Archived News

13th September 2008

The grain has been coming off the field at over 30% moisture and costing approximately £10 per tonne to dry.  On some days the combine hasn't started to cut until mid or late afternoon due to the weather, this has resulted in a few more 2am finishes. One evening this week Laurence only managed to cut 6 acres because ground conditions were too wet, not only making cutting difficult, but a tractor and trailer also got stuck, so there was another hold up as this was towed out.

 'Letting off steam'

As the grain is dried, steam wafts out of the drier and disappears into the air.  In the past this has caused a few concerned people to call the Fire Brigade out on a false alarm and we have had to assure them that steam is produced when drying grain, in the same way that steam is produced when drying clothes! Also steam doesn't smell of smoke.

Today is looking reasonable, it's a little cloudy which prevents the sun from drying the morning dew, however I have just spoken to Laurence and he says moisture is a little over 20% and if there aren't too many problems, he intends to work on for as long as possible to get through the remaining 60 acres of wheat at Dunsfold.