The grasses have been checked for compaction but suprisingly they are all good, the crop roots are heading down through the soils and will be able to get at the nutrients required to grow.

Completley weather driven some hay fields in 2012 did not even have a 2nd cut leaving them raggy and not good to graze.  Once the sheep arrived from www.sixvalleylamb.co.uk to clean up the pastures they didn t get enough time before ground conditions deteriorated leaving the pastures still rough and off they went back to the Wolds.

Harrowing will be a bigger job this year with some grasses likley to be done 2-3 times to pull out what effectivley the sheep would have eaten.

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2012 hay is now being distributed to our customers.  Normally we would expect approx 1% of bales to have issues with dust when at the end of the day we are dealing with a natural product, this year we are finding that percentage to be higher given the conditions when making the hay.

At Smithy Briggs we use a hay preservative ‘Balers Choice’ this product is pH neutral and completely safe and its job is to stop mould growth which subsequently causes dust.  It works up to a moisture content of 27%.  Generally ‘Balers Choice’ cannot combat a ‘wet lump’ which has not dried.  In a year like this given the extreme wet the incidence of ‘wet lumps’ at baling time will be higher and this is the problem.

We aim to supply quality hay and when customers have a significant problem they simply get their money back, or usually a free bale!

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Wheat straw harvest promised better yields of straw, quite the opposite to the grain it was producing.  Early harvested crops produced good yields and reasonable quality straw but as harvest became delayed crops deteriorated leaving a broken up product after the combine.  In the peak of the wheat straw harvest dry weather prevailed (thankfully!) but his will mean alot of straw, although dry, will not provide a good bedding material.

Tonnages are up at Smithy Briggs which will go towards meeting existing customer demands for straw and hopefully taking on some new customers throughout the year!

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The first known casulaty at Smithy Briggs where the Vining Peas, due to nothing but wet since planting there was barely 10% of the field where there was even a crop growing,  the rest had literally died and rotted.  Oilseed Rape yieled the farm 5 year average yield which was respectable!

As for Wheat, every farmer would have reported an excelltnt looking crop in early April, since then the wet and dull weather meant disease pressure was enormous and lack of sunshine left the corp unable to actually produce grain as designed!  Wheat crop yields varied higely around farms with localised disease pressures leaving some crops desimated.  Unfortunatley Smithy Briggs block of 50 acres of wheat was one of the blocks where disease took hold.  The yield was less than 1/2 of the 5 year average.

Mother Nature reminds us that nothing will beat her – if we needed reminding!

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Haymaking is always a challenge in the UK climate.  2012 is proving to be more difficult than any other harvest.  In June we managed 17 acres of hay when normally we would have done +/- 300 acres! 

Cutting and hay making Meadow hay in July and August after a wet April-June has left battered wet crops, not a good start for quality.  Late, laid over crops mean that there is some mould growth in the base of the crop where it is so wet and the crop is further through its growth stages which means it is not as green and good looking as we would like.

Seed hay is advanced in its growth stages but in the main its still standing meaning quality is good for the year.

Yields are higher than the last few years which mean the at Smithy Briggs the sheds are nearly as full as last year but at least 150 acres of land has not even been cut, some will be completely wasted due to lack of quality.

The late 1st cut is bound to have a knock on effect to 2nd cuts.

The post HAY UPDATE appeared first on Smithy Briggs Hay & Straw.

Machines and men are poised and ready to get stuck into the grass harvest but a big concern now is shear workload when combines start rolling in a few weeks and straw is to be baled also.

Standing grass has been laid over for some time now and there will be quality issues in places, ground conditions will be wet making the whole process of hay making very tricky, in fact its nothing we have not dealt with before if not this late in the season!  The hay crops are well through there growth stages and therefore will take less killing which will work in our favour.

Here’s to some sunshine! Soon

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The crop yielded well after the April rain, 387 bales where made in 6ft mini
hestons at average of 60% DM which equates to approx 2.2 dry matter tonnes
per acre.

Haylage and hay is still a good week to ten days away in East Yorkshire as
the early crops are just starting to head up.

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