Phew, all hay in!

[harveydales]

Still tired this morning but we managed to get all our hay in yesterday and it's the best hay we've ever made! This is the first time in over 20 years of haymaking on our land that we've been able to cut at the optimum time, bale with no problems and allow the bales to stay out in the field in HOT SUNSHINE for several days before leading in.

We were so lucky as the day we planned to get the hay in was the first cooler, cloudy but dry day and no morning dew. Couldn't have been better. Tom and Andy did all the heavy work with the tractor and trailer and all the stacking. This year I refused to do any stacking without help. Our bales are just too heavy - at least 1 1/2 times the weight of normal small bales. Instead I raked the whole 4 acre field because the baler misses an awful lot due to our ridge and furrow land. Must have gathered in about 10 bales in loose hay! Everything is safely in the barn now - only 155 actual VERY HEAVY bales plus all the loose stuff. Such a relief.

[flintfootfilly]

Brilliant! Such a relief to have the hay in, and especially when it's good quality stuff.

Sarah

[SuzieP]

Wonderful! Well done all of you. And now you can plan for the rest of the summer without worrying that you might have to cancel for haymaking. Bonus!

[newbie]

well done, and relax...

[valerie n scout]

Ww brilliant we are getting our hay delivered today, some time, I am going to cut Scouts field too, you never know I may be able to save some of that, it's got a lot of hog weed in it so I will have to try to avoid that stuff and separate it !

[Fi]

well done you!, such a pleasure to have a summer where so many people have been able to get their hay cut and dried and stacked.

[DalesLady]

That's great Pam, same here, although we did it last weekend.

[lucydales]

Well done Pam.
Mine was July too. Great hay. 700 bales. And I now have a barn to put the 300 I kept in.
I did 20 in June too (long story!)

[harveydales]

Aug 27, 2013 20:47:50 GMT -1 lucydales said:

Well done Pam.
Mine was July too. Great hay. 700 bales. And I now have a barn to put the 300 I kept in.
I did 20 in June too (long story!)

I like "hay making stories". Do tell now!

[DalesLady]

We were lucky when we did ours too Pam, perfect conditions and yes like you, we didn't need to bring them all in the same day. Ours were led in over two evenings because we are both at work elsewhere. We made around 400 of them, also made 134 large round bales and we are now 10 days away from getting a second cut this year which will be silage for the cows. Its seven years since were able to make proper little bales of hay and the same since we got a second cut and we are hoping that we may not have to buy extra bales in this year. Even better this year is the fact that it is all quality stuff, not stalky or seedy.