Archived News

21st September 2013

Harvest 2013 is not quite complete; with 180 acres of oilseed rape which won’t be ready for another 3-4 weeks. This will take about three days and then the combine harvester will be put to bed for winter.

It’s taken two hours today to get 50 tonnes of oats into the overhead bin, ready for collection on Monday.  The oats were grown on contract for Lillico Attlee for seed. A grain passport is required for each lorry that leaves the farm; it shows the grain is from an Assured farm and that the vehicle has been inspected and approved to transport grain.

David was cleaning out the drill this evening in readiness for an early start tomorrow when he will be drilling barley at Dunsfold; he should have followed in after Ed cultivated the soil a fortnight ago, but rain has delayed drilling.

Ed is now cultivating Whitedown and subject to the weather, David will drilling barley here next week. Our rotations this year are for barley to follow in after wheat and wheat is going in after oats.

With contractors charging about £100 per acre last year, to lift our 30 acres of fodder beat, we weren’t looking forward to this year’s bill for 80 acres!  So after much deliberation, Laurence decided to buy a second hand fodder-beat harvester from a farmer in Norfolk and if he can get it to work efficiently for at least a couple of years it will be worth the investment... that’s the plan anyway!

The previous owner gave Laurence and David some guidance on the machine and explained that it would take a few acres to get it set up and lifting the beats well. Fodder beat is usually lifted in November but with the machine to set up, Laurence has lifted about 20 tonnes across one acre and these beats will be used to feed the cattle in barns at Raikes farm.

Donald is cleaning out barns and preparing them for the 400 or so Friesian x cattle which are still to come in from the fields for winter; Paddington is ready and Churchfield will be prepared next.

We’ve started to move the Belted Galloways onto fields which will be more accessible for us in the winter months, balancing the requirements of each group; cows with calves at foot which will be weaned by November, in-calf cows, cows being serviced by the bull and the yearlings. 

The bull has been moved out from the cows at Netley and is having a short break at Churchfield.  Once their calves have been weaned, Ethelred will rejoin the heifers which are currently grazing Kempslade.

On Monday we’ll be moving the cattle from the fields opposite Abinger Hall, along to the Cressbeds.