The grazing season

Brought the first 24 big bullocks in yesterday ,Monday to Tuesday has been one of the longest dry spells theres been since the Highland show .25 acres of what was meant for second cut is now getting grazed here. The joys of farming heavy ground in a wet area.
 
Badly need some sunshine and drying,ground is getting messy and while grass is flying it must be seriously deficient in energy with all the rain.
 
Things are getting in a bad way now down with here as well, grazing a field here yesterday that was reseed two years ago I had to move them into a different field last night too much damage been done. Second cut to be done yet but too much water on the ground to cut it, really need sunshine now and dry weather or cows will have to be housed !
 
Its been raining here this past two months, I think there has only been five full days without rain in that time, there has been a lot of damage done to fields locally trying to get the first cut done, the few that have done the second cut lifted it straight after moving it. If it keeps up we will be housing in two weeks time
 
Turning out to be a proper ball ache of a year here. Got first cut done at the end of the fine snap early on in the year but am waiting for a fine 2 days to get the second cut. Ground is getting sticky everywhere but grass is growing well.
 
This picture sums it up for lads on heavy land and the cows were off this since 1pm today and put standing in the yard
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Feck some of ye lads are getting a right hard time this year! Have a heavy farm myself but thankfully getting by just grand grass and ground wise this year! Grass hasn't let up in growth since it kicked off the end of April. Every sympathy for ye lads in the west and south West! Hopefully ye will get a more promising back end to the year to make up for this hardship at present!
 
This picture sums it up for lads on heavy land and the cows were off this since 1pm today and put standing in the yard View attachment 38454
Feck, ye lads are getting it tough. Heavy ground here too but we ain't getting the colour of the rain ye are, I could just about drive our Transit across any of our fields today, going mowing 2 surplus paddocks here now, not the most ideal conditions but I don't think it's going to get any better in a hurry.
 
This picture sums it up for lads on heavy land and the cows were off this since 1pm today and put standing in the yard View attachment 38454
Feck, ye lads are getting it tough. Heavy ground here too but we ain't getting the colour of the rain ye are, I could just about drive our Transit across any of our fields today, going mowing 2 surplus paddocks here now, not the most ideal conditions but I don't think it's going to get any better in a hurry. Im still licking wounds from 2012 here though!
 
Feck, ye lads are getting it tough. Heavy ground here too but we ain't getting the colour of the rain ye are, I could just about drive our Transit across any of our fields today, going mowing 2 surplus paddocks here now, not the most ideal conditions but I don't think it's going to get any better in a hurry. Im still licking wounds from 2012 here though!
Believe me we all are brucey. What will be will be. Hopefully we get a good back end again this year like last year.
 
Don't think I have ever seen growth rates like this. Good land has been over a 100kgs/ha day for most of the last month. I'm on mostly dry ground that needs rain 48 weeks of the year. 10 miles west where land I used to have and it's a very very different story
 
These past few years I do keep a record of the weather and how well the grass is growing and I was looking back through it the other night and I found that this year is fairly similar to 2011 both in weather and grazing conditions and the only year in the past 5 that I wrote down about the amount of extra silage made around locally. I was showing a man my records the other day and he thought it was pointless but I think that next summer will be a wet and difficult year.
 
2010 was an exceptional fine good growthy summer and dry well into november ,while 2011 was not as fine but equally growthy but grazing finished up here end of october .The one thing i like about this summer is we are not getting serious floods and it is mild enough compared to previous shty summers ,a fine spell now would put it up there with the good summers of 2010 and ahead of 2011
 
This picture sums it up for lads on heavy land and the cows were off this since 1pm today and put standing in the yard View attachment 38454

And I'm still praying for more rain ha, GR dropped back to about 35 the last 10days. We get the odd shower every few days, just about kept things moving during July, bales have always been only afew days away ha! I've said it enough times already, some insane variation in weather on this little island!
 
Have seen some of my fields like that more than once this year :scared:
And theres lads on here in worse conditions than us. God help them though.
 
I farm on a heavy farm here, and I really have to empathise with the lads over on the Western side of the country this year having seen pictures over the summer of the hardship they're enduring.
We have had a fantastic year (April excluded) here with minimal rainfall all summer.
Any gobshyte can farm dry land, but there are so many decisions to make on a day to day basis when the weather is working against you.
Meal;amount/type
Grass; which field, can it be grazed, is there grass on it, how long can I leave them on it
Fertiliser ;can I get any out, will it be washed away, whats the forecast for the next few days
Silage to feed;do I have to feed it, will I open a pit or will I waste too much, will it ruin their appetite before letting cows out, what affect will it have on milk
Silage to cut; do I wait for weather to pick up and let grass get strong and thus lower the quality or cut in less than ideal conditions and thus lower the quality or can the machines work in the fields at all.
Housing;do I leave cows in when it's warm and they'll be dirty for milking or leave them out on a wet field.
Slurry; same as fertiliser.

With all these things are on your mind along with a bad milk price and then you go on to twitter to see a picture of someone a couple of counties away wondering if they should bale their surplus paddock today or leave it down another day to wilt it further.
 
I farm on a heavy farm here, and I really have to empathise with the lads over on the Western side of the country this year having seen pictures over the summer of the hardship they're enduring.
We have had a fantastic year (April excluded) here with minimal rainfall all summer.
Any gobshyte can farm dry land, but there are so many decisions to make on a day to day basis when the weather is working against you.
Meal;amount/type
Grass; which field, can it be grazed, is there grass on it, how long can I leave them on it
Fertiliser ;can I get any out, will it be washed away, whats the forecast for the next few days
Silage to feed;do I have to feed it, will I open a pit or will I waste too much, will it ruin their appetite before letting cows out, what affect will it have on milk
Silage to cut; do I wait for weather to pick up and let grass get strong and thus lower the quality or cut in less than ideal conditions and thus lower the quality or can the machines work in the fields at all.
Housing;do I leave cows in when it's warm and they'll be dirty for milking or leave them out on a wet field.
Slurry; same as fertiliser.

With all these things are on your mind along with a bad milk price and then you go on to twitter to see a picture of someone a couple of counties away wondering if they should bale their surplus paddock today or leave it down another day to wilt it further.
And I thought I was the only one who asked myself these questions??
 
I farm on a heavy farm here, and I really have to empathise with the lads over on the Western side of the country this year having seen pictures over the summer of the hardship they're enduring.
We have had a fantastic year (April excluded) here with minimal rainfall all summer.
Any gobshyte can farm dry land, but there are so many decisions to make on a day to day basis when the weather is working against you.
Meal;amount/type
Grass; which field, can it be grazed, is there grass on it, how long can I leave them on it
Fertiliser ;can I get any out, will it be washed away, whats the forecast for the next few days
Silage to feed;do I have to feed it, will I open a pit or will I waste too much, will it ruin their appetite before letting cows out, what affect will it have on milk
Silage to cut; do I wait for weather to pick up and let grass get strong and thus lower the quality or cut in less than ideal conditions and thus lower the quality or can the machines work in the fields at all.
Housing;do I leave cows in when it's warm and they'll be dirty for milking or leave them out on a wet field.
Slurry; same as fertiliser.

With all these things are on your mind along with a bad milk price and then you go on to twitter to see a picture of someone a couple of counties away wondering if they should bale their surplus paddock today or leave it down another day to wilt it further.
Think you summed it up for a lot of us there! Similarly farming on a heavy farm here not too far away as you know! Great year for us too and similar condolences to those getting it tough
 
I don't we realise how lucky we are compared to the lads in the west.

Dstig, would be it be normal for you to see the likes of that at this time of the year for a day or two or is it the sheer bulk of rain?

I'd be a fairly avid watcher of the Farming Weather on a Sunday at dinnertime and its not often this summer that we have seen rainfall below average
 
Well as you know I'm a Kerryman and as the crow flies only less than 15miles from the Atlantic sea so when she dumps rain we are the first to get it. 2012was a very bad year I had my cows in for 8weeks of the summer, this year I've just about managed to keep them out but within the last week we have had over 50mm of rain in a couple of days , this time of the year it's just too much to handle as our land was very wet anyway.There is massive difference between east and west in this country when it comes to rainfall , On a plus grass growth was good
 
ground in bad shape in parts of Clare as well, good job yerterday and today have come good, ive a creep feeder in one field and its starting to disappear!
only thing is grass growth in unreal, even fields that were cut secondly recently seem to have greened up in jig time
 
I was on the road a lot down the country these past few days and I was surprised to the amount of toppers still working in fields at this time of the year. Maybe im wrong but I think its pointless topping grassland at this stage of the year.
 
I was on the road a lot down the country these past few days and I was surprised to the amount of toppers still working in fields at this time of the year. Maybe im wrong but I think its pointless topping grassland at this stage of the year.
I think it's pointless at any time of the year.....Haven't hooked to our topper this year yet.
 
I think it's pointless at any time of the year.....Haven't hooked to our topper this year yet.
I think it's an essential part of management,any paddock not cut for bales here will get at least one rub of the mower.
 
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