Harvest time.

[Wild-Woman]

Harvest time is under way here in the North Kent. It's very dusty! The field behind us was harvested during the night. How about your area?

[Garden Carpet]

It wont be long till it happens here. There is a field of some sort of cereal beside my house. I am dreading it being harvested as it means an influx of mice and even rats into my poor little cottage. Its the only thing I dislike about living next to this field.

jaki

[ogwen]

Not started here quite yet, but will be soon, theyve got some manure ready for muck spreading

[village wench]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

Harvest time is under way here in the North Kent. It's very dusty! The field behind us was harvested during the night. How about your area?

Something 'cerealy' has been harvested about two miles up the road from me late last week,just stubble left now with neat rows of straw

[Ukwildlifeo]

My council have harvested the hay in my local country park just a the meadow is starting to peak - thats a the Harvest Mice homeless for another year. Oh well theose council xmas parties and all expenses paid fact finding trips dont pay for themselves

[Ollie]

A couple of fields of Barley have been harvested around me but most of it requires around another week or so before it will be ready.
Roger

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

My council have harvested the hay in my local country park just a the meadow is starting to peak - thats a the Harvest Mice homeless for another year. Oh well theose council xmas parties and all expenses paid fact finding trips dont pay for themselves

I can't quite follow what you mean. I am not being silly, but why does making hay at hay time pay for a Christmas party?

[thunder]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

My council have harvested the hay in my local country park just a the meadow is starting to peak - thats a the Harvest Mice homeless for another year. Oh well theose council xmas parties and all expenses paid fact finding trips dont pay for themselves

The Harvestmice will move into the bottoms of the hedges (assuming you have hedges), and any bits of rough grass that they can find.

henrya

[ron1863]

The farmers are just harvesting the winter silage around my way, still a good bit to go before they take in the grain crops though.

[seamusagleann]

it's the one thing i miss!! unfortunately there is no grain crops up this way, just a few fields of hay. as a lad i remember the grain harvest ,not as the mass produced dust makers of today ,but the old way of the reaper/binder throwing out the "stooks"(sheafs) at the back of it . then gathered up,usually by the women and stacked facing south west .when they dried a tractor and trailer took them to the stack yard ,each stook was placed so that the grain was sheltered. when ready a roving team would call with a threshing mill and a bailer . the mill would separate it into ,chaff ,grain and straw .the grain was gathered into sacks and stored,the chaff was collected on open weave sacks,then the corners gathered ,thrown over the shoulder and taken into the cattle shed. the straw went through the bailer and stacked for winter bedding for the animals, and,incidently, made great forts. yes it was a truly magical time, but very hard ,hot work soon forgotten for the day,by an evening in the bothy with the threshing team ,most of them singers and musicians, that's where i first tasted ale....cracking times!!!

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

I can't quite follow what you mean. I am not being silly, but why does making hay at hay time pay for a Christmas party?

Sorry I was still pretty annoyed when I posted. I was just making the point that they have no need to cut the field at this time of year, every year, other than to make money for who knows what. Being a country park surely the wildlife should come first, which means harvesting in september when the meadow is about to die back anyway. Unless someone wants to correct me?

Originally Posted by thunder

The Harvestmice will move into the bottoms of the hedges (assuming you have hedges), and any bits of rough grass that they can find.

henrya

My concern about the Harvest Mice nests was that there still breeding at this time of year and the young won't stand much chance, especially if there recently born. Hopefully the mice have aalready raised a brood or two by now though

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

Sorry I was still pretty annoyed when I posted. I was just making the point that they have no need to cut the field at this time of year, every year, other than to make money for who knows what. Being a country park surely the wildlife should come first, which means harvesting in september when the meadow is about to die back anyway. Unless someone wants to correct me?

This is the traditional hay time, the ecological system works round this. Good for the plants, mammals have already had a brood or two, birds have nested and reared broods and the edges and hedgerows can cope with what is there. If there is a special fauna that needs protecting, there will be a good chance that if it is known of it will be catered for.

I don't work for a local authority, but I have worked with quite a few, and the pressure on them to get this kind of thing right is very heavy, as is the wish from the ecologists that do work for them. The chances of selling a few bales of hay to get a good Christmas party is remote.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

This is the traditional hay time, the ecological system works round this. Good for the plants, mammals have already had a brood or two, birds have nested and reared broods and the edges and hedgerows can cope with what is there. If there is a special fauna that needs protecting, there will be a good chance that if it is known of it will be catered for.

I don't work for a local authority, but I have worked with quite a few, and the pressure on them to get this kind of thing right is very heavy, as is the wish from the ecologists that do work for them. The chances of selling a few bales of hay to get a good Christmas party is remote.

ok fair enough..

[shei111]

Originally Posted by village wench

Something 'cerealy' has been harvested about two miles up the road from me late last week,just stubble left now with neat rows of straw

Probaly barley. shei

[shei111]

The wheat is being harvested this way now. shei.

[ellen h]

The combines been out this week in the fields of wheat
ellen

[juliejam]

There's still plenty of wheat to be cut around my way at the moment..I can remember as a child growning up surrounded by farm land everything was cut by the first wk of August..

Julie

[Davy Crockett]

Harvest time, i wish they wouldn't! there's nowt left for me when thiv done
Soon it ull be just me unt brids scrachin abeht lookin fur sumut teight.
All the best from a sad Crockett

[ellen h]

Combine been out all day,very busy and dusty cough cough
ellen

[Davy Crockett]

Originally Posted by ellen h

Combine been out all day,very busy and dusty cough cough
ellen

That's an interesting picture ellen was it taken in your home county Essex.
No chance of dust and pollen up here in Lancashire we are all washed out.

[ellen h]

Originally Posted by Davy Crockett

That's an interesting picture ellen was it taken in your home county Essex.
No chance of dust and pollen up here in Lancashire we are all washed out.

Yes,this was taken earlier this week -Salvation Army Hadleigh farm-adjacent to the country park
ellen

[Susie]

I am still relatively new to living in the "country" and still get a huge kick from walking through fields. I was walking along the edge of fields of wheat a couple of days ago and it was so beautiful, there are also fields of oats around here and broadbeans. They have yet to be harvested, apart from one field of broadbeans which are in. When the winds blow the oats ripple. It is a wonderful sight and makes my heart glad. I think I was a farmer in a former life!

[Davy Crockett]

Susie, you should report those horrid people to the police, are they a group of yobs or is it one baddy that's doing the kicking. If I lived near you, I’d come and get um for you. mad:
Gerr, Crockett

[JoulesH]

We farmers are starting to get worried - this weather is not helping at all. On our farm we rely on contractors and we will be at the back of their queue with our small acreage - they're sitting twiddling their thumbs at present and fuel is so expensive no-one wants to cut with too much moisture in and then dry it. The wheat will be black after all this rain (moulds) - then you'll really see some dust! and some (not ours) is already sprouting before harvest. Good straw for livestock farmers will be in short supply - because fert prices are so high many arable men are ploughing the straw in to keep the nutrients in it and now with this weather the straw will be dusty and brittle (or even worse, even more mouldy if wet when baled.