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Harvest Log Days 13 & 14

On into the wheat now, JB Diego, good yeilds making for slow forward speeds but we don't mind that! Started up behind the farm yesterday on the steep ground, finishing off up there today in Long Ponds and French Nut Park. Moving combines just up the road mid afternoon to munch off 96 acres at Bay Hill starting in Big Dean. Balers are booked in for tomorrow all being well. The block of land we call Oakley, you can make out the farm in the top left. post-2769-0-89279700-1439127779_thumb.jp post-2769-0-05745000-1439127818_thumb.jp

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Good to see harvest is going well Alex, have you got much straw this year?

Loads of the stuff Pat, we are going to end up chopping some this year, nobody wants it all, Julian is having a fair bit but only wants local stuff, our Tenant Dairy farmer at Knott Oak is having a little and Tony House after anything else is going for the chop!
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Nice catching up with your updates again Alex! Harvest going well, how are yields? Should I ask why that field is called French nut park? ;D

Thanks Niels, yields so far are pleasing, Rape averaged out at 4.2 t/ha and although its still early for wheat spot yield so far is 11.9 t/ha but so far we have cut the best looking stuff, but its what we need with the current prices. Ha ha you can remember from last year! Worst field of the dam farm for obstacles
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You have a really superb layout there Alex which could only be bettered by some weathering on implements and tractors...................The Vaddy carrier would really be improved with some steel coloured paint over its plastic yellow rollers ::).....................mind you with so many models you would need a 2 litre tub to paint all the wearing parts ;D

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I have often thought about it and agree weathering would make things look more realistic, however id have to do everything which in itself is a lot of work, it would have to be done right and well to look good. The main reason I don't weather is the shear price of some of my models, some costing in excess of £1000 a piece the last thing i want to do it let loose with a paint brush and ruin them!

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Nearly an inch of rain yesterday here which has put harvest on hold for a minute. The balers didn't quite reach us so we have 300 acres of straw on the ground. Always jobs to do though so we gave booked Orchard Contractors in to spread compost in The Meads and Kingstone now we have some fields clear so we are off to load the spreaders with one of the Scorpions and we have got the GT on ready to dig some Shepody, x3 lorry loads booked in for Wednesday so best have a crack at it! post-2769-0-64426200-1439284694_thumb.jp post-2769-0-89628300-1439284866_thumb.jp

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Thanks Niels, yields so far are pleasing, Rape averaged out at 4.2 t/ha and although its still early for wheat spot yield so far is 11.9 t/ha but so far we have cut the best looking stuff, but its what we need with the current prices. Ha ha you can remember from last year! Worst field of the dam farm for obstacles

You probably told me and I forgot sorry. Some good yields there then. We still have some fields to cut, they aren't fit. 19% still and straw green. Let's hope the yields will be pleasing. So far they have been variable.

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You might be in luck today Mark, just spoke to Juluan and he is going to try and bale some today, stay tunned to see how we get on. Yesterday the first loads of Shepody were dug, lovely clean sample, not a lot of dirt, that rain we had has really helped this job, just as well as we don't have any handlers available as one is outloading winter barley up at Hinton Park and the other is loading compost into spreaders, haulm is proving a pain as per usual! post-2769-0-48508900-1439374842_thumb.jp post-2769-0-07100600-1439374943_thumb.jp post-2769-0-30831100-1439374998_thumb.jp post-2769-0-39447500-1439375040_thumb.jp

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Harvest Log Day 15

Well what started as a relatively stress free day digging spuds has turned into one of the busiest of the season so far, its 23:00 and its not over yet! We dug 3 lorry loads of Shepody by 2:30pm today whilst Chris was servicing up the drill as we start to look at drilling rape over the weekend if the weather allows. I tested the wheat at 2pm and it was 21% mc so we decided with 5 days of unsettled weather ahead it was time to eat off what we could while we could. So off to Moolham we went, far south west of the farm on some pretty brashy ground, chopping the straw as the balers won't get this far. Turned into a lovely afternoon and evening now coming off at 18.5%. The baling team turned up at 2pm and what a team they are, 22:30 they have just finished 196 acres up behind the farm and are moving up the road to bay hill, going to be the early hours if they beat the rain, well done lads. The bale chaser is working a treat chasing bales to headlands but not keeping up with 3 balers, Manor Farm were drafted in on trailers to move bales away. It will be 12:30am before we finish chasing behind the farm and move to bay hill, not sure what time the thunder storms are due but they speak of 3inchs of rain here tomorrow so i will be over the moon if everything is baled and chased before it starts! Good luck crew!

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Not to many Harvest Log days in the last 5 after a days steady rain on friday, everybody did extremely well to bale and shift everything before it came down. It allowed us to get Orchard in to spread chicken litter at North Petherton and get ahead digging potatoes. Of course we applied for the hedgetrimming derogation to cut hedges ahead of OSR drilling which we have been doing. Saturday 15th Aug saw us start drilling DK Excilite after Horsch UK came out to help us convert our drill to 300mm rows, went well going at a 30 degree angle to CTF lines since its a dry year, if it comes in wet we will run with the lines.

Harvest Log Day 16 & 17

Got back combining after Saturday was a good drying day, 19.2% so still drying, over at Speaks near Ashill, chopping straw on this heavy land. X6 trailers on, hedgetrimming at the same time to stay ahead of the drill who is now at Bay Hill. Trying to roll in to consolidate in the mornings whilst waiting for the dews to burn off. Speaks all finished today, now over the road at Osbornes putting straw back in the swath for Julian. Digging spuds at the same time is really testing us, everything is stretched to the limit including staff's tempers! Manor Farm are in to haul spuds for us so we can concentrate on wheat and drilling rape. Tomorrow we plan to start lifting at 6am to get 3 lorry loads out by lunchtime allowing us to free up staff for chasing bales! I also heard a rumour Orchard are on cutting wheat that is destined for our store so best check this out and schedule in logistics for loads and book drying time. As you can tell, busy is an understatement!

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