drilling wheat

A dry weekend and the chance to drill (or sow) some wheat in Far Blackley. Much cooler and damper than last year.

harvest 2012

The last field of wheat at Slamseys is being combined today. Yesterday the combine was near Felsted so the tractors and trailers were driving from the field back to the farm, tipping the load, driving back along the road (passing the other tractors headed the opposite way) and arriving back in the field just as the combine spout was swinging out ready to empty the next full tank of grain. It was all a bit frantic.

Today is easier as they’re combining Grove Field, which is next to the yard.

Even Beth is looking relaxed as she waits to drive alongside the combine for the next load.

When the trailer is full, she’ll take it back to the barn to tip it out. 

In the yard, Bill is taking the wheat from the barn and tipping it into the lorries that will transport it to the co-operative grain store.

cultivations

The oilseed rape in Gardeners Field has been combined and the ground has been cultivated.

The wheat growing in The Ley (next door to Great Notley Country Park) has been combined.
Now we have to wait for the rest of the wheat to ripen.

misty mornings

Walking along the bridleway in the mornings the mist has been hanging above the fields the past couple of mornings.

In Great Forest field, the oilseed rape has been cut and safely carted to the barn leaving fields of stubble.

 Wheat in Grove Field - almost ready to combine.

July weather

We could do with some sunshine and warmth to ripen the crops; the current prediction is for harvest to be at least a week later than normal.

oilseed rape 18th July

The oilseed rape was desiccated earlier this week to stop it growing and help even up maturity across the crop ...

wheat 5th July

wheat 18th July

and the wheat is slowly turning colour. 

Goodwrights Livery have taken over the running of the livery yard at the farm. Not only do they look very professional in their new shirts, but they've been busy painting the stables and tack room so that the livery yard is looking as smart as they do. It's good to see horses grazing in the paddocks again, though there's so much grass at the moment that they can't keep up. There are still a couple of stables available on the yard, so if you're looking for a livery yard for your horse, contact us and we'll pass your details on to Goodwrights Livery.

around the farm today

What a beautiful day today. I wish you could see the skylarks that were singing overhead when I took this photo; it was a truly glorious sound that made me glad to be alive. If you walk along the footpaths and  bridleway there are so many things to see with buds coming out, crops growing and the first primroses hiding in the ditch.

bread for Farmhouse Breakfast Week

This is last year's wheat crop, which was green last January, almost ready to harvest in July, combined in August and then stored in the barn. 

Most of the wheat was sent to a central co-operative store where it is sold on for food production. We use some of the wheat as seed for the next crop that is now growing in the fields and I take a very small amount to use throughout the year.

So that we can have toast and marmalade for breakfast during Farmhouse Breakfast Week, I've been using wheat from last year's  harvest to make some bread.

First the wheat is put into the grain mill, which grinds it into flour and then the dough is made, left to prove and shaped into loaves.

The loaves are then baked in the oven and we'll eat the fresh bread with rabbit rillettes and then toast the rest for breakfast.
There are more ideas for farmhouse breakfast week at Life In Mud Spattered Boots.

drilling wheat

The Ley was power harrowed in early September and left for the weather to break down to create a good seedbed but an unforseen hot, dry September made the lumps of dirt even harder. So, last week the field was rolled and then power harrowed again to break down the clods and over the weekend was drilled with wheat. The temperature was an unseasonable 27C and as you can see from the photos, it was a dry and dusty job. The field was then rolled again.

Meanwhile on Sunday the contractors moved in to clear the muck heap and spread the manure on Lakes Field. This morning the field was too tempting for Morris our fox terrier and he had a long and satisfying roll. He now smells very rural.

power harrowing the ley

The Ley has been power harrowed today to break down the clods. The field will be left for a few weeks for the weather to further break down the soil to make a good seedbed for drilling wheat.

seed cleaning

Nearly all our wheat has left the farm now but we always keep some back to use as seed to plant for next year's crop and this week the mobile seed cleaner came into the yard this week to process the wheat.

The wheat is tipped from the trailer into a hopper and taken up into the machine.

 

Using screens and seperators the best seeds are selected and given an accurate application of seed treatment and then discharged into 1000kg bags to be stored in the barn until it's time for drilling.

The undersized, light or damaged seed together with chaff and other trash is rejected and transferred to this trailer.

wheat harvest has finished

A dodgy video clip that may make you feel slightly seasick as the camerawork is very shaky. In my defence, I took this when I realised I’d just lost my specs somewhere in the stubble and was trying to film the combine, look for my glasses and keep out of the way of the tractor and trailer. No, I didn’t find them. No doubt they’ll either get smashed to pieces under a tractor wheel never to be seen again or they’ll get buried in the dirt and someone with a metal detector will uncover them in a few years time.

 

The last of the wheat was combined on Saturday evening and carted back in the trailers to the grain store in the yard. We were lucky to get the wheat harvested quickly as we didn’t get held up by rain many days though the combine zipped along through the crop as the dry weather earlier this year reduced the yields by about 25%. 

Some of the wheat has been kept back as next year’s seed, but the rest has been loaded onto lorries and been taken away and the barn swept clean, using this high tech equipment, ready for the beans.

Rain before seven, fine by eleven?

 

Well, not yesterday when it started to rain at 6.30 am and stayed wet all day. After a good start to harvest at the weekend, work has now stopped as we wait for sunshine to dry out the crops. 

Combine harvester cutting Batallion wheat in Gardners Field

working late

On Wednesday evening it started to rain steadily, there was an enormous flash of lightning and we lost our electricity supply in the house and yard for half an hour. Surprisingly, there was no rain two fields away where the combine was working and they harvested until the early hours of the morning.

wheat harvest has started

 

On Saturday afternoon the wheat looked almost ready to combine – it had turned golden brown and the heads were bent over.

Bill picked a few heads and took them back to the farm to test the moisture level.

The grains were ground up, compressed and connected to the Marconi moisture meter. At 15% moisture, the wheat can be stored safely but if it's much wetter it will have to be dried. After testing, Bill decreed the crop was ready, so at 3pm yesterday the combine drove into the fields at Little Dunmow and by 12.45am had cut 90 acres. The wheat was brought back to the grain store and heaped up overnight and then from 7.30 this morning was loaded into lorries and taken up to the central co-operative grain store.

getting ready for Open Farm Sunday

I’ve been getting ready for Open Farm Sunday by practising my soda bread making this morning. This loaf has been made with 100% home grown wheat and seems to have turned out alright. I’ll be making more bread on Sunday 12^th June at Gate Farm, Moulsham Hall Lane, Great Leighs, Chelmsford CM3 1PZ and Jayne Porter from Humble Cooking will be doing a hands on biscuit baking session for children in the afternoon. There’ll also be a chance to mill your own wheat, take a trailer ride, look at the animals ...

Fertiliser Spreading

The contractors have been spreading fertiliser on the wheat crop in Great Forest over the weekend. Historically, sulphur (which the crop needs for growth) was available in the atmosphere but with reduced emissions of sulphur we now have to apply it together with nitrogen, which boosts plant growth.

The fertiliser is taken down the field so that it is ready to be loaded into the spreader. Each bag holds half a tonne of fertiliser.

When the spreader is empty, the driver pulls up next to the bags, which are lifted in pairs above the spreader.

 The bottom of the bags are cut open so that the fertiliser flows into the spreader.

When all four bags have been emptied into the spreader, the driver resumes spreading.

fertilier applied to the wheat in Great Forest

The small white balls are fertiliser.