When I decided to aim for a bit of early silage, I had some sort of vague plan that it would be cut around mid-May. Two fields were left ungrazed, and I managed to resist the temptation of giving freshly lambed ewes a run over them.

They were fertilised in March, the gates closed, and everything seemed in order. But one of these fields contains hybrid ryegrass, and it simply jumped out of the ground over the next few weeks.

I happened to glance at it when we were sowing barley in the adjacent field on 20 April and realised I’d have to take a closer look.

A second opinion was then sought (my contractor stood on the steps of the tractor and looked over the hedge at it) and we agreed that it looked nearly ready for cutting.

This was uncharted territory for me, and I was in a bit of a quandary. The 60 units of nitrogen had been applied on 24 March, we weren’t even into the month of May, and I was considering mowing grass?

Three things nudged me in the direction of going ahead: the weather forecast was fairly settled, the wuffler was available and itching for some work (I love using this machine) and if I tried to forget what date it was, the grass looked ready for cutting.

This third point was probably the most influential, with the whole field starting to lie down. When I parted the sward, close examination revealed the start of yellow grass at the bottom of the sward.

With the mower man busy sowing barley, it was 26 April before he was available to down the crop. At this stage, I wasn’t feeling too confident, and it was a huge relief when the first lap of this four-acre field revealed nice white stubble, and acceptably sized rows of grass.

It lay for 24 hours untouched, and over the next two days was folded through the wuffler twice. Fearing that unused nitrogen might ruin the whole experiment, I was determined to get the dry matter over 30%.

This silage will be fed to pregnant sheep, and low-dry-matter material with a dodgy fermentation is little short of a disaster. By contrast, I find that baling very dry grass cuts out the risk and should lead to a more stable sample of silage.

Baled

It was baled three days after mowing, and I was fairly happy that the dry matter was at least 30%. As always, we used double wrapping as a further aid, and the first acid test has been passed with flying colours – 24 hours after stacking on their butts, the shoulders of the bales look completely square, and no bales seem to be slouching in their positions. Time will tell.

Yield was exactly eight bales per acre, which is absolutely fine, especially considering the dry nature of the ensiled grass.

As for the success, or otherwise, of this venture, I won’t know a whole lot until December or January next year. At this stage, I feel quietly confident that I have made high-quality sheep fodder, and the only worry is the calendar date of the operation.

I’ve tried plenty of homemade experiments in my time, but never baling grass when the ashes and oaks weren’t even close to coming into leaf, and the field over the hedge contains barley that hasn’t even germinated.