When I looked at the list of tasks on the farm for September I had serious doubts that I could get them done, especially as I wanted to keep the use of farm labour to a minimum. There were three Wheat fields to harvest and, unlike July’s Oat harvests, I intended to cover my costs by baling the Straw and selling it. But that, as you will appreciate, consumes time. Then I want to mow my grass and bale it for Silage. Throw in the need to plough field 47 because I want to sow that next month… It’s a lot to have on the Todo list 😟
Sitting there thinking about it won’t get it done! So I fired up the Combine to hit the harvesting trail starting in field 48…
…At least I haven’t got to block the road to connect with the header for this one! Leaving the harvester in the hands of a worker I sorted out the 8S and Trailer to collect the grain…
…In this shot with most of field 48 done, field 47 awaits – next in line and the clock is ticking… It’s already nearly the middle of the ‘week’!
Sometimes there are unique issues getting to a field – 47 is shielded by trees so setting up the harvester was problematic…
…But I was able to squeeze through with care before handing the controls to a worker to do the harvest. Then it was back to field 7 – The ‘Home Field’. The sun was dipping fast towards the horizon as we cut that last field of Wheat…
The three fields between them produced 120kltrs of grain and I would expect that the yield from field 47 will improve as I bring it into my farming regimen. That week’s work cost me over £4k in maintenance and around £3.5K in wages based on around 10 hours of work at £350 per hour.
Week 2 and a chance to earn back some cash by baling and selling the Straw…
…Another early start but well worth the effort – Nearly £15k profit from the Straw after the maintenance cost of baling it is taken into account. Effectively that has paid for the harvesting costs twice over but it comes at the price of time taken. Back in July I traded that cash in hand for jobs I could take but now, in September, I’m showing myself the future where the time to work for other farms will become limited.
In the August posting I intimated that the sowing plan was in place but, as students of military actions will tell you, no plan survives that first contact with the enemy! With fields 2, 46 and 47 set for Barley, I was planning to sow Sunflowers and Corn in the remaining 4 fields. But, as I have not yet seen how the Corn has performed, I made a last minute decision to plant Canola in fields 7 and 48. This immediately put the pressure on as Canola’s sowing window concludes at the end of September! Time for some music from Gowan…
…Always wanted an excuse to share that track 😅👍
With that decision I had to lime both fields that week ready for sowing…
The third week and I saw an opportunity to make some money – There was a large field requiring ploughing so I opted to lease the equipment and send one of my workers off to do the job while I concentrated on sowing Canola. I started in the Home Field…
…Take a look at the information in the bottom left and the coloured bar above – The green is where I’ve sown and the red shows the area yet to be sown and fertilized. The bar is showing the rate of fertilization. Clearly the crop needs a lot of fertilizer and I’m going to have to buy some more before tackling field 48!
Carrying on with the Canola sowing in field 48 – Here’s a shot showing an area where there was crop damage…
…Notice the reduced Nitrogen requirement in this area caused by the previous crop not completing its growth cycle.
With the sowing completed I moved on to mowing my grass fields…
…and baling them…
…before heading home to end the ‘day’ at 20:00. I told the worker doing the ploughing to knock it on the head at the same time – they can finish the field ‘tomorrow’.
The last week of September and still much to do. The worker restarted the ploughing task and I kicked off my week by rolling fields 7 and 48…
…Then it was time to wrap my grass bales to start the silage making process…
The worker completed the ploughing job around lunchtime and I banked £36k – a net earning of around £30k after wages have been paid. Then it was time to turn my attention to my own ploughing job in field 47…
…Before ending the week by collecting up my silage bales…
…35 in all 👍
The slog will continue into October as I still need to lime field 47 ready for the Barley and I will have to harvest my Corn in field 2. Whether I will have time to prepare that field for Barley as well remains to be seen. If all goes well I will have 3 fields of winter Barley growing by the end of the month – If not, field 2 will be sown in the spring. See you soon 😎👍
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