Hay 2021

Bleating Lamb

Wouldn’t think much hay has been saved at all yet this year?.......definitely not up here in the North West.....most we have had is maybe 2 or 3 dry days in a row so far......and not even sunny ones at that!
As a matter of interest will people who specialise in making hay to sell be chancing to mow now as forecast is good till next Friday.At this time of year don’t the Stud farms try and save the horse hay?

Who2

I’ve 12 acres saved a week now in the north east. With hay around me a lot will cut it even wet a day or so before there’s a good spell of weather coming. The thought is that it’s only dying off the first day then ted out as soon as the fist dry day comes . It then gives it a good chance of being saved.

Reggie.

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Wouldn’t think much hay has been saved at all yet this year?.......definitely not up here in the North West.....most we have had is maybe 2 or 3 dry days in a row so far......and not even sunny ones at that!
As a matter of interest will people who specialise in making hay to sell be chancing to mow now as forecast is good till next Friday.At this time of year don’t the Stud farms try and save the horse hay?

We have 87 bales got so far. I fear the FIL has a taste of it now tho

Base price

We have 12 acres to mow but there was dirty dark clouds for most of the day, it didn't rain although we've had a good breeze. We had a nice drop of rain yesterday. The sun is starting to peep out now so I think we will go at it tomorrow morning presuming the forecast hasn't changed.

Sami23

Reggie. wrote: »

Mow it.

I did indeed so let the fun begin.

Best of luck everyone - hope next week is a scorcher

Reggie.

Sami23 wrote: »

I did indeed so let the fun begin.

Best of luck everyone - hope next week is a scorcher

Good man. Fortune favours the brave

paddysdream

Am I living in some alternate Universe ?

Here in the Sunny South East its a very dull damp evening and the prospect of more tomorrow .Yesterday was a full wet day here and this morning was cold and wet with no drying .
Lot of hay mowed around here on Monday and is pretty soggy at this stage .Seen some that was tedded on Tuesday and another couple of days sun and rain will leave it poor enough.
Grass wet enough here tonight ,enough that you would be leaving it for a day or two to dry for silage let alone consider dropping it for hay.
All that said have a few acres of hay to cut here as think have enough wraps done at this stage but think next week is loads of time as its still very green .Make lovely hay but the only thing that makes green (or any sort ) of hay is weather .No fancy tedder ,conditioner or wuffler is of any use without some nice sun and wind

Reggie.

paddysdream wrote: »

Am I living in some alternate Universe ?

Here in the Sunny South East its a very dull damp evening and the prospect of more tomorrow .Yesterday was a full wet day here and this morning was cold and wet with no drying .
Lot of hay mowed around here on Monday and is pretty soggy at this stage .Seen some that was tedded on Tuesday and another couple of days sun and rain will leave it poor enough.
Grass wet enough here tonight ,enough that you would be leaving it for a day or two to dry for silage let alone consider dropping it for hay.
All that said have a few acres of hay to cut here as think have enough wraps done at this stage but think next week is loads of time as its still very green .Make lovely hay but the only thing that makes green (or any sort ) of hay is weather .No fancy tedder ,conditioner or wuffler is of any use without some nice sun and wind

I do be more interested in wind and heat over sun

Robson99

Reggie. wrote: »

I do be more interested in wind and heat over sun

Always find you need Sun the day after you cut it to kill it off and again the day you bale it to liven it up. In between wind and heat will suffice

Reggie.

Robson99 wrote: »

Always find you need Sun the day after you cut it to kill it off and again the day you bale it to liven it up. In between wind and heat will suffice

Often made hay here with feck all sun

paddysdream

Reggie. wrote: »

I do be more interested in wind and heat over sun

Sun for baling is pretty important. Dull day aint ideal for baling especially if its in anything but perfect condition .

Robson99

Reggie. wrote: »

Often made hay here with feck all sun

Very hard to make ryegrass hay without sun.

Reggie.

Robson99 wrote: »

Very hard to make ryegrass hay without sun.

Still managed it

893bet

Reggie. wrote: »

Always is. Weld up the hole

You say that with the confidence of a lad who can weld or who has a mechanic close by that will prioritise you.

I feel like it’s coming from between the bed plates if that makes sense. Maybe the gasket has failed.

lab man wrote: »

Takes time to weld a bed you need to heat the area well to dry off any oil and use a tig welder to do it properly if you weld without heating the area it will crack again beside the weld seam iykwim. If twas me I'd fill up with oil drive on and get it welded after your done with the hay etc btw the tig welder doesn't heat the bed case as much as a stick welder

This is what I did. Checked the oil a few times and it didn’t need top up.

Had the below 30 mins in......kept going obviously!

paddysdream

Just in after feeding the dogs and a nice sup falling here now .
Nothing will be turned around here tomorrow by the looks of it .Be Sunday before its dry enough to ted I would think .
A lot cut here abouts last Sunday/ Monday .Got great blast of weather Tuesday and Wednesday and nearly everything was turned at least once .Full wet day yesterday and today was no hay day at all; cold and damp with little or no drying. Tonight's rain will not help .

All that said there is nobody relying on hay anymore.Its either small bits or cut for sale .Still a pain to get it spoiled although the economics of meadows cut for hay to sell is hard to see paying at anything less than 30 euro a bale in the field and that sort of money is hard got .Different with a bit of grazing ground that got strong .
Think will leave mine till next week at least .
Last few years have been easy hay making ones with nice bits of good weather so we are probably due a difficult year on the law of averages .

Just having a mug of coffee before the leaba and its starting to rain heavy enough .

Now in bed and its lashing down outside .No hay work till Monday by the looks of tonight.

On another note what weather forecast are people looking at ?Anything I saw ,and will admit to not really following it closely the last few days ,was giving broken weather up until the weekend with an improvement for next week .

Too_Old_Boots

Nice get see the Sun out this morning. Got 17 acres cut yesterday evening, left 3 acres as the ground is boggy so a dry week would only help it
Now I have to pull the rust bucket of a haybob out of the shed, I think its on it's last legs as it was like pulling around a bag of tin cans last time it was used.Its amazing how some of these ancient machines have still use today

Sami23

Too_Old_Boots wrote: »

Nice get see the Sun out this morning. Got 17 acres cut yesterday evening, left 3 acres as the ground is boggy so a dry week would only help it
Now I have to pull the rust bucket of a haybob out of the shed, I think its on it's last legs as it was like pulling around a bag of tin cans last time it was used.Its amazing how some of these ancient machines have still use today

Nice to see the sun alright.

It would be lovely to have the likes of a 4 rotor tedder for the hay but hard to justifying buying 1 for the 1 week a year we'd need it.
Think they up around 10k new or thereabouts.
The haybob will have to do here too

893bet

Sami23 wrote: »

Nice to see the sun alright.

It would be lovely to have the likes of a 4 rotor tedder for the hay but hard to justifying buying 1 for the 1 week a year we'd need it.
Think they up around 10k new or thereabouts.
The haybob will have to do here too

Same as here. I am looking at maybe a new 40 year old one myself. Not a lot to go wrong with them.

Too_Old_Boots

893bet wrote: »

Same as here. I am looking at maybe a new 40 year old one myself. Not a lot to go wrong with them.

A new 40 year old one

minerleague

Cut some here today, very light crop, but have 2 glas meadows to do after the 1st so decided to get this bit out of the way

Sami23

minerleague wrote: »

Cut some here today, very light crop, but have 2 glas meadows to do after the 1st so decided to get this bit out of the way

Are ya tempted to cut the Glas meadows before the 1st or hold on and hope that the fine spell lasts for a 2nd week ?

Aravo

Sami23 wrote: »

Are ya tempted to cut the Glas meadows before the 1st or hold on and hope that the fine spell lasts for a 2nd week ?

Cut 10acres today, 2 no. 5 acre fields. One was light, the other heavier. With the dry weather over the last few weeks, one would imagine the crop should dry out quicker than normal.
Not going near the Glas THM. Will wait till the 1st. Don't fancy getting a letter in the post.

Tileman

Sami23 wrote: »

Are ya tempted to cut the Glas meadows before the 1st or hold on and hope that the fine spell lasts for a 2nd week ?

Didn’t cut the Glas meadows but cut another small meadow. God I was fair tempted, grass in superb condition for cutting. Starting to lodge and needs to be cut. Don’t know how they would really check but decided not to cut.
Fecking calendar farming

Sami23

Tileman wrote: »

Didn’t cut the Glas meadows but cut another small meadow. God I was fair tempted, grass in superb condition for cutting. Starting to lodge and needs to be cut. Don’t know how they would really check but decided not to cut.
Fecking calendar farming

Just on that has anyone on here ever heard of anyone getting penalised for cutting it early

minerleague

Sami23 wrote: »

Are ya tempted to cut the Glas meadows before the 1st or hold on and hope that the fine spell lasts for a 2nd week ?

Prob hold on as glas meadows away from these ( no fun going up and down road with haybob trying to save both) I'd say 2 years out of glas fine weather end of june broke at start of july, meant meadows werent cut in ideal conditions after.

Genghis Cant

I knocked a paddock today that had gone way out of hand. I'll try and make a bit of hay off it.

I'd guess if I was to wrap it I'd have 7 bales / acre. What would this translate to in hay I wonder? Maybe 6?

Thepillowman

Sami23 wrote: »

Just on that has anyone on here ever heard of anyone getting penalised for cutting it early

Know someone who's neighbour was caught cutting glas meadows early got no payment that year and they were trying to claw back previous 3years payments. He was appealing it must enquire how he got on . The Department had satellite photos of the field been mowed and the baler and wrapper in the field the following day. Much and all as I'd be tempted to cut after hearing that I said it's not worth it.

Reggie.

Thepillowman wrote: »

Know someone who's neighbour was caught cutting glas meadows early got no payment that year and they were trying to claw back previous 3years payments. He was appealing it must enquire how he got on . The Department had satellite photos of the field been mowed and the baler and wrapper in the field the following day. Much and all as I'd be tempted to cut after hearing that I said it's not worth it.

Local man is being tortured over. Wildbird cover. He sowed it last March (2020) and arrived out this February to inspect. Inspector claimed he never sowed it. The farmer knew he was in bother the minute the inspector arrived. He said he had an awful arrogance about him. It did strike on the drought last year nearly wiped it out fully.

Grueller

Sami23 wrote: »

Just on that has anyone on here ever heard of anyone getting penalised for cutting it early

Had an inspection here last year in or about the 28/29th June. They were specifically looking at hay meadows but viewing everything.

893bet

Fine morning this morning here in the mid west. Fairly clear sky. Sun shinning and a good breeze.

_Brian

Passed a guy tossing a field of stuff. Got rain the other day but you wouldn’t know it today.
Sunny and breezy here in west Cavan, perfect day for it.

Dunedin

Slow enough hay days here in the midlands. A small bit of a breeze and not an awful lot of power in the sun

bogman_bass

On my brothers stag in Waterford.
Put the call into the contractor to mow yesterday.
See? Farmers can do this remote working thing too!

BENDYBINN

bogman_bass wrote: »

On my brothers stag in Waterford.
Put the call into the contractor to mow yesterday.
See? Farmers can do this remote working thing too!

Jeez, calling in the contractor is now classed as work!!!!

893bet

BENDYBINN wrote: »

Jeez, calling in the contractor is now classed as work!!!!

In the same way that lads that don’t call the contractor in to do the hedges are lazy!

Savage day here. Another one like this and there be no problem for Wednesday/Thursday

mr.stonewall

893bet wrote: »

In the same way that lads that don’t call the contractor in to do the hedges are lazy!

Savage day here. Another one like this and there be no problem for Wednesday/Thursday

Your delighted you knocked it Friday. Yesterday with the breeze was good, but today was a belter for hay, sunshine and wind

Young95

How many turns would hay need lads to save it well ? Mowed it Friday and turned it today . If I turned it again tomorrow and Tuesday would that do ? Average crop bulk wise .

mr.stonewall

Young95 wrote: »

How many turns would hay need lads to save it well ? Mowed it Friday and turned it today . If I turned it again tomorrow and Tuesday would that do ? Average crop bulk wise .

Always about 4-5 times. Depends on the meadow, type of grass, weather. Even down to trees shading it. Very gentle turn from the 3rd turning on as the crop is getting brittle

893bet

mr.stonewall wrote: »

Always about 4-5 times. Depends on the meadow, type of grass, weather. Even down to trees shading it. Very gentle turn from the 3rd turning on as the crop is getting brittle

And the biggest factor. The machine. A proper Tedder and three might do it on an open field. Small shaded fields and a hay Bob then 5.

893bet

893bet wrote: »

Same as here. I am looking at maybe a new 40 year old one myself. Not a lot to go wrong with them.

Clearly a boardie below selling this one.....and not too far from me....

(Edit, that’s not me selling for clarity)

Hagimalone

mr.stonewall wrote:

Always about 4-5 times. Depends on the meadow, type of grass, weather. Even down to trees shading it. Very gentle turn from the 3rd turning on as the crop is getting brittle

When you say gentle turn, would 450rev be good?

bogman_bass

Young95 wrote: »

How many turns would hay need lads to save it well ? Mowed it Friday and turned it today . If I turned it again tomorrow and Tuesday would that do ? Average crop bulk wise .

Don’t worry about the number of turns. Keep going until you don’t bring up any more green

mr.stonewall

Hagimalone wrote: »

When you say gentle turn, would 450rev be good?

Even back to 350rpm on the pto

Sami23

bogman_bass wrote: »

Don’t worry about the number of turns. Keep going until you don’t bring up any more green

If you keep turning it you'll batter the shi#e out of it

893bet

Sami23 wrote: »

If you keep turning it you'll batter the shi#e out of it

Yes but if it’s still turning up clumps of free it’s not fit. One field might take 3 turns, another might take 6. Same two fields on another year could be 4 and 5 turns depending on other factors like weather etc.

So it’s not possible to say how many turns you need.

Sami23

893bet wrote: »

Yes but if it’s still turning up clumps of free it’s not fit. One field might take 3 turns, another might take 6. Same two fields on another year could be 4 and 5 turns depending on other factors like weather etc.

So it’s not possible to say how many turns you need.

Your right there I suppose.
Weather this week may not turn out as good as expected now with the rain due Thursday afternoon / evening.
It's gonna be tight for a lot of lads to get by then if mine is anything to go by

893bet

It takes longer than you think always. Often see ours here that is almost fit you think. And then it needs an extra 2 x turn.

bogman_bass

BENDYBINN wrote: »

Jeez, calling in the contractor is now classed as work!!!!

It’s work enough when you’re away on the first break in a year!

2smiggy

Grand hay in North cork , averaging about 11 % moisture

2smiggy

:-)