Friday 23 September 2016

Silage in.

The weather here is nothing like as good as it was yesterday.  Although dry, it is fairly cloudy, quite cool and breezy.   But the farmer is concerned that it will rain shortly, so this afternoon the contractors are here rowing up, baling and wrapping the last of the grass.   The farmer has spent the morning tossing it up to get rid of as much moisture as he can.
We really can't wait any longer.

I walked up the lane with Tess for a little way to take a photograph of him tossing the grass in the last field.   Sorry it is a bad photograph but I was balancing myself with my stick, holding on to Tess with her lead and trying to take the photograph with one hand.   But hopefully you get the general idea.

On the verges the grasses are dying and on the hedgerows the hawthorn berries are now bright red and bead-like.   If only the birds would leave them until it is really cold weather - but I know they won't.   It is as though they are attracted to the bright red and really must eat them at the earliest  opportunity.

As I write the farmer is passing the window with the first load of fifteen wrapped bales to add to the stack.   He likes to get them in as quickly as possible, before the crows and the rabbits start to nibble away.   By this evening they will, hopefully, all be in and that will be the most important job for winter over and done with.




20 comments:

Yorkshire Pudding said...

I am putting you forward for a QMSB medal (Queen's Medal for Services to Blogging). Leaning on a walking stick whilst holding a dog on a lead, juggling three Outspan oranges and still managing to snap photos for this blogpost shows extraordinary commitment and dedication.

Heather said...

I do like Yorkshire Pudding's comment and agree with him. Well done to the Farmer for getting the silage in before the weather changes again. I am hoping to cut our lawns tomorrow before the grass gets to the point of be suitable for silage!
It looks as if you are surrounded by beautiful scenery - lovely fields and hedgerows.

The Weaver of Grass said...

YP - not sure where the oranges come in - but I love them, so would happily try jugglinf them as well.

Terry and Linda said...

I so agree with Yorkshire Pudding...I love seeing your farm and watching the seasons.

Linda

Derek Faulkner said...

Lush green grass, what a wonderful sight, almost forgot what it looks like! Beautiful, very warm and cloudless day here, still no proper rain forecast for the rest of the month.

Joanne Noragon said...

Summer's almost gone, winter's coming on--Bob Dylan sang that, along with many other artists.

Barbara said...

Sadly, we haven't seen lush greenness like yours in quite some time.
The hawthorn berries are beautiful, I love the red/green combination. You can really tell the seasons are changing!

Librarian said...

Here's another one of your readers agreeing with YP's comment!
Good job Tess did not pull at her leash.
I like the bright colours of berries in autumn, and rosehips especially. In my part of Germany, rosehips are made into a kind of jam; very rich in vitamin C, I am told. It is sweet but unlike any other type of jam I know, and looks more like ketchup if you don't know what it is (but tastes nothing like ketchup).

angryparsnip said...

YP has really said it all !
I alway enjoy your photos.

cheers, parsnip

Rachel Phillips said...

Do the farmersuse different expressions in the Dales? Rowing up is nothing I have heard here. We call it turning. The machine used is a turner. Is it an expression you use as a layman or is it what they say in the Dales?

Tom Stephenson said...

Jugllinf and farmersuse - I live in a different world.

Cro Magnon said...

The tractor has very clean tyres.... a good sign, I would say.

Derek Faulkner said...

I may be wrong here but I imagine that after the Farmer had tossed the grass about to reduce the moisture, using the machinery that he was, "rowing up" would be then the action of bunching the grass in straight rows ready for the baler to follow.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Too answer Rachel's question. I am sure the terms used vary from place to place.
Here when silage is made the grass is cut with a cutter (pretty standard term I would have thought), then tossed to get rid of moisture (often early morning heavy dew this time of the year) with a hay bob, then rowed up in straight lines by a rower, baled by a baler and wrapped by a wrapper.

Thanks everyone for showing such interest. All in and stacked now and the fields all yellow, but that will soon change as they green up. Then the over-wintering sheep will arrive.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Sorry about the extra o in the first word.

Rachel Phillips said...

Yes, Weave, thank you. I understood exactly what rowing up means it is just not something we say here. We just say "the hay needs turning" and go out and turn it and the turner leaves it in rows automatically. Never mind.

Frances said...

Thank you all so much for expanding my knowledge of what needs doing at this time of the year. xo

Gwil W said...

I've just been reading up on Wikipedia. I never realized that "silage" was such an interesting subject.

Fairtrader said...

Try being swedish and getting the inner meaning of all these special terms that are used here!! I have to use the dictionary every five sentence, and sometimes it doesn't even exist. But as I have told John, I do learn a lot of useful and interesting words connected to either a profession or a mood...... Thank you Weaver for this autumn in the fields-view!!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks everyone.