Harvest progress.

Everything done as of this evening. Happy to have it done. All straw is baled. All my own was laureate spring malting seed and averaged 3.5/t ac. The stuff sowed at the end of March mostly did between 3.45 and 3.75t/ac. The stuff down on the 12th of April only did a shake over 3t which brought down the average.
 
Can’t see where this is coming from!?

Winter wheat, definitely not a record year.
Winter barley, yes some records but GIGANTIC variability.
Spring barley, very good averages but most crops nothing special.
Winter oats, some excellent yields but the average is nothing special.
WOSR for the most part disappointing across the country.

2011 & 2015 would leave this year standing in terms of national averages and record yields.

I have never seen the effect of broad leaf break crops being so noticeable before this year.

He seems very convinced of the fertility building effects of cover crops - I remain unconvinced.
Agree 100% with everything you said Cork.
 
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The Gods looked down on us yesterday and we got enough weather to get the cutting finished and the straw baled. I hadn't expected to finish as soon as we did and looking out at the puddles on the ground this morning I will be glad to make the combine repayment later this year.
 
Even with the bad weather forecast they were giving for the last two days we got 240 ish acres of straw baled and another 10 acres cut. about 50 acres on the ground . The combine has 50 of barley and 10 of oats for a customer isn’t ready yet. We might try them again on Monday.
 
Would you not park up until Monday , and tip over to the Picnic ?
:rolleyes2:
It's still only the last day of August .

Going down tomorrow for a few hours. Can hear the music here. No choice but to park up with the showers we are getting. Clearing up bales today.
 
Stopped here since Thursday night, no cutting or straw baled since.
We’re moving out of lodged wheat to go and cut standing crops, waiting for better days to finish the lodged crop.
From 4pm on Wednesday until 9pm on Thursday night I managed to bale 55 acres of wheaten straw, I got stoped 6 times with rain, mostly light showers, sit it out for a while and hope to get going again is my strategy, patience and a will to never give up is required.
Including a few bits we cut for two other farmers we have 290 acres left to cut, we will get help to cut
40 acres, possibly a bit more if the weather doesn’t improve.

Below is 45 acres of winter barley that we tedded last Sunday, again on Monday, rowed it up and baled it. The straw is actually better than it looks in the picture, it held its colour well.
E90D0C91-3D3D-43BF-BCD3-5F76B23CF51B.jpeg A1D170AD-58FF-4274-99F9-05E914E16225.jpeg

Lodged wheat.....
4C95E581-1588-4067-B58B-D96DD7B8D955.jpeg 3161954E-49C7-4B85-B913-19C8529EDE08.jpeg 21CA2342-5951-42F2-8201-4E79B6521BBB.jpeg
A salvage operation.
For those who are finished up enjoy the weekend,
If anyone would like, you’d be welcome to join us for a character building experience...
 

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Stopped here since Thursday night, no cutting or straw baled since.
We’re moving out of lodged wheat to go and cut standing crops, waiting for better days to finish the lodged crop.
From 4pm on Wednesday until 9pm on Thursday night I managed to bale 55 acres of wheaten straw, I got stoped 6 times with rain, mostly light showers, sit it out for a while and hope to get going again, is my strategy, patience and a will to never give up is required.
Including a few bits we cut for two other farmers we have 290 acres left to cut, we will get help to cut
40 acres, possibly a bit more if the weather doesn’t improve.

Below is 45 acres of winter barley that we tedded last Sunday, again on Monday, rowed it up and baled it. The straw is actually better than it looks in the picture, it held its colour well.
View attachment 69424 View attachment 69425

Lodged wheat.....
View attachment 69426 View attachment 69427 View attachment 69429
A salvage operation.
For those who are finished up enjoy the weekend,
If anyone would like, you’d be welcome to join us for a character building experience...
I have to credit you for your glass full attitude, not just this year but other previous bad years you have written similar posts. A lot of lads wouldn't be able to handle that kind of pressure it would take a fair bit to get me bothered but I still don't think I could be as upbeat as yourself, suppose to be good weather this week coming so hopefully you get it wrapped up.
 
I am conscious that many have a good chunk of cutting left to do especially when i see ithastopays posts above, i count our blessings.

For our little corner of the country, we were blessed since last Thursday with the first rain of any significance last night.

A lot of work done over last weekend and some fantastic cutting days and for most harvest is wrapped up with the exception of SW, SO, SOSR and some beans..and a few pockets of SB.

Very little straw left around either to be baled with even stuff down three plus weeks (my own included) all tied up.

View attachment 69352
Snippet from the journal today.
How many of ye will end up a record wheat and spring barley harvest?
No one I’ve spoken to will have. An average barley and very average wheat. Maybe below average for wheat actually. No where near 2016/2017 yields.

The general consensus around here is average year for WW, very average year for WO, better than average year for SB but very much variety dependent, WB worse than average. SB probably looked a lot better than it cut (ours included I will add).

It's all well and good talking about yields though, for many profits will actually be less than last year or similar to last year based on the current outlook for green barley prices, straw price and inputs during the year
 
I have to credit you for your glass full attitude, not just this year but other previous bad years you have written similar posts. A lot of lads wouldn't be able to handle that kind of pressure it would take a fair bit to get me bothered but I still don't think I could be as upbeat as yourself, suppose to be good weather this week coming so hopefully you get it wrapped up.

Thanks, i appreciate that, I farm with my brother, I’m very lucky to have him, farming can be a very lonely and isolated occupation, I believe farming as part of a family unit a partnership or a company helps in tough times (that’s a topic for another discussion, we’ll get back to that during the long winter nights)

We’ve had and have good men working alongside us, ive worked alongside some great men, I’ve learned from them, I watched young lads start working with us and grow to be good men, having good help, whether that be drivers, contractors, oil companies, anyone who delivers or we do any business with, all help to keep things running as smooth as possible, we try deal with good decent people who have their word and we keep ours. These are things we can control the weather is something we can’t.

It rains more and we get less sunshine in this area, we know and except that it’s going to be a bit tougher than in other areas.
It’s a bit of a battle at times and while it can be tough going, it’s a test I enjoy, beating the weather doing something that’s hard can be very rewarding.
It’s not for everyone, I wouldn’t mind seeing how some from the dryer parts of the country would deal with our day to day farming.

The current situation here is as follows.
I’m sitting in a loader, waiting for the rain to stop to get out and do a little fencing job, there’s a field of winter wheat half cut in front of me, we’ve two load of wheat cut since Thursday night.

On the plus side, I’m not stressed or sick
I’m not giving in and I’m not giving up.

An 86 year old woman was recently diagnosed with cancer, after getting over the initial shock of the diagnosis.
She said “I won’t let this get the the better of me”
 
Stopped here since Thursday night, no cutting or straw baled since.
We’re moving out of lodged wheat to go and cut standing crops, waiting for better days to finish the lodged crop.
From 4pm on Wednesday until 9pm on Thursday night I managed to bale 55 acres of wheaten straw, I got stoped 6 times with rain, mostly light showers, sit it out for a while and hope to get going again is my strategy, patience and a will to never give up is required.
Including a few bits we cut for two other farmers we have 290 acres left to cut, we will get help to cut
40 acres, possibly a bit more if the weather doesn’t improve.

Below is 45 acres of winter barley that we tedded last Sunday, again on Monday, rowed it up and baled it. The straw is actually better than it looks in the picture, it held its colour well.
View attachment 69424 View attachment 69425

Lodged wheat.....
View attachment 69426 View attachment 69427 View attachment 69429
A salvage operation.
For those who are finished up enjoy the weekend,
If anyone would like, you’d be welcome to join us for a character building experience...
Sorry mate I can't like its savage,,,,
 
Jaysus it was some day to dry straw, was soaking this morning to baling at 4pm, moved the rows at 11 and again at 2pm, harvest 19 all done now thank fk
I looked at headlands in the morning and thought I wont get them today. Checked them again late afternoon and I baled the whole lot. About 30 acres of baling left. Should have it all done before the weekend is over.
 
Even made big squares her today after trying for a week together it, savage drying. A friend was at wheaten stuff and it was 10%. Happy days.
 
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