Harvest
The winter barley harvest has been successfully completed after numerous stops for rain. Despite the dry weather during the growing period the yields and the quality are reasonable. We have made a faltering start to the wheat harvest, frustratingly the rain has caused a stop start harvest so far. Grain prices are good due to shortages from Eastern Europe, mainly Russia. Despite the recent unsettled weather there has not been enough rain to help the grassland or the sugar beet much. During the coming month we will also order fertiliser and seed for this autumn. Then, when harvest is over the whole cycle starts again.
Many people who are not farmers think that when the sun is out we should be harvesting but they do not realise that it takes about 2 days of really sunny weather after a rain for it to be dry enough to begin harvesting again. Often when it rains many people think that the farmers will be pleased as it will help the grass grow, but the crops and grass need a continuous amount of heavy rain to have much impact otherwise it will just wet the surface and evaporate, not affecting the deeper soil.
Quail
In July we sold our 50,000th egg and had our 5th anniversary!!! David started the business in July 2005 and in February 2008 he decided that it was too much work to do on his own so I became a partner in the business. We have produced and sold more eggs each year since 2005. We currently sell eggs through Hollow Trees Farm Shop, an egg wholesaler, and private sales, any orders welcome!
Livestock
There is not much grass at the moment so Dad is feeding the cattle straw which does not have much nutritional value but it keeps the cattle happy! The calves are being creep fed, this means that the calves will continue to grow even when cows are not producing as much milk.