FARM DIARY BY GWYN JONES
As the mowers raced up and down the fields on Friday afternoon, the sun came out, and the ground started to dry in between the rows. Over 400 acres cut by Saturday night, and the forager was busily eating up the rapidly drying grass all afternoon.
It stayed dry, and by Sunday night it was all in, with weather conditions ideal, and the grass (after tedding) almost becoming too dry! A supreme job as always by Glebedales and the ground just about held them all up; touch and go this time in places.
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Hide AdWith another wet week forecasted, it was a great opportunity to cut our vitally important second cut of silage on time, and the quality looks superb. We shall now go for a third cut, as there is plenty of moisture in the ground, but I shall only apply half the fertilizer required to begin with, as there is a real possibility of a scorching second half of July and August after all this rain.
It was a real shame that the Royal Show was washed out. A new management team, great effort, and all thwarted by the weather. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and the layout was so much better than last year.
The appalling weather was incredible; the rain falling from the sky like stair-rods every day, with bright sunny spells in between the thunder showers. The car parks were so bad that cars were towed in by tractors as well as out, and despite cutting two fields of barley in order to have fresh car parks for Tuesday, the organisers had no choice but to close the event on Tuesday night and miss the last day.
For full feature see West Sussex Gazette July 11