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Blogs by Linda Watson
Low Arvie - a new skill? 6/28/2010 8:20:27 PM
Hey, I think I have found a skill I didn't know I had! After I wrote my blog yesterday about the lack of rain we were suffering here in SW Scotland, down it came! It was really good to see it - like an old friend that turns up unexpectedly on your doorstep. I even went outside and stood there feeling it cooling my face as it fell - 'the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath'. It just rained gently for about two hours and then the clouds cleared again, and that was just what we needed to get the grass started growing again and the ditches running.
Maybe I should advertise as a rainmaker! No, perhaps it wasn't me after all! I am sure that now it has begun, I will soon be blogging about an oversupply and trying to make it stop!
For the past week, I have had a large sack of grass drying on top of the Aga in the kitchen. We have to find out how much 'dry matter' (which contains the energy giving portion of the bale) there is in the silage and then I use the answer to calculate the amout of nutrients we have taken out of the soil in order to replenish them with the same amount of fertiliser. This is a 'nutrient budget' and I do it every year when we have made the silage. It ensures that we do not put too much fertiliser on the land as the excess would just leech out and pollute our water courses (and cost more than necessary). Every year the ratio of dry matter to water is different according to the amount of rain that has fallen and the amount of time that the cut grass has lain in the fields before baling (both books) and the higher the percentage the better the silage. In the nine years we have taken silage from the land, the lowest percentage of grass that has been in the bales is 24% - that was a very wet year when we had to cut and bale very quickly in between rainy days. Other years it has been aound 40-50%, but this year it is 74% - almost hay (which would be 100%). So we are very pleased with the product this year and R has put back just the requisite amount of fertiliser for the second cut due in September. Being scientists, we enjoy taking this scientific approach to our farming life - it adds interest and also saves money, but I don't suppose there are many farmers who have the time or inclination to do it.
Anyway, it looks as if the July rains have come early this year, as it has just begun to rain again, so it's probably the usual 'feast or famine' scenario in Galloway! Hey ho!
