Archived News

18th August 2012

A small chip inside a graphics panel recently brought my computer to a grinding halt but I must say it’s been great to return to those pre-computer days and regain all those extra hours I used to spend outdoors!

Harvest began with 40 acres of barley at Raikes Lane which has been sold for seed; the bushel weight and yield were both low.  The weight of a given volume of grain was known as bushel weight, but nowadays this is being described as hectolitre weight, the weight of the grain that fills a 100 litre container.  Barley should weigh about 63kg but ours was more like 60kg.

The oilseed rape had just an average yield from the fields at Whitedown, Manor Farm and Cranleigh.  Laurence sold 377 tonnes of rape forward; gradually throughout the year prior to harvest to Glencore and Gleadel.  There’s always that risk in judging the right time to sell and it can be quite frustrating to sell when the price has been on the up and it still might rise dramatically the day after you sell!

Only half the crop will be sold forward which allows for either higher or lower prices during or after harvest according to how the harvest has gone Internationally, so we’ll be watching the grain price for the remaining 300 tonne of oilseed rape and similarly for the other crops.

The winter wheat at Shalford was ready to combine last weekend but the seed grass here at Manor needed to run through the combine harvester after it was mown and it seemed logical to get that done before driving the combine harvester over to Shalford and starting in the wheat.

Unfortunately the grass was a nightmare; being long and damp it blocked up the combine for two days, with three men in the tank trying to unblock it and eventually resorting to drilling out the grass. That was a total waste of time. The grass has been left to dry out some more.

Inside the combine harvester

Laurence drove the combine over to Shalford at 4am on Wednesday to avoid traffic but couldn’t start cutting the winter wheat until Thursday due to the weather; cutting 30 acres by the evening.  That was a difficult day as Laurence had been working without a number of functions on the combine harvester including the yield meter, reel speed and alignment, the straw spread, auto contour (that allows the reel/cutter bar to tilt on hillsides automatically) and to top it all the knife drive sheared off just before he came home. It was discovered that a circuit panel would need to be ordered and then replaced by the Claas mechanics.

David and Frank fixed the knife Friday morning and Laurence harvested another 60 acres. Claas are ready with a new circuit panel but rather than stop yesterday they should be coming out to replace the part this morning.

I weighed and checked the conformation of the Belted Galloway steers this week to decide which cattle will be next to go for beef. They have come down off the Ranges (North Downs) and will graze off a meadow at Landbarn for a week and then return to the downs. The beef will taste absolutely delicious after grazing the herb rich downland.

Yesterday we moved Ethelred the bull into the Cressbeds.  This will be the third group he serves on the farm. He had been grazing at Kempslade with nine heifers and that group are moving up to the North Downs above Gomshall for a few weeks grazing for the National Trust; I will get them pregnancy diagnosed in 35 days.

Fourteen Friesian cross dairy calves arrived yesterday, they are only ten days old and start off in the barn at Manor Farm as they become accustomed to the self feed milk machines.