Its 9.00 in the morning.

The sun is up and it looks like its going to be a really hot day.

Fiona takes to the field with the turbo-mower - time to make some haylage!

The turbo-mower is a power-driven machine that consists of rotating drums that are fitted with cutting blades at their base. As they spin round at speed, they mow the crop and shed the cut material into neat rows behind.

Turbo mowers can be set to cut extremely close to the ground, thus maximising the quantity of cut material.

Silage is a grass crop that is cut when it is very green. The cut material is collected and stored in a large pit back at the farm. The pit is covered with a polythene sheet to minimise exposure to the air. In this enclosed environment, the crop remains in a preserved state. Once exposed to the air, it begins to deteriorate at a normal rate.

Hay on the other hand is cut at a later stage of growth, dried in the field then baled up, ready for storage. Hay requires to be dry when harvested, as it will spoil by mould and rot if stored wet.

Haylage (the crop that is being harvested today) is really a combination of the two forms since the large bales of haylage will be enclosed in air-tight polythene - achieving the same conditions found in a silage pit, yet offering the flexibility of bale-sized amounts of feed.

Its 11.30 and the day is really warming up.

A gentle breeze is blowing from the west - this is good, the crop needs to dry out a little before baleing.

Richard is 'tedding' the hay. This involves passing the rows of cut grass through a machine that lifts it off of the ground and throws it into the air. This has the effect of 'fluffing up' the crop, simillar to what you might do to a feather pillow.

This lets the air move through it more efficiently and allows the crop to dry faster.

Seen from a different angle, the tedding machine has rotating arms that grab the hay at speed, ejecting it into the air behind the machine.

There are two basic settings on a tedder.

One setting throws the hay out the back of the machine, spreading it into a thin uniform layer. This is useful for initial drying of the crop.

The second setting gathers up any hay that passes in front of the machine and ejects it into a high fluffed up row behind. This setting is good for drying the crop by air and also creates neat rows for the baleing machine.

6.00 in the evening, and the crop is ready for baleing.

There are many different machines on the market for processing hay into bales. The bale sizes can range from small rectangular types to large round bales.

We will be using a round baler for the haylage. This is because we want a decent sized bale for feeding our cattle herd. Once a bale is opened, it begins to deteriorate in quality, so it is a good idea to use the whole bale as soon as possible when feeding.

Small bales, although easy to move around by hand, would be numerous. This adds to the time factor when wrapping (and the cost per bale too). Small bale sizes are popular for feeding individual animals such as horses and ponies because they also suffer from the same problems of quality after they are opened.

As the baler devours the hay, it feeds it into a chamber where a series of rollers compresses and rotates the crop into a tight bundle.

As more and more hay is added to the chamber, it grows into a cylindrical bale, rather like a giant swiss roll.

When the bale is completed, the machine wraps a strong webbing around it to ensure it will not unfurl.

Finally, the baler opens up and ejects the bale onto the field.

 

Its now getting on for 9.00.

The light is fading fast, but the baleing is finished and the crop is safe.

When the bales are eventually used to feed the cattle, the bale can be unfurled easily, forming a long carpet of fodder.

Its nearly 9.00 in the morning.

The weather looks like its going to change. Although the sun is shining, the clouds are gathering and it feels like rain is a possibility - time to get those bales in!

Fiona is out in the field loading bales onto the trailer.

The front loader on her tractor has a special spike attachment that is used to lift the bales.

 

Its not looking any better out to the west, maybe we will be lucky and miss the rain.

The trailer is almost loaded. It can accommodate 10 bales with ease - (5 bales to each side).

The trailer will be dropped at the farm for unloading. Another empty trailer will be driven back to the field for loading.

If all goes well, an empty trailer should be waiting for uplift each time a full one is delivered to the farm.

Richard is unloading the trailer back at the farm.

He places each bale on a machine that quickly wraps a polythene film around it.

Notice the special lifting attachment on the arm of the fork lift. Essentially, this is two bars that cradle the bale on either side. This lifter is used because the spike method would puncture the wrapped bale.

When the wrapper has done its job, it tips the wrapped bale out, ready to accept the next bale.

The previous bale is in the foreground, all wrapped up and waiting to be stacked.

This is a close-up picture of the wrapping machine.

The bale nests on two rollers, one on each side. The rollers are part of a rotating platform.

The black polythene film is attached to the bale and the wrapping process begins.

The bale is slowly rotated anti-clockwise between the two rollers and the complete platform assembly also rotates anti-clockwise.

The effect of these rotations causes the film to wrap around the bale over and over whilst under tension. This forms a poythene cocoon around the bale and makes it completely air-tight.

Again, using the special lifter, the wrapped bales are moved to their final storage position. Any tears in the polythene are patched with sticky tape (Duck Tape), as is the loose flap that was left after wrapping.

They will be left here to mature then used to feed cattle later in the year.

By late afternoon, all the bales were wrapped and stored away. Only one short shower of rain actually fell and the skies cleared up afterwards.