What an absolutely glorious spell of weather we’ve been having for the past couple of weeks. Global warming or not, it has been very pleasant.

Alfresco dining and barbecues have become the norm and myself and the family even managed a few trips to the beach.

I might as well have been lying on the beach in Majorca because the difference between the two was light.

Saturday morning a week ago I went to check on the progress of a second-cut silage field I have away from the main yard, as I hadn’t seen it in a few weeks.

To my disappointment, apart from docks and scutch grass, the crop was poor and although I really hadn’t intended cutting for another couple of weeks, this particular crop was not going to get better with age.

The weather was good, so I decided to get it harvested. I also had a couple of paddocks that were too strong for grazing that were mowed at the same time.

First cut

The pit was full after first cut, so all second cut is going to be baled, which thankfully gives the flexibility of timing.

These fields were baled on Tuesday and while I was drawing in the bales I began to think: a week of wall-to-wall sunshine, perfect conditions for making silage - even if I am cutting earlier than intended, does it make any sense waiting another 10 days when the rain might be pouring from the heavens?

But a little nitrogen showing when grass is dry and well wilted is really of no significance

I decided it didn’t and rang my contractor and told him to mow the rest of my crop.

I had tested the sugars and nitrogen a few days previous. Sugars were obviously good considering the sun we’d been having, but there was a little nitrogen showing.

But a little nitrogen showing when grass is dry and well wilted is really of no significance, all it will do is increase the protein level. Nitrogen showing in wet grass is not ideal as it will affect preservation.

The remainder of the crop was mowed Wednesday evening, raked Thursday evening and baled Friday morning.

Some might say it was lying too long under the high temperatures and intense sun and they are probably correct, but I was going to be off work on Friday and it suited to start drawing in bales at my leisure on Friday morning instead of coming home from work on Thursday and being at it until crazy o’clock Thursday night.

Bonus

As a bonus, some winter barley has been harvested locally in the past few days and I managed to get my allocation of straw collected and into the shed over the weekend as well.

An eventful enough few days were had, but, looking at this week’s forecast, I think I made the correct decision!