Hay Season

Well, haven’t done this for a while, trying to work my way around WordPress and new new subtle changes.
Thought with all that’s been going on with farming + weather at the moment, I would post a photo. Not a great photo, but just a photo.
We all know that on the back of a potentially great grain harvest and heavy hay crops, W.A has been hit with some uncharacteristic weather patterns. Deep troughs together with mid level disturbances has created some perfect condition for some pretty decent thunderstorms, and I don’t need to remind you of how much rain has fallen across the wheatbelt and south west of the state. Merv and Pete know only too well by how much rain has fallen around Northam.
It’s no different in the South West. We’ve had one of the best years for pasture and hay growth in a long time, one of the best I’ve seen here, but we’ve been getting probably too much follow up rain than we’d like. Yep, I’m a typical farmer, whinge when we’re not getting rain and whinge when we get too much!! It goes with the territory. Last week it was forecast for 10-20mm of rain on Thursday and Friday, so we were basically forced to cut a couple of our hay paddocks, otherwise they would’ve ended up laying flat on the ground anyway. For those that don’t know, rain isn’t bad for hay when it is still green, or freshly cut, but it’s not good when it’s dry, that’s when the mould and rot can be a problem.
Anyway, just got back from Bunbury and checked out the hay, which is looking pretty good, but the ominous signs of rain were approaching, so thought I might as well dust off the camera. I’ll post some pics after the hay is rolled.

~ by Jamie Nicolaou on November 7, 2011.