Harvest
Harvest is going well, there have not been any major combine breakdowns. All of the winter barley has now been combined, totalling around 150 acres. The wheat is next to be combined there is about another 150 acres to do. Then as soon as the wheat is done and the 150 acres of spring barley is fit we will start combining it.
Bales
Although straw is a by product of wheat and barley it is very useful and important to the livestock. Barley straw is more palatable than wheat straw and does not break up like wheat straw does. Due to the lack of rain and the variety of barley we are using there is less straw than usual so we may have to bale some wheat straw. We have two types of bales, we do about 3000 small rectangular bales which are useful for lambing pens and putting in racks to feed to cattle. We bale these ourselves with our small baler. We also have about 1200 big round bales baled by a contractor, these are used for bedding and feed. At the moment we have completed the baling and stacking of all the rectangular bales and have done about 450 round bales.
Livestock
The bulls have been taken out from the cows so that there will not be calves born after the beginning of May. Our show season is now at its end. The Norfolk show was quite successful although we didn’t win champion Suffolk sheep this time. We also enjoyed going to the Wayland show and the Tendring show, both are small local one day shows.
Game Cover
The game covers of maize will need spot spraying with a selective herbicide to kill the thistles that are growing in them. Our sprayer has two 4m sections and two 6m sections of boom which can be turned on and off separately to spot spray.
New Shed
Our new shed has been constructed. It only took about 3 days to put up. Since its construction we have laid some pipes for gutter water. After harvest we will concrete the floor with readymix, add gates, feed barriers and drinkers to make it suitable for cattle to be housed in by mid October.
Quail
Egg production is going well but sales are not keeping up. We are always looking for new customers so if you would like some we are happy for small or large orders.