Thursday 12 July 2012

Bite the Bullet.


Well, it has been a sunny day today and, although not especially warm, it has been a good, drying day. Having looked at the weather forecast at 6.30pm the farmer came to a decision, went out and cut the paddock, where the grass was very long and had long gone to seed.

This is the field he likes to make hay from - a little bit of hay is lovely to have in in the Winter for a sheep that is a bit off colour. He has been 'champing at the bit' for days to get it done but there have not been two fine days together. Will there be now?

Well, that is anybody's guess. The forecast says that tomorrow's promised rain will not get as far up-country as us, so it is a risk he just has to take before the whole crop is spoiled. After all, it is only one field, so it is worth taking the risk. So please keep your fingers crossed that he manages to get the field of hay in before the next lot of rain reaches us.

This morning I watched from the bathroom window and counted twenty pheasants stripping the seeds off the long grass. Now it is laid on the ground, so it is easier for them to feed I suppose. If there are any babies around then we haven't seen them, but it would be nice to think that one or two of the pheasants have managed to rear a family in spite of the rain.

11 comments:

Joanne Noragon said...

You remind us in little bits of the vagaries of farming. The drought here and your rain is making a bad year for farming. I hope your sheep get their lovely little bit of hay in the winter.

angryparsnip said...

Fingers crossed !

We are hoping for rain, we only have two very small windows for rain here. The nourishing winter rains and our summer monsoon. So when we see the rain clouds we rejoice.
Have you had any summer ?

cheers, parsnip

Rachel Phillips said...

Good luck is all I can say!

Heather said...

We had a lovely sunny morning today but soon after lunch it began to rain and has probably not stopped. I will do my utmost to hang on to it and not let it travel north until your hay is dry!

Dartford Warbler said...

Everything crossed for the Farmer`s hay crop.

Down here, the grass in hay fields is long and ready to cut, but there has been NO break in the rain for weeks.I have ordered some old (2011) hay from our hay merchant and will be interested in his news from the farms that supply him. Forage for this coming winter is a worry.

Penny said...

All so different to us, although we are in winter and have had, thank goodness lots of rain, it all began rather late and so not as much growth early as we had hoped. We find our weather forcasters not terribly good,with all the technology at their finger tips one would think it should be better.

rkbsnana said...

No hay around here at all. Every bit of grass has been eaten by the livestock with not enough rain to grow more.

Bovey Belle said...

Fingers crossed you get your hay in Pat. We passed several farms which had cut for hay, in desperation, on our way back from Hay-on-Wye on Wednesday. As we drove by . . . it was pouring with rain again.

It sounds dire wherever folks are for winter forage this year - either burned to a crisp or floating.

Mary said...

Sorry the awful weather seems to continue and much of Britain seems to be waterlogged from what I read. Hope the hay can be rescued and will be stored for the Winter sheep diet!

Here it's so opposite - a drought again this year and terribly high temps. continuing - although I must admit this week has been cooler and mostly cloudy so a little relief before the temps. climb back into the 90's. My garden is sad and dreary looking. Hubby mowed the now brown grass yesterday, and we had to cut down a small fir tree which died while we were in Africa.

Bet your pheasants enjoyed the unexpected feast at their feet - hope you spot some babies soon.

Happy weekend Pat.
Mary

MorningAJ said...

Fingers crossed for fine weather.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thank you for the good wishes. So far it haskept dry but outside it begins to look very much like rain to me - so we shall have to wait and see.