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