When it comes to having quality silage, it is important to target leafy grass on a sunny day.
Due to the drought stress early after the first cut, there were a lot of wispy seed heads. The bulk was fine when I walked it, it just looked bad from the road. All I needed then was a dry day; it looked like sun would be a bonus.
My contractor rang on Friday of last week to have I check conditions. My text back around midday simply said “grass saturated”. There is some steep ground so there was no point in messing. By five o’clock with a strong breeze, the crop was transformed. At the time the majority of the population was clocking out for the weekend the decision was made to start work.
Tony O’Mahony’s BigM mowed and spread the 58 acres to allow a quick wilt. The advantage of cutting in the evening is having the grass sugars built up during the day.
I hate then to see those same sugars running into the slurry tank as effluent any time the grass comes in wet. The forecast was predicting a fine afternoon on Saturday.
By Saturday morning, the rain was due in late evening. We moved up the start and pressed my own tractor into service on a spare trailer, making five trailers for the six mile draw.
Making silage ideally needs similar weather to making hay, just on a shorter scale. When we used to cut our own silage it was a case of looking for three dry days forecast in order to get it all in.
Modern equipment has shortened the time frame. Modern low ground pressure tyres and steering axles on 22ft trailers also cuts down compaction.
I could see rain only a few miles away by three o’clock just as we faced into some of the steepest ground. Thankfully it held off long enough but pulling silage covers was ruled out with wind picking up too. I wasn’t worried with two pits nicely filled.
It is good to make Sunday a family day. That’s exactly what happened as three generations of Kingstons spent the afternoon pulling plastic sheets and throwing tyres. Sure, what else would we be doing?
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