End of 2021 Harvest!
The catchy August weather meant that this harvest was stop/start, rolling out the combines and balers at every available opportunity. The weather played havoc with moisture levels, meaning extra turning of straw to dry it off after the downpours - the lack of sunshine, heavy dews and high humidity shortened our days considerably meaning a later than usual finish this season. But despite the challenges, we've produced some weighty bales and achieved a great yield per acre on the wheat and barley, and an improvement on last year!
Massey 2370
It was our first season with the new baler and we had a few teething problems but the speed and the performance when things were going well more than compensated for the moments of down time. It is a really fast baler, covering a lot of acres in the small windows of good weather that we had. We achieved consistent weights and perfectly formed super dense six string square bales. The ability to continuously monitor moisture levels with the inbuilt moisture meter was invaluable this season, helping us achieve an accurate <15% moisture for every bale.
Super Chaser
We debuted the latest Heath QM Super Chaser this year - a fantastic piece of kit, clearing 16 Hesston bales from the field at a time, allowing the farmers to get on to the field for replanting as soon as possible. We loved the speed and efficiency of this machine, it soaked up the bumps and was quick and easy to stack 8 high, keeping the weather off and the bales dry. The chaser being offset from the tractor, along with its even weight distribution and wide tyres minimised impact on soil compaction, protecting the soil for future crops.
Wheat straw
Most of our winter wheat straw has been harvested from farms in the stunning Windrush valley and Bourton-on-the-Water in the heart of the Cotswold hills this year. The elevation and exposure to the elements helped accelerate the drying out of the straw and made up for the lack of sunshine...Baling and chasing on the slopes was a challenge and put the Valtra tractor to the test but the results in the quality of the straw have been worth it! Some of the other wheat straw we bought in has been baled behind walker combines which has been longer and less chopped up, and is a better quality than behind the rotaries.
Barley straw
We grew our own Spring barley from seed this year at the farm in Sevenhampton, Wiltshire with the help of Cropmech. The crop was a few weeks late but survived the wet weather to produce an average yield and we finished combining in the last week of August. The straw was chased up behind the combine and is bright, clean and golden - ideal for feeding or bedding.
Overall it has been a better than average year, and the last job of the week is to move our remaining straw down to the home farm in Okehampton, where it will be stored in our purpose built dry barn for sale to our local farmers, smallholders and riding stables.
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