Wednesday 17 August 2016

What a difference a day makes.

When I returned home yesterday after going out with a friend, the view from our bedroom window - that view you all admired so much - had dramatically changed.   Both fields of corn had been cut in my absence.   Such a short time too - when you think of the old days and the daunting job of harvesting.

Neither field was totally ripe but the crop has been harvested, 'chomped up' and will - in Winter - be fed to their large milking herd as 'whole crop feed' along with the usual silage and cattle 'nuts'.

I am sure that quite quickly the balers will be here to bale up the straw while this dry weather holds - this is a farm that wastes no time and they will also need the straw for winter bedding.

And I have no doubt that shortly after that the ploughing will take place - at least it did last year.   No rotation of crops these days.

17 comments:

Derek Faulkner said...

Can't believe that crops aren't dry up there, we're in a 5-6 week drought down here in N. Kent and all the farms are like dust bowls. Next years rape has been sown in the corn stubble but will obviously sit in the dry soil until the autumn rains.

Heather said...

Farmers really do have to take every advantage of small windows of fine weather, and as I read your posts I am more aware of the North/South divide in our climate.

Rachel Phillips said...

Rotation still takes place even if you plough straight away. I dont know what they drill in Yorkshire next but we rotate here. The ploughs and cultivators were out straightaway.

Derek Faulkner said...

Here on Sheppey in N. Kent it's an alternate year rotation. As soon wheat and it's straw has been harvested the ground is scratched up and rape seed sown amid the stubble. Likewise this year's rape fields will be scratched over and wheat/barley sown late Sept/Oct. This last couple of years, some autumn deep ploughing has taken place in order to try and combat black grass, a weed that is becoming endemic throughout the country. Deep ploughing buries the seed too deep for it to germinate.

thelma said...

Well all our crops round herer are in the bag, the rate at which tractors and trailers go by suggests that once a field is started it is finished same day, even working into the evening.

Terry and Linda said...

We still rotate, although lots of our neighbors don't. We also plow under where they burn. I do think the old ways are much better for the soils.

Linda

The Weaver of Grass said...

Interesting what eberyone says about rotation - I shall talk about it with the farmer. Up here of course almost all the fields are grass and only an odd cornfield - always for wholecrop as the fields all contain either milking herds, suckler herds or cows.

Thanks for the interesting comments. Incidentally - it is what the farmer calls 'droughty' up here too - the fields are desperate for water.

Rachel Phillips said...

I think you may have been thinking of leaving a field fallow. We did not rotate in that way, but we certainly had a rotation chart on our wall and my brother and I could see four years at a time and we completed our cropping plan in pencil, with an erasure handy, because it was easier to see and we did not use computers on the farm.

Dawn said...

some of the farms around here are taking advantage of the weather and getting a another late cut of hay, they dont grow corn or barley in this area

Joanne Noragon said...

What a pretty little garden; I wonder if we've ever seen a panorama of it.

angryparsnip said...

Crops or not still a lovely view.

cheers, parsnip and thehamish

Cro Magnon said...

Not much happening over here for the moment although I did catch an escapee horse two days ago just for a bit of added excitement.

Librarian said...

The sight of harvested fields always puts me in a somewhat melancholy mood - the end of summer... Much as I like autumn with its abundance of fruit and nuts and beautiful colours everywhere, I don't want summer to end, especially as our summer arrived very late this year.

Derek Faulkner said...

I'm with the Librarian, more so because we're getting closer to the winter, which I loathe.

The Weaver of Grass said...

many interesting comments - thanks for them all - the farmer was interested in them too.

Yes, I feel the same about seeing the harvest in and thinking of the approaching winter, especially as we (as usual) have hardly had a Summer at all up here. Three or four days earlier in the Yeae - and a few days at the beginning of this week but today it is cloudy with dampness in the air and the forecast is poor for the next few days

Thanks everyone.

Midmarsh John said...

How lovely to be able to look out over the local countryside from your bedroom. As I live in a bungalow I can only see as far as my own hedges.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Third harvest of hay is in - wheat is harvested - potatoes will be soon - here in NW Washington state - it does go fast.