Aug 29
Late Harvest at Home Farm
Posted in Crops by David Wilson
This year we've had the latest harvest since I started working at Home Farm in 1985. Normally by the August Bank Holiday Monday we've either finished or are close to finishing harvest and looking forward to a day off but due to all the rain this year this has not been the case.
So far we've only completed about a third of the harvest. There are 750 acres of crops to harvest on Home Farm. These include 160 acres of oats which go into Duchy Originals Biscuits, 100 acres of malting barley which go into Duchy Originals Ale, 200 acres of wheat, most of which goes into the Duchy Originals Biscuits, 25 acres of mustard, which goes into the Duchy Originals Wholegrain Mustard and 63 acres of rye.
All the arable farmers in the UK are in the same boat and we're all desperate for a sustained period of dry weather. We have to be philosophical about it and trust we'll see some sun soon. I check the weather charts regularly and the longer term weather forecast looks better.
The bad weather causes the workload to back up: for example, if we don't harvest the grain we can't bale the straw and we can't, in turn, cultivate the stubble and plant the catch crops of stubble turnips, forage rape and mustard to keep for the sheep. On the plus side, we've been busy doing a million and one other wet day jobs - we've repaired fences and gates, restored one side of the beef yard and serviced the machines. There's never a quiet moment!
