wheather for silage? (views)

coolio kidddd

hi guys, ive been keeping a gud eye on d met eireann website the last few days and by what they were sayin the last few days is that saturday, sunday and monday are going to be good but they are changing their story every day............thinking of cutting tomorrow saturday but im wondering is a good idea at all.......im in clare by the way and about 30 acres to cut in bales.............anyone have any views on the wheather situation for silage is it too risky this weekend??? thanks

reilig

coolio kidddd wrote: »

hi guys, ive been keeping a gud eye on d met eireann website the last few days and by what they were sayin the last few days is that saturday, sunday and monday are going to be good but they are changing their story every day............thinking of cutting tomorrow saturday but im wondering is a good idea at all.......im in clare by the way and about 30 acres to cut in bales.............anyone have any views on the wheather situation for silage is it too risky this weekend??? thanks

I'm planning on cutting tomorrow afternoon, shaking out the silage right after it, shaking it out again on sunday (its supposed to be warm) and rowing it up on sunday evening for baling on monday morning. I've been following the weather on www.weather.com and following this chart http://www.met.ie/forecasts/5day-ireland.asp both of which appear to be very conflicting. However, I have reached a point where I have to do something. Meadows are gone too heavy and lying over. If they are left for much longer, they will begin to rot at the butt. I'm going to take the chance and mow whenever I get a few dry hours.

polod

reilig wrote: »

I'm planning on cutting tomorrow afternoon, shaking out the silage right after it, shaking it out again on sunday (its supposed to be warm) and rowing it up on sunday evening for baling on monday morning. I've been following the weather on www.weather.com and following this chart http://www.met.ie/forecasts/5day-ireland.asp both of which appear to be very conflicting. However, I have reached a point where I have to do something. Meadows are gone too heavy and lying over. If they are left for much longer, they will begin to rot at the butt. I'm going to take the chance and mow whenever I get a few dry hours.

Best of luck with the silage hope ya get it baled and wrapped dry

Tora Bora

Started raining here this morning at 8 AM. Rained non stop since. Very heavy, cold rain. Looks like continuing for several more hours at least. It's one disaster of a year.
Half a notion of weaning spring calved cows real early and flogging calves while going is good. I mean say wean in August. Start meal feeding next week.
I'm having visions of poor Sept / Oct trade the way weather is treating the silage season. I expect a lot more weanlings on the market at that time due to lack of / poor fodder in yards.
Potential buyers won't be a lot better off fodder wise ......... so poor trade beckons

eorna

same boat here, think i'll go for it this week end and take my chances, weather looks decent enough..otherwise will be too strong and too late for second cut..

roosterman71

I've 52 acres to cut. 22 acres of that will get another mowing in September/early October, so I want to get it mown and baled soon. I'd it planned in to do around the 12th of June. 2 weeks late now and its lying flat in places. I've bout 20 acres if hay too. I want a few dry days before cutting it anyway. Be harder trying to do cut it if its wet. More hardship on machines (and me) and the bales are heavier too.

Regarding the weather, ya can't go too far wrong here on boards. Check this thread for daily updates. He's usually pretty accurate.

coolio kidddd

thanks very much for ye're input and links lads it looks like it will have to be done this weekend so lets hope for the best

reilig

No rain since saturday morning. But the mrs was shopping in 2 towns with a 10 mile radious of us and both had heavy rain on saturday afternoon. Cut 20 acres yesterday evening and I was very surprised with the good ground conditions. Very heavy crops - never seen them as heavy. But I will need the extra bales. Had to let cows in on a meadow yesterday morning because there is just no grass and I have to keep fairly good grass ahead of cows and calves if I intend selling the calves in autumn.

MT Cranium's forecase this morning looks reasonably good for the week - no downpours anyway and next weekend looks promising. A few isolated showers but we'll just have to take the chance. Contractor with conditioner mower coming in tomorrow to knock 30 acres on an outfarm. Would usually do it myself but can't justify the time to drive the 60 miles with the tractor and disc mower this year. Hopefully we will get a few dry days and be able to get it all baled up without too much water.

whelan1

the local fella who knows everything about everything mowed his on thursday and started baling at dinner time on friday , lashed rain most of the afternoon friday:rolleyes::rolleyes: yet when i commented on it to him yesterday , he said not one bale was baled in the wet:o thy had to leave a few acres and baled it yesterday , he said it was in great order yesterday - after getting torrential rain on it... some people are never wrong

locky76

I cut 20 acres last night, i'll shake it out today and get the contractor to rake it up and bale it tomorrow.
It really had to be done as like Reilig it was starting to wilt and has gone way too heavy, it should relally have been cut two weeks ago.

reilig wrote: »

No rain since saturday morning. But the mrs was shopping in 2 towns with a 10 mile radious of us and both had heavy rain on saturday afternoon. Cut 20 acres yesterday evening and I was very surprised with the good ground conditions. Very heavy crops - never seen them as heavy. But I will need the extra bales. Had to let cows in on a meadow yesterday morning because there is just no grass and I have to keep fairly good grass ahead of cows and calves if I intend selling the calves in autumn.

MT Cranium's forecase this morning looks reasonably good for the week - no downpours anyway and next weekend looks promising. A few isolated showers but we'll just have to take the chance. Contractor with conditioner mower coming in tomorrow to knock 30 acres on an outfarm. Would usually do it myself but can't justify the time to drive the 60 miles with the tractor and disc mower this year. Hopefully we will get a few dry days and be able to get it all baled up without too much water.

irishh_bob

reilig wrote: »

No rain since saturday morning. But the mrs was shopping in 2 towns with a 10 mile radious of us and both had heavy rain on saturday afternoon. Cut 20 acres yesterday evening and I was very surprised with the good ground conditions. Very heavy crops - never seen them as heavy. But I will need the extra bales. Had to let cows in on a meadow yesterday morning because there is just no grass and I have to keep fairly good grass ahead of cows and calves if I intend selling the calves in autumn.

MT Cranium's forecase this morning looks reasonably good for the week - no downpours anyway and next weekend looks promising. A few isolated showers but we'll just have to take the chance. Contractor with conditioner mower coming in tomorrow to knock 30 acres on an outfarm. Would usually do it myself but can't justify the time to drive the 60 miles with the tractor and disc mower this year. Hopefully we will get a few dry days and be able to get it all baled up without too much water.

the forecasts have been completley haywire this summer , the farmers journal last thursday , were giving a whole bad week for this week , so too was rte as late as saturday afternoon , all of a sudden the weather forecast changed late saturday evening and not only had we a very warm sunday , this week is to be good all of a sudden

reilig

irishh_bob wrote: »

the forecasts have been completley haywire this summer , the farmers journal last thursday , were giving a whole bad week for this week , so too was rte as late as saturday afternoon , all of a sudden the weather forecast changed late saturday evening and not only had we a very warm sunday , this week is to be good all of a sudden

I have subscribed to MT Cranium's thread which sends me an email any time that he posts a forecast. The only thing about him is that he is honest. If he doesn't know or cannot tell what the weather will be like, he will say it. RTE are chancing their leg most of the time.

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

No rain since saturday morning.

God you were very lucky Reilig with your silage. It never stopped raining here all of Saturday. Yesterday very warm +18C, but cloudy.

Still alot of heavy meadows standing around these parts, it's hard to get a few dry day together.

blue5000

Mowed mine this morning, picking it up this evening all going well. unbelievable amount of slugs. bbc forecast thunder, hope it stays dry for a few more hours.

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

God you were very lucky Reilig with your silage. It never stopped raining here all of Saturday. Yesterday very warm +18C, but cloudy.

Still alot of heavy meadows standing around these parts, it's hard to get a few dry day together.

Yea, I was over that way on friday. There's very little cut and its unusual for that part of the country. I'll bet there is a few cutting around there today though?!

DaNiEl1994

great weather in clare yesterday and today! got all our silage mowed today and hopefully tommorow will be good baleing at 11! fingers crossed

BOND747

weather forecasting is very unpredictable, they seem to have got it wrong a good few times this summer or else they give a bit of everything so they cant be wrong. i cut this evening so fingers crossed its a dry 24hrs

Birdnuts

There is now a window of dry weather till next monday - after that it looks like a week of heavy thundery downpours for all!!