David's Digest

After five inches of rain in May I was getting a little concerned about whether we would have a few dry days in June to make some decent haylage for our livery horses. Sub standard haylage (or hay) is bad enough if you have to feed it to your own animals. It's much worse if you have to try to persuade other people to feed it to their horses - that is if the horses will eat it. If they won't you really are in trouble.
That is why, a few years ago, we turned from making hay to haylage wrapped in plastic sheeting as a more reliable quality feed for our customers. It comes fit to bale a couple of days sooner than hay, reducing vulnerability to changes in the weather. And most horses seem to like it better.
Anyway, we started cutting in glorious weather on Saturday; turned the swathe several times as the sun continued to shine through Sunday; paused until the cloud cleared on Monday then turned again; and today we (that is to say our contractors) are baling and wrapping what promises to be sweet and tasty horse feed.
To avoid vermin (rabbits mainly) biting holes in the plastic overnight we are clearing and stacking the bales behind the wrapper. And in case we see a tear we keep a roll of gaffer tape handy to seal in the quality.
Hopefully this wonderful weather will have enabled our hay suppliers to make some good stuff too and we shall be able to buy from them for those few horse owners who still insist on hay rather than haylage at reasonable prices.