Haying or lack of

[Horse]

Foggy this morn 8 degrees first time ever i have not made hay this late,got about 40 acres baled some is still hay but some just to get off field, 240 acres to go plus 65 new seeded,fields to soft to go and water standing in all low places,new stuff a disaster weedy volinter bly cant even cross with quad without making tracks,forecast for next 14 days are 12 with showers or rain.
Dont know what silage fields are going to be like but i feel sorry for those trying to make silage.

[Sheepwheat]

There was a tiny, tiny window to get some cut and baled. A few guys got lucky. But little daily showers, extreme humidity, and lack of heat in a week that was supposed to be hot, has made this hay season dreadful.

I haven’t seen it so windy, AND humid at the same time, usually wind helps dry. Yesterday the cut hay was wetter than the day before, high was 17 bit of rain overnight, and just wouldn’t dry.

Let alone the nasty conditions you are going through. Wow.

[flea beetle]

Haven’t cut one blade of hay yet. Waiting...and waiting...and waiting. I sell all of my hay, so can not afford to get rained on. Was late getting going this spring with the drought in May, so it is not horribly stemy/old yet, but getting on the later side. Guys would rather see green and old, than black.

On the bright side, only a few thousand bales to go! Not bad if you say it fast. Then on to the greenfeed.

[Redone]

Foggy this morn 8 degrees first time ever i have not made hay this late,got about 40 acres baled some is still hay but some just to get off field, 240 acres to go plus 65 new seeded,fields to soft to go and water standing in all low places,new stuff a disaster weedy volinter bly cant even cross with quad without making tracks,forecast for next 14 days are 12 with showers or rain.
Dont know what silage fields are going to be like but i feel sorry for those trying to make silage.

Are you up in the peace?

[sumdumguy]

Here, near Regina where conditions are good for haying, we have very little. The swath is so thin that it dries out in a day. Which scenario would you rather have? Guess both suck, eh?

[Horse]

Are you up in the peace?

Not quite ,north west edmonton.

[flea beetle]

Not quite ,north west edmonton.

Did you get that baseball sized hail the northwest side of Edmonton got?

[woodland]

Here, near Regina where conditions are good for haying, we have very little. The swath is so thin that it dries out in a day. Which scenario would you rather have? Guess both suck, eh?

You’re right both suck but I’d rather take too much rain over too little. We haven’t gone 48 hours without rain since June 20 and nobody has put up hay without it getting washed. Lots of guys haven’t even started yet. We started silage baling after watching the first field get washed for a week and the second cut grew threw the swathes. Rolled and wrapped it and another 2,000 bales until the final day where the crop was really light in the last field and we managed to get 400 dry green looking bales and wrapped 150 bales out of the heavy low spots. The plan was to sell every bale but that’s not going to happen now. At least there’s plenty of grass for the cows ......... just wish the heat would show up someday.





Been playing in the mud lots and seems to be continuing.

[TASFarms]

I just came from drayton valley. There is way too much moisture there. have to get east of pigeon lake to get nice crops that aren’t drown out.

[Horse]

Did you get that baseball sized hail the northwest side of Edmonton got?

Missed the hail but got 1-3/10 rain good thing it came so hard it ran away,but of course it stoped in the low areas,an old fellow here told me once they didnt hay until sept mabey will happen again.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Here, near Regina where conditions are good for haying, we have very little. The swath is so thin that it dries out in a day. Which scenario would you rather have? Guess both suck, eh?

That is my biggest complaint about growing hay. We can either grow a crop big enough to make it economic, but then there is no way to get it up in good shape, sometimes even becoming worthless, or we can grow a poor crop, which gets up in great shape easily, but still doesn't pay the bills.

And the years when you need to hot sunny windy weather to dry a heavy crop, we don't get it, the same moisture that grew the crop never quits, and on the years when the crop is really light, the same hot dry weather continues on even though it isn't required to dry such a light crop.

I would rather have a great crop and great haying weather, but the two rarely seem to occur on the same year.

[woodland]

That is my biggest complaint about growing hay. We can either grow a crop big enough to make it economic, but then there is no way to get it up in good shape, sometimes even becoming worthless, or we can grow a poor crop, which gets up in great shape easily, but still doesn't pay the bills.

And the years when you need to hot sunny windy weather to dry a heavy crop, we don't get it, the same moisture that grew the crop never quits, and on the years when the crop is really light, the same hot dry weather continues on even though it isn't required to dry such a light crop.

I would rather have a great crop and great haying weather, but the two rarely seem to occur on the same year.

I’ll second that.
I wish the last 6+ inches I could bottle up and save for the next dry spell whenever that is. I’m glad we put everything into barley instead of canola and wheat since the season is dragging on in slow motion with this cold wet weather. Everything is 2-4 weeks behind and we’re only 6 weeks away from when it snowed last year.

[ajl]

Here, near Regina where conditions are good for haying, we have very little. The swath is so thin that it dries out in a day. Which scenario would you rather have? Guess both suck, eh?

We had that last year but did have bales of good quality. The only thing in a bale so far this year is fit only for bedding and poor quality bedding at that. Which would you rather have? Did get to see a tractor and baler stuck in a hay field this year for the first time in my life. Haying terrible here east of Edmonton as well.