This morning there was a change in the weather as yet another front heads our way ...
the clouds were more prominent today and that is the end of hay making for this year.
<<< on this field where the mini bales were harvested, the sheep were let loose to forage where they may. The harvest here was good this year, with almost double the crop compared to previous years but the mini bales take a lot of effort to get safely stored and the farming family were working until dark to get the whole of the harvest safely stored in the farm barn. Luckily they managed before the weather changed to overnight rain. Others were not quite so lucky despite all the dawn to dusk efforts of many local farmers and what could have been large bales of hay got dampened by the rain and had to be turned in to bales of silage.
These were yesterdays fields >>>
with the large, plastic wrapped bales, but at least for winter fodder, the crop is not totally wasted, both sheep and cattle will be well fed during the winter months ahead and for this farmer over 30 acres of land has been harvested in a mixture of hay and silage. His sheep will be well cared for in the colder months of the year when they come in from the commons to the in bye fields.
But at least, the winter feed for this farm's cattle and sheep is safely harvested in.
the clouds were more prominent today and that is the end of hay making for this year.
<<< on this field where the mini bales were harvested, the sheep were let loose to forage where they may. The harvest here was good this year, with almost double the crop compared to previous years but the mini bales take a lot of effort to get safely stored and the farming family were working until dark to get the whole of the harvest safely stored in the farm barn. Luckily they managed before the weather changed to overnight rain. Others were not quite so lucky despite all the dawn to dusk efforts of many local farmers and what could have been large bales of hay got dampened by the rain and had to be turned in to bales of silage.
with the large, plastic wrapped bales, but at least for winter fodder, the crop is not totally wasted, both sheep and cattle will be well fed during the winter months ahead and for this farmer over 30 acres of land has been harvested in a mixture of hay and silage. His sheep will be well cared for in the colder months of the year when they come in from the commons to the in bye fields.
Meanwhile another farmer brings a down country hay harvest safely back home ...
These big four foot wide bales, equate approximately to ten to twelve mini bales, but where as these can be totally harvested by one man and various machines, the mini bales need many willing human hands to bale, load and store. That all adds to the price for those that want the smaller bales for the feeding of horses. Last year mini bales reached a high price of about £8.00 per bale. expensive but one can see why given the manual effort needed to harvest the hay in that way. So few realise the long hours our farmers work to produce a crop, many here have been up from early morning until long after dusk.
Another hard working insect has been creating this pupae case. Now I have no idea what created this small cocoon that I found on a rush stem today,but obviously the effort involved by such a small insect is quite amazing and probably comparable to the hours that have been put in to ensuring that the future of our farming carries on to next year. Be it insect or human, one thing is for sure ... many of this wide variety of life is trying to ensure that the there is a continuation of each species for the future. And an amazing thing to think about is that, somehow, what ever the weather, there is something different happening every day. It just takes a little time to notice the changes. The cocoon is safe home here, it has an inch long, black crysalis inside, so hopefully something identifiable will emerge from it's casing. It really is a wonderful construction and not one I've seen on the rushes on the commons land here. It may take sometime to update you on this one.
Brief addition re large hay bales , I got a better photograph of this well laden tractor, bringing home part of the down country harvest. There are 24, 4ft bales on this Marshall's trailer ... given the weight of each bale is at least 250 kg's , that's one helluva weight for a trailer of hay! No wonder he was driving so slowly and carefully.
Now ... due to the wet weather, many acres of potential hay had to be turned into silage. This is where the damp hay is now baled in plastic wrap which prevents the contents turning mouldy by denying the crop air and also encouraging the heat to ferment it. These bales weigh considerably heavier and need careful handling so as not to spike the bales.
Plastic wrap can be pale green or black, apparently the colour makes little difference to the fermentation process and the bales are easier to deal with than huge silage pits.
The harvest of all these four foot bales comes in at about 10 - 12 per acre. On this farm the mowing machinery wasn't cropping as low as possible leaving about 5 - 6 inches of grass meaning the loss of a bale per acre. This may not seem much ... but over a harvest of 30 acres, that's a loss of 30 bales (hay or silage) to be stored for winter feed, which is quite a considerable amount come the harshness of our mountain, snowbound winter months.
Another problem is moving just four bales at a time from the out-bye fields to the home farm barn, takes four, slow, carefully driven trips up and down the slopes of the mountain just for this small field. All this takes hours out of the working day, but worth the effort.
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