We made hay a month later than last year with the baler going in on the very last day of August. Local farmer, Mike Thorney-Shaw came and made the hay in a dry weather window. It's always a gamble making hay, especially when the weather is changeable like it has been in August this year. The secret is to get it lower than 20% moisture content so you need a minimum of 3 dry days and a bit of turning the hay to get it down to that. But it was made and we got a similar yield to last year. Mike Thorney-Shaw will be feeding most of the hay to his cattle, some of which he has entered into Moreton Show on 7th September - the best of luck in your entries Mike!
by Mike Hopkins
17Aug2024
Invasion of Bristly Oxtongue!
Although Bristly Oxtongue isn't on our list of undesireable plants in the meadow, it is known to be invasive and therefore we decided to remove it. The plant seemed to colonate a band of low lying ground wherever we had scarified in the previous autumn. We didn't realise the problem untill it became visible above the grasses and then flowered. Another plant which we all like - the very extraordinary teasel - showed in some abundance infield this year, it normally sticks to the margins but has started to creep in. We decided to take these out whilst doing the Bristly Oxtongue. In all we must have dug up something like 500 plants before the hay cut. If we had left these, the seed would have spread and we could possibly have had a worse problem next year. Plus, these plants are prickly and I can't imagine would be palatable to the horses/cattle that would have to eat them - it would be like crunching into furniture tacks in your salad!
