Silage 2021

Mf240 said:
You can liase all you like . In the first week in june everything wants it cut and you either cut it or let someone else.
Youd wet yourself If you had to wait on a broken year. Youd be feeling the grass in one hand and ringing with the other.
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As they say, "A wet and windy May brings in the corn and hay."
 
The beauty of being practically in a town.
Your never far from grub 🤣


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Fair impressed with these mowers so far.
Brilliant to shave the ground and good to swarth stuff too
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TAFKAT said:
All those sound bytes sound lovely but that's not the way it works in the real world. Anyone who had their contractor booked last February for the 21st of May this year wouldn't have wanted to see him coming in the gate that morning. I suppose varying the rates could be an idea, charge extra for peak periods like most other industries. If you had your contractor booked for June 1st, and the weather was bad or the growth was poor, what would you say if he told you he was going to be with the guy who had him booked for the 24th of May and he wouldn't be with you until the 8th of June at the earliest? And don't tell me you'd tell him it was fine and you'd wait, you couldn't get off the phone quick enough to try another contractor, just like the vast majority.
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Vary the rates and charge by the ton has to be the most sensible way forward. My bits of first and second cut done earlier in the week probably cost the contractor 150% of what a heavy first cut would have costed. contractor has his work spread out and has his outfit rolling from the 20th of April onwards. Allowing your customers of all been ready to cut the one day by having serious available comes at a huge cost the the contractor and often probably not financial sense.

Maybe im a little different, but i would be pretty embarrassed to go getting an different silage contractor to do my job, if the lad doing it for the last 20yrs couldnt come for a week as there is a queue in front of me.
 
Trying to make sense of silage cutting for hire cannot be done.
It's a love thing.shiny machinery or even not so shiny interests most small boys and some of them never have to grow up fully thank God.each to their own.
There is a scraw of young lads that were working with contractors part time after starting on their own around here the last few years.they have jobs which presumably is how they are funding this .
Docket books are scarce.
They are young enough not to have
 
Not to have family commitments so this is ok for the moment as basically a hobby.Im not a bit saddened by this as I have basically retired from contracting due to having better things to do with my time financially speaking.
Of course that may not always be as good as it is now but I have always enjoyed working at something that's worthwhile.
For me contracting isn't that anymore.
I'm off to bake my own today and a bit for my right hand man to keep him happy
 
I’m doing some “liasing” this weekend, tell half its going to rain tomorrow so bale it today, ring a few now in an hour and say there could be showers in the afternoon so bale now, the others tell let it wilt till this evening it needs it. The ones you drag out till tomorrow because you told it needs to wilt tell half its going to rain in after noon so bale in morning and tell other half it needs the day to wilt 🤪
 
Masseyrk662 said:
I’m doing some “liasing” this weekend, tell half its going to rain tomorrow so bale it today, ring a few now in an hour and say there could be showers in the afternoon so bale now, the others tell let it wilt till this evening it needs it. The ones you drag out till tomorrow because you told it needs to wilt tell half its going to rain in after noon so bale in morning and tell other half it needs the day to wilt 🤪
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Our contractor in Galway was telling that he has a couple of customers that are very fussy. Meadows have to be mowed between 1pm and 5pm. They have to have them wuffled between the same times. Then he can't dare go to them first thing in the morning or late in the evening to bale. It's hard to liaise with those type. One lad has a really old New Holland haybob and sometimes he gets a notion to ted out the conditioner rows. Then he'll be waiting at the gate for the baler to arrive before he starts rowing it up - it could take 2 hours more than normal to bale the fields because he can't keep ahead of the baler - not to mention that the haybob is the worst thing ever for lumps.
 
muckymanor said:
Our contractor in Galway was telling that he has a couple of customers that are very fussy. Meadows have to be mowed between 1pm and 5pm. They have to have them wuffled between the same times. Then he can't dare go to them first thing in the morning or late in the evening to bale. It's hard to liaise with those type. One lad has a really old New Holland haybob and sometimes he gets a notion to ted out the conditioner rows. Then he'll be waiting at the gate for the baler to arrive before he starts rowing it up - it could take 2 hours more than normal to bale the fields because he can't keep ahead of the baler - not to mention that the haybob is the worst thing ever for lumps.
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I know what I'd do with him if I was the contractor, I'd tell him I was coming at a particular time and if he didn't like it, he could get someone else. Contractors in general provide a great service, but some farmers think they have a divine right to tell the contractor how to do this, when to come, etc etc. Funny enough, local to me anyways, it's usually the smaller part time farmers are the worst for this, couple of very particular men that probably are more hassle for the contractors than they are worth, the bigger lads seem a bit more relaxed about the whole thing. I would hate to be a contractor.
 
Masseyrk662 said:
I’m doing some “liasing” this weekend, tell half its going to rain tomorrow so bale it today, ring a few now in an hour and say there could be showers in the afternoon so bale now, the others tell let it wilt till this evening it needs it. The ones you drag out till tomorrow because you told it needs to wilt tell half its going to rain in after noon so bale in morning and tell other half it needs the day to wilt 🤪
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And hope none of them are following you on here 🤣
 
Nashty said:
I know what I'd do with him if I was the contractor, I'd tell him I was coming at a particular time and if he didn't like it, he could get someone else. Contractors in general provide a great service, but some farmers think they have a divine right to tell the contractor how to do this, when to come, etc etc. Funny enough, local to me anyways, it's usually the smaller part time farmers are the worst for this, couple of very particular men that probably are more hassle for the contractors than they are worth, the bigger lads seem a bit more relaxed about the whole thing. I would hate to be a contractor.
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He would say that it's the opposite - older, full time lads with loads of time on their hands that think that everyone has loads of time. He told me before about another lad that mows and rows his own silage. He has one 10 acre field and he could cut a few rounds of it at the start of June, leave the rest for hay, get a bit of weather 2 weeks later and cut half of what was left, then at the end of July when no hay weather came, he cut the rest and tramped all of the aftergrass growing on the outside. Contractor having to come to the field 3 times when it should all have been done the first day.

Most part-time farmers are pretty efficient. They'll usually have invested in descent kit to get things done fast because of time limits. It's the lads with too much time on their hands that love to cause hassle for contractors.
 
muckymanor said:
He would say that it's the opposite - older, full time lads with loads of time on their hands that think that everyone has loads of time. He told me before about another lad that mows and rows his own silage. He has one 10 acre field and he could cut a few rounds of it at the start of June, leave the rest for hay, get a bit of weather 2 weeks later and cut half of what was left, then at the end of July when no hay weather came, he cut the rest and tramped all of the aftergrass growing on the outside. Contractor having to come to the field 3 times when it should all have been done the first day.

Most part-time farmers are pretty efficient. They'll usually have invested in descent kit to get things done fast because of time limits. It's the lads with too much time on their hands that love to cause hassle for contractors.
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Not the case around us, as I said some very particular men and there is nothing wrong with having a bit of pride in your work but there has to be some realisation that people have other customers too. A few of them went off and bought their own balers for a finish and they are probably happier doing it themselves now I suppose, despite not having the scale to justify the cost of the gear.
 
Nashty said:
Not the case around us, as I said some very particular men and there is nothing wrong with having a bit of pride in your work but there has to be some realisation that people have other customers too. A few of them went off and bought their own balers for a finish and they are probably happier doing it themselves now I suppose, despite not having the scale to justify the cost of the gear.
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Every second farm around us has a baler, conditioner mower and wrapper - 75% of them making less than 120 bales a year and 90% of them making less than 200 bales. We'd be making approximately 800 bales all in and couldn't justify having our own baler.
 
My contractor has often spoken how awkward some lads are. I had grass bought off a lad a few years ago, told my contractor to get to it when he had time. a few days later the contractor rang to tell me the lad i had bought the grass from, had rang him 26times over the 2 previous days wanting to know when he was coming.

I just don't understand the panic on some people, all the work will get done, there is better machinery than ever to do it. I have been told by numerous contractors around here that part time farmers that are teachers are the worst, for some reason.
 
muckymanor said:
Our contractor in Galway was telling that he has a couple of customers that are very fussy. Meadows have to be mowed between 1pm and 5pm. They have to have them wuffled between the same times. Then he can't dare go to them first thing in the morning or late in the evening to bale. It's hard to liaise with those type. One lad has a really old New Holland haybob and sometimes he gets a notion to ted out the conditioner rows. Then he'll be waiting at the gate for the baler to arrive before he starts rowing it up - it could take 2 hours more than normal to bale the fields because he can't keep ahead of the baler - not to mention that the haybob is the worst thing ever for lumps.
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It doesnt be too bad when you know a man is fussy. You can work around it by goin to other customers first thing in the morning or after him in the evening. Helps when they are good payers, nowt worse than a fussy bad payer
 
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