Campbeltowncowboy
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2008 or another1985?
How is the weather round your area?
Since the Royal Highland show we have hardly had 3 dry days in a row, many have still second cut to do and harvest is stop start,in the last week there has been 6inches of rain ontop of sodden fields, gates are getting muckier by the day and if my memory serves me well it very like the conditions were in 1985!!!!
Cows are in at night in some areas in Ayrshire and if we get much more I am sure here in Kintyre it wont be long before someone has them in at night,although there is plenty grass.
Whats it like in your area..??
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14/8/2008, 13:03
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redrobin
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Re: 2008 or another1985?
Mud, and more mud.
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14/8/2008, 17:57
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top deck
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Fields of winter barley that were looking impressive a month ago that are still uncut now appear a total writeoff.
And round here we have the puzzling year on year phenomenon of farmers who make big bale hay and then leave the bales in the fields for a few weeks-why I don`t know, but with the weather we`ve had lately they might as well go straight on the dung heap. A very costly mistake but next year the same thing will happen again.
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14/8/2008, 20:56
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Big Bird
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Re: 2008 or another1985?
We've been trying to get our small amount of third cut done for 3 weeks now, and just can't even get 2 dry days together. We're not getting huge amounts of rain, just enough on a regular basis to keep grass growing or prevent silaging.
Contractor reckons the situation is worse than last year because last year by now they were catching up whereas this year they're getting further behind.
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17/8/2008, 20:21
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mckeague
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2008 or another1985?
Cows in at night, horrendous flooding here on Saturday, i'm guessing 50mm+, floor on back seat of my car got flooded when i had to drive through a flooded area, not fun!! Then Sunday was dry and warm, now it raining again and more flooding promised, not good!!
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Work with Cross-Border Farmer Gps. Still involved in home farm, Inishowen Holsteins & Knock Texels! Herd av. 8, 300kg (its gone up) on grass based diet, av. class. around 82 - 83 pts. Need a good Texel ram talk to me!
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18/8/2008, 9:09
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redrobin
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2008 or another1985?
Hope it soon improves for you guys over there, it's bad enough here but at least we have no flooding,been watching it on the news saw what was heading your way,things can only get better...we hope 
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18/8/2008, 12:17
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FiringOnAllFour
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Re: 2008 or another1985?
Since last saturday, it is officially worse than last year. All the small rivers near us overflowed and the Bann has never been fuller in the depth of winter. We spent the day rescuing batches of cattle that were either going to wash away or have nowhere to lie. Dry cows are in now for the winter. We have forty acres of wheat that should have been wholecropped by now - been burnt off a fortnight now and the pickles come off in your hand. I don't know exactly when we will get onto the land as the forcast still isn't settled.
On the other hand, third cut is amazing.
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19/8/2008, 12:12
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Campbeltowncowboy
VG88
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2008 or another1985?
Mark I dont know if 1985 was bad in England but up here in Scotland it rained at some point almost every day of july august and september we combined spring barley in October and could hardly bale the straw for the tracks left by the combine the grain was all sprouted and hardly even fit for feeding,but look on the bright side its only just past the middle of August!!! 
Hope you boys in Nothern Ireland get dried out soon we just got the tailend of what you had and we cant take much more fields are sodden.
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19/8/2008, 20:17
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FiringOnAllFour
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Re: 2008 or another1985?
On closer inspection, our wheat is starting to bud. 
I recall 2002 as being awful. It didn't dry up at any stage during spring or summer. I would hazard a guess that there wasn't one silage field on the farm that was mowed in its entirety without avoiding low corners and mowing around hollows etc. We waited until the grass was stemmy, and then when we got thirty acres mowed, the rain came on. Each cut took about three goes. The first cut filled the first and the second cut clamps. And the second cut filled the third cut clamp plus an outfarm, and it burst the walls of the third clamp, and the contents split about 30 feet back from the front of the pit and slid out 6 feet leaving a nice chasm of rotten material. On the bright side, there was plenty of it.
The cows spent most of the summer in at night (at a time when we didn't do that) and about one month insided day and night somewhere in the middle of the summer. The paddocks had several electric lines in each, cordoning off the wet places. Half the youngstock spent much of the summer in, and the grazing beef cattle were offloaded to market or abbatoir. We didn't crop at that time, and I don't even want to think about what it would have been like.
I will never forget that summer as long as I live. The following winter was great too as we fed out that lovely silage.
Last edited by FiringOnAllFour, 19/8/2008, 21:47
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19/8/2008, 21:41
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Eryl Vet
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Re: 2008 or another1985?
Torrential rain here in the Midlands again this afternoon. It is not as bad as last June/July... but now the ground is waterlogged it wouldn't take much more rain to tip the balance. 2007 was definitely the worst year in this area in living memory... don't recall 1985... but this may have been the year that I was milking cows in the French Alps in my school holidays!
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20/8/2008, 19:25
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Board's time is: 9/1/2009, 13:55
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These things have always had a habit of sorting themselves out. We'll all be moaning about the drought come October. 
