It's certainly been a good year for grass growth......we've managed to make 1,000 round and big square bales on our farm here in Devon.......nearly double what we made last year . we still got a bit of 2nd cut left to do but we're getting a lot of rain here at mo so we won't be getting it done any time soon until it dry's up
1000 bales is good going. I imagine your winter in Devon is a lot shorter than our winter in the north west of Ireland. 2023 will probably go down as one of the wettest years on record. I have been feeding silage during the summer and currently over half our cattle are indoors because the weather is so bad. Hopefully we will be able to get some cattle out again, but if not its going to be a very long winter. I think this year we baled 750 - 800 bales which isn't enough. We will probably have to buy silage in Spring 2024 just like we had to do this spring.
@@OllieLove4255 yes farming is all about the weather really ......last year it was way too hot and dry this year it's too wet. it's not just the extra feed you need by housing cattle early it's the straw aswell ......we buy all our straw in so we really don't like to house cattle any longer than necessary. but your right winter's aren't generally too severe down here. this was the first of your videos that i've seen but i do watch quite a few farming videos and i love seeing the different way's of doing things from one farm to another. we use a contractor to do our baling and he uses the Lely/welger baler exactly the same model as in your video there really good balers and make good solid bales. it's a shame you can't buy them anymore since agco took them over. it's a shame were not neighbors cos i sell a bit of silage and hay.......we have got cattle aswell........a few sucklers and rear there calves on sell them as stores around 2 years old on a low input system
@@geraldbeard856 I watch quite a bit of farming videos myself. I follow 'The Funky Farmer', 'Farmer P' and 'Tom Pemberton' from England along with 'I Farm We Farm' and 'Farmer Phil' here in Ireland. As you said its good to see the different ways people farm and see the different farm yards along with some of the surrounding countryside along the way. Farmer P and The Funky Farmer were in Ireland for the National Ploughing Championships this week and they went live on TH-cam last night with I Farm we Farm. There will be some good videos coming from them all shortly. I think one thing the English guys noticed about Ireland was how we have moved away from straw bedded sheds and gone for slatted sheds. Straw is now really only used in calf sheds or calving pens. The majority of adult cattle in Ireland are now housed on slats. We have 3 slatted sheds. In 2 of them cattle have access to cubicles with rubber mats on them while our newest shed (9-10 yrs old) has no cubicle access but the back of each pen is done with slat rubber for extra comfort. It can be seen in my last video where i was making cattle crush sides. We need quite a bit of slurry storage as here in North Donegal we prepare for a 6 month housing period. I know that sounds mad but that's what we have to deal with up here.
@@OllieLove4255 Aah that's interesting way of housing cattle but our problem here like many farms infact is that our farm is next to a stream and having too much slurry stored up next to a stream isn't such a great idea so by us having straw yards virtually elimanates slurry which seems to please the Environment Agency. I was talking to my neighbor last week and he's got a large dairy herd (300 cows) and his farm is next to a river and they built a weeping wall slurry pit right next to the river back in the early 1980's but the Environment Agency want for him to build a new one now at least 12 metres away from the river so he aplied for the planning permision by the way here in uk you can get a 50% grant for new slurry stores but you have to get planning permision first so anyway he like us are in the Dartmoor national park and there nitt picky about allowing new buildings or structures within the national park anyway the Dartmoor national park have turned down his aplication but they said they would allow him to build a new slurry store on the same sight but the Environment Agency won't allow that cos it's too near to the river........it's weird cos both the environment Agency and the Dartmoor national park are both funded by the government but they don't agree on things
It's certainly been a good year for grass growth......we've managed to make 1,000 round and big square bales on our farm here in Devon.......nearly double what we made last year . we still got a bit of 2nd cut left to do but we're getting a lot of rain here at mo so we won't be getting it done any time soon until it dry's up
1000 bales is good going. I imagine your winter in Devon is a lot shorter than our winter in the north west of Ireland. 2023 will probably go down as one of the wettest years on record. I have been feeding silage during the summer and currently over half our cattle are indoors because the weather is so bad. Hopefully we will be able to get some cattle out again, but if not its going to be a very long winter. I think this year we baled 750 - 800 bales which isn't enough. We will probably have to buy silage in Spring 2024 just like we had to do this spring.
@@OllieLove4255 yes farming is all about the weather really ......last year it was way too hot and dry this year it's too wet. it's not just the extra feed you need by housing cattle early it's the straw aswell ......we buy all our straw in so we really don't like to house cattle any longer than necessary. but your right winter's aren't generally too severe down here. this was the first of your videos that i've seen but i do watch quite a few farming videos and i love seeing the different way's of doing things from one farm to another. we use a contractor to do our baling and he uses the Lely/welger baler exactly the same model as in your video there really good balers and make good solid bales. it's a shame you can't buy them anymore since agco took them over. it's a shame were not neighbors cos i sell a bit of silage and hay.......we have got cattle aswell........a few sucklers and rear there calves on sell them as stores around 2 years old on a low input system
@@geraldbeard856 I watch quite a bit of farming videos myself. I follow 'The Funky Farmer', 'Farmer P' and 'Tom Pemberton' from England along with 'I Farm We Farm' and 'Farmer Phil' here in Ireland. As you said its good to see the different ways people farm and see the different farm yards along with some of the surrounding countryside along the way. Farmer P and The Funky Farmer were in Ireland for the National Ploughing Championships this week and they went live on TH-cam last night with I Farm we Farm. There will be some good videos coming from them all shortly. I think one thing the English guys noticed about Ireland was how we have moved away from straw bedded sheds and gone for slatted sheds. Straw is now really only used in calf sheds or calving pens. The majority of adult cattle in Ireland are now housed on slats. We have 3 slatted sheds. In 2 of them cattle have access to cubicles with rubber mats on them while our newest shed (9-10 yrs old) has no cubicle access but the back of each pen is done with slat rubber for extra comfort. It can be seen in my last video where i was making cattle crush sides. We need quite a bit of slurry storage as here in North Donegal we prepare for a 6 month housing period. I know that sounds mad but that's what we have to deal with up here.
@@OllieLove4255 Aah that's interesting way of housing cattle but our problem here like many farms infact is that our farm is next to a stream and having too much slurry stored up next to a stream isn't such a great idea so by us having straw yards virtually elimanates slurry which seems to please the Environment Agency. I was talking to my neighbor last week and he's got a large dairy herd (300 cows) and his farm is next to a river and they built a weeping wall slurry pit right next to the river back in the early 1980's but the Environment Agency want for him to build a new one now at least 12 metres away from the river so he aplied for the planning permision by the way here in uk you can get a 50% grant for new slurry stores but you have to get planning permision first so anyway he like us are in the Dartmoor national park and there nitt picky about allowing new buildings or structures within the national park anyway the Dartmoor national park have turned down his aplication but they said they would allow him to build a new slurry store on the same sight but the Environment Agency won't allow that cos it's too near to the river........it's weird cos both the environment Agency and the Dartmoor national park are both funded by the government but they don't agree on things