to the weather.
They are a good job. Best drying comes from kicking the windrow onto the adjacent ground. This means that the gas will always be kicked onto dry ground. If you don't kick it out at an angle the ground underneath the windrow never gets a chance to dry out.
The problem with them is that there is no rotation of the windrow so that bottom goes onto top and vice versa. This is only really a problem in heavy crops though. When you have gone over a sward you can see the difference - they really do lift it up to the wind.

Dickie10

raked my hay today at three oclock when hay on top had dried, once it wa raked you could see how fit it looked , dried well this eveing i could bale tomorrow but i will leave it til monday, giving another drying day tomorrow. rain hasnt effeccted it much, though its ressseded ground 5 years ago

CloughCasey1

Cattlepen wrote: »

That was an unbelievable time. The hay we made pure black dusty poison. The boss man said put it in the shed. I thought he was mad. Then a few years later, during the winter, a man came from Achill and bought what we had of it. You can never tell

A bite of hay is better than a bite of snow!

Castlekeeper

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Have one here. Not used for a few years as we've not done hay recently due to the weather.
They are a good job. Best drying comes from kicking the windrow onto the adjacent ground. This means that the gas will always be kicked onto dry ground. If you don't kick it out at an angle the ground underneath the windrow never gets a chance to dry out.
The problem with them is that there is no rotation of the windrow so that bottom goes onto top and vice versa. This is only really a problem in heavy crops though. When you have gone over a sward you can see the difference - they really do lift it up to the wind.

So good in good weather but not much good when it's snatch and grab when ground is damp I take it. Wouldn't be aiming for 10t crops, more 8 bales/acre of dry silage.

Doctors room ghost

Good luck to everyone trying to get hay.hopefully the weather holds for ye.we were blessed early with the turf cut early and a great spell of weather.
Hopefully ye get a lucky spell of weather

funkey_monkey

Castlekeeper wrote: »

So good in good weather but not much good when it's snatch and grab when ground is damp I take it. Wouldn't be aiming for 10t crops, more 8 bales/acre of dry silage.

When the ground is damp you need to kick it sideways onto the adjacent ground which should be dry. Going in straight lines won't dry it. The wuffler lifts the swards up to the wind. You can really see the difference between a sward that was done and an adjacent sward that is not done. But if the weather is tight, spreading it out will give increased area of crop exposed to wind and sun.
What you really want is some thing to rotate the swards so top is now on bottom and vice versa.

It does have an advantage in that you can open the doors out and it acts like a haybob. Close the doors in and it works like a liner.

I've not tried putting two swards into one for a baler - not sure what that would turn out like.