I know this is temping fate , but the grain worked a treat. We will need it on Monday and I bet it throws a wobbler, all because of this blog.

Why will we need the grain drier on Monday ?, the Oil Seed Rape is finished, thats why !!. Yesterday (friday) was dry all morning, all morning !! so after a quick lunch, no roast swans or larks tongues, and away we went about 2-30 pm. It was not too bad, even dusty, always a sighn of dry going. About eight Robert took over while I went for a quick tea, more poached eggs than roast suckling pig.

I was getting down to the nitty now, the weather forecast was for rain about lunchtime today (saturday) and there was still some tea in my thermos. If I could finish the next two fields, and the weather guessers were right I could get it done . by 2-00 am I had got far enough and went home and slept well if briefly. This morning ( saturday) was grey and less than promising, but to the combine I went. By 9-30 it was spitting with rain but I went on slowly, and within half an hour the drizzle had stopped and slow progress was being made.

At 2-30 pm I had it done, what a relief, It took 7 attempts over 10 days to harvest 105 acres of Oil Seed Rape. As if getting the grizzly task done was not enough, an hour later it started to rain again, its now nine pm and still raining, relief !!

So how did the crop do, well until its all loaded onto lorries and weighed we wont know exactly, but the best guess so far is around 4.5 tonnes per hectare, which is great. If we had been able to harvest at the right time rather than two weeks late who knows how much more there would have been. Such are the joys of farming.

Not a very exciting blog entry I know, but I claim extreme tiredness, time for bed, and its still raining.

Harvest or rather lack of harvest

Farming is endlessly challenging, especially when livestock are included. The biggest wild card whatever we do is the weather. Farmers are famed for moaning about the weather, so why should I be any different ?

Its the 13th of August and half of the oilseed rape is still in the field rather than in the grain store where it ought to be. We have had rain every day for so long I have forgotten what a dry day is like. Monday dried quite well and by lunchtime I was getting itchy. By 2-30 there was no holding back and I went and made a start. To my surprise the moisture content of the seed was around 11%, considering rape has to be 9% or less to be sold we got at it. Conditions were difficult to say the least, and the combine was grumbling and growling at the damp crop, but by 4pm things had improved and were going quite well. At 5 pm it rained again and stopped all progress.

Today we are trying to get some rape dried , anxious times ! I hate using the drier , its old and pretty tired. In a more normal season the combine is big enough that we seldom have to harvest grain or rape that needs drying. Why not wait for better weather ?, I hear you say. Well rape has an unfortunate habit of harvesting its self. The pods split , especially in windy weather when the crop is fully ripe. This is starting to happen , completely loosing the seed.

I must go, the drier is running, I can hear it from the office, a little coaxing might be needed.

Sodding weather