Makeing hay .

Blackwater boy said:
Your dead right there but if I was backed into a corner for fodder with options still available as its only the first week of July I would explore them all first before hay. It seems to be making €30 plus ex field on done deal.
Click to expand...

I can see your point. But if you had some quality silage made and you could stretch it with hay for dry cows.

At the moment if you had to feed a lot of meal then a few kgs of hay might keep stomachs right.
 
Green Grass said:
I think some lads under estimate the value of good hay ,i feed it always for up to a month before the cows calf and find no bother with cows calving .Most silage being sold is of dubious quality,at least with hay you are not buying a pig in a bag
Click to expand...
Some of the hay I've seen baled is like buying just the pig, no bag. Quality hay maybe but a lot of hay is made from real old grass, low fertiliser, growing for months and plenty weeds through it, not all hay but a lot of it as I say.
 
Blackwater boy said:
Your dead right there but if I was backed into a corner for fodder with options still available as its only the first week of July I would explore them all first before hay. It seems to be making €30 plus ex field on done deal.
Click to expand...
I’d normally tend to agree with you but I think this may be the year that it might be no harm to have it as a manner to stretch feed. was on to our agronomist the other day and he warned me not to let a load of barley out the gate without making sure of the price and a price for ration for the winter, he reckons ration is going to go skywards due to what looks a major shortage in grain, he said he hasn’t seen crops as bad ever before with some crops being debatable as to wether it’s worth cutting and some that won’t be physically possible to cut without losing half the heads.

As it stands here we had a completely empty yard after the winter for the first time in about 10 years, first cuts were middling, 2nd cut is at a stand still for about 4 weeks now and we’ve had to start throwing bales to the suckler cows to keep them ticking over, something I’ve never seen here before and it’s a long time ago if ever that Dad did it. luckily cattle are generally content with the sun on there backs atm
 
Last edited:
Green Grass said:
I think some lads under estimate the value of good hay ,i feed it always for up to a month before the cows calf and find no bother with cows calving .Most silage being sold is of dubious quality,at least with hay you are not buying a pig in a bag
Click to expand...
i,m feeding good hay to the milkers at the moment along with 6 kg of meal and the rest is made up of very short grass, 60 cows eating a bale a day how much dm would there be in a bale i wonder ? 21 ltrs including 27 autumn calvers and carry overs
 
Blackwater boy said:
Fair enough Johnny but as I said hay to milking cows is not an option in my opinion
Click to expand...
In case it came across that I was having a pop at you directly or anything I wasn't.
As you've said yourself you feed straw, it's not just milking cows you have is it,
You have dry cows and some calves as well I presume, plus replacements.
Just if silage is in very short supply would it not make more sense to feed hay to them even if only as roughag with meal of some sorts.
 
Last edited:
Blackwater boy said:
Some of the hay I've seen baled is like buying just the pig, no bag. Quality hay maybe but a lot of hay is made from real old grass, low fertiliser, growing for months and plenty weeds through it, not all hay but a lot of it as I say.
Click to expand...
Ah now come on @Blackwater boy we all know that bad feed is made every year. Especially by some rogue dealers/farmers who know there will be a market to be exploited when people are stuck.
The hay I made was mostly snatched up by horsey people as it was nice clean well saved hay.
I would not have much time for rough hay ( as we call it here) as it's is really feck all feed value too it.
 
drew said:
I’d normally tend to agree with you but I think this may be the year that it might be no harm to have it as a manner to stretch feed. was on to our agronomist the other day and he warned me not to let a load of barley out the gate without making sure of the price and a price for ration for the winter, he reckons ration is going to go skywards due to what looks a major shortage in grain, he said he hasn’t seen crops as bad ever before with some crops being debatable as to wether it’s worth cutting and some that won’t be physically possible to cut without losing half the heads.

As it stands here we had a completely empty yard after the winter for the first time in about 10 years, first cuts were middling, 2nd cut is at a stand still for about 4 weeks now and we’ve had to start throwing bales to the suckler cows to keep them ticking over, something I’ve never seen here before and it’s a long time ago if ever that Dad did it. luckily cattle are generally content with the sun on there backs atm
Click to expand...

Good post.

Farming as price takers, selling into markets, that are well managed, even when supplies are tight, as we have been for so long, we have forgotten about what's possible to happen, anything that can possibly happen usually does, it's just a matter of when it will happen.

Imagine what will happen when there's not enough food for people, we have seen it several times now, when feed is scarce for animals. Prices can double.
The same can happen with food, it's just a matter of when it'll happen.
There's too little respect for food, that will change.
We have had massive world harvests back to back, there's absolutely no reason why we won't experience two bad world harvests back to back, anything is possible.

If farmers could get better at managing our sensitive information, our costs of production and the amount we expect to produce we'd be in a much stronger position.
Forward selling, signing contracts is only of real benefit to others, not to the primary producers.
 
ithastopay said:
If farmers could get better at managing our sensitive information, our costs of production and the amount we expect to produce we'd be in a much stronger position.
Forward selling, signing contracts is only of real benefit to others, not to the primary producers.
Click to expand...

Didn't the government sell us out on this point with Harvest 2020 and Food Wise 2025? They pretty much guaranteed the food supply and price at both of these target dates and implemented policies to bring farmers towards these targets such as the massive investment in pushing people towards Dairy. It takes a lot of control out of farmers hands meaning that they have to gear themselves to work with prices highly influenced by both man and nature.

Many's a wise man often cut a good furrow for himself by doing the exact opposite of what the government/farm development agencies encouraged him to do.
 
JOHNNY BOY said:
Ah now come on @Blackwater boy we all know that bad feed is made every year. Especially by some rogue dealers/farmers who know there will be a market to be exploited when people are stuck.
The hay I made was mostly snatched up by horsey people as it was nice clean well saved hay.
I would not have much time for rough hay ( as we call it here) as it's is really feck all feed value too it.
Click to expand...
As I said Johnny not all hay is rubbish but I hold my view as a good bit of it around here anyway. Grass growing from last September and cut say 2 weeks ago is not good feed, if you left stock into it they would roar the place down so it doesn’t make it into good feed by cutting it and drying it out. If good grass goes into the bale then good stuff comes out and vice versa.
 
Blackwater boy said:
As I said Johnny not all hay is rubbish but I hold my view as a good bit of it around here anyway. Grass growing from last September and cut say 2 weeks ago is not good feed, if you left stock into it they would roar the place down so it doesn’t make it into good feed by cutting it and drying it out. If good grass goes into the bale then good stuff comes out and vice versa.
Click to expand...
I know where your coming from on about that type of hay you've seen but personally I don't even categorise that as anything much more than bedding to be honest.
The same can be said for a lot of silage that is for sale each winter let it be in a pit or bales, the only real difference being that pit silage will be tested by most buyers.
 
Silage sold at 25 /bale today ex field locally.
Another 10 days will tell a lot.
Around here most land is still green except one neighbour who had a lot of suckers tight in grass .it's burnt now and there are does in the shed,possibly autumn calvers
 
JOHNNY BOY said:
I know where your coming from on about that type of hay you've seen but personally I don't even categorise that as anything much more than bedding to be honest.
The same can be said for a lot of silage that is for sale each winter let it be in a pit or bales, the only real difference being that pit silage will be tested by most buyers.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately lads go on smell and colour and very little else with hay.

I judged 3 bags of hay with a grazing group.
One was all stalks but smelt sweet
Two was leafy with very little stalk and smelt nice but not as 'meadow sweet' as one.
Third smelt stale and wasn't up to much looks wise.

Number one won. Myself and a few others were horrified as two was blatantly the better quality feed but 1 had the smell!
 
Opened a bale that was made last Monday as said already cut on Fri shaken out twice and baled on the Monday. It was grazing ground that went too strong for the cows and it was reseeded two years ago so it was nice clean grass. There is a lovely sweet smell off it you would nearly eat it yourself !
20180708_074756.jpg
 
bruceythom said:
There was the remains of a machine here that my Grandfather used to process that stuff for feeding.
Click to expand...
Was it just a chaff cutter or something more heavy duty?

Dad often talks of times when cattle came out of sheds looking far worse than they did going in.
Meadow hay and stuff like this was to blame.
Grass breeding and forage conservation has come on leaps and bounds in the last 60 years!
 
dstig said:
Opened a bale that was made last Monday as said already cut on Fri shaken out twice and baled on the Monday. It was grazing ground that went too strong for the cows and it was reseeded two years ago so it was nice clean grass. There is a lovely sweet smell off it you would nearly eat it yourself !View attachment 56176
Click to expand...
you cant always go on smell, i remember a few winters back i bought some bales of hayledge, there were series well packed bales and the stuff smelled absolutely lovely, I was delighted.the cows however wouldnt touch a bite of it till hunger forced them, they actually roared for 3 days while it was in front of them initially..couldnt beleive it but actually it suited me fine in the end as it dragged out feeding a long way
 
AYF said:
Was it just a chaff cutter or something more heavy duty?

Dad often talks of times when cattle came out of sheds looking far worse than they did going in.
Meadow hay and stuff like this was to blame.
Grass breeding and forage conservation has come on leaps and bounds in the last 60 years!
Click to expand...
Much more heavy duty, but essentially the same design.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AYF
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top