cut barley

[mossy835]

got the first field cut today, will give it till tuesday then have a go after work,

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Good luck, I hope they commit for you.  

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, on my friends farm the rape is first cut, I like this time of year but ssssooooo hot today

[old'un]

if its the first one in the area I would be looking at it tomorrow.

[mossy835]

i have one farm that has 8 fields of barley.but he wont cut that for another week or so,

[marsh man]

The harvest in Norfolk had already begun , looking in the local paper this morning they had cut there first barley fields on the Euston estate neat Thetford , they were saying the price of grain had gone down a bit but still making good money , the farm manager was also saying the cost of getting the crop in the store have gone up sky high with him quoting it cost a £1000 a day to run the combine and £800 to run a tractor all day , weather this inclued the drivers wages or if it is just for fuel , that I don't know , but one of you bright lads will know the true cost .

Our barley should start from Monday onwards and with dry hot weather forecast all next week I would imagine this time next week there will be 100s of fields cut to save on the expense of using the dryers . 

[Deadeyealan]

This all sounds good for me as I return from holiday on Thursday. 🤩

[marsh man]

15 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, on my friends farm the rape is first cut, I like this time of year but ssssooooo hot today

I don't think we have reached the peak of this hot spell of weather until later on next week , today it is already scorching and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the smaller farms make a start today on the bigger farms they might leave it till tomorrow to avoid paying overtime .

Yesterday I gave it a miss as I went on Pea stubble last Tuesday and Friday and got more than enough for the amount I take to the village pub every two weeks , yesterday afternoon I had a nice walk around my main pigeon place and to be honest I saw very little activity as all crops were still standing and I would had done as much , if not more damage than the Pigeons with setting up the decoys and finding any shot birds .

This time next week I hope I have had my first go on this years grain stubble , we will then know that Summer is getting well underway and the mellow days of Autumn is just around the corner .

[old'un]

55 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I don't think we have reached the peak of this hot spell of weather until later on next week , today it is already scorching and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the smaller farms make a start today on the bigger farms they might leave it till tomorrow to avoid paying overtime .

Yesterday I gave it a miss as I went on Pea stubble last Tuesday and Friday and got more than enough for the amount I take to the village pub every two weeks , yesterday afternoon I had a nice walk around my main pigeon place and to be honest I saw very little activity as all crops were still standing and I would had done as much , if not more damage than the Pigeons with setting up the decoys and finding any shot birds .

This time next week I hope I have had my first go on this years grain stubble , we will then know that Summer is getting well underway and the mellow days of Autumn is just around the corner .

nothing cut around here, pigeons have gone completely off the barley and only showing on wheat, there's a lot of birds about, afternoon mainly, went out Friday and shot a few, there was a nice wind/breeze but today (Sunday) there's very little wind, its too bloody hot for me.

[mossy835]

birds here have not been on the barley at all, but are on the wheat.had a few yesterday,

[marsh man]

11 minutes ago, old'un said:

nothing cut around here, pigeons have gone completely off the barley and only showing on wheat, there's a lot of birds about, afternoon mainly, went out Friday and shot a few, there was a nice wind/breeze but today (Sunday) there's very little wind, its too bloody hot for me.

What I can never fathom out is Pigeons will leave Winter barley fields a week to ten days prior of the fields been cut , I presume this is because the grain is getting hard , and yet as soon as it is cut the Pigeons return on the stubble's with the grain still hard , the most I saw yesterday was on the rape fields , the wires than ran across the fields were full of Pigeons and they seemed to know they were safe from the hit men , like you say for us oldies it is far to hot for shooting a few Pigeons and we are now going to have a ride up the coast where there is a nice sea breeze to help you out .

Have a good day  MM  

[old'un]

26 minutes ago, marsh man said:

What I can never fathom out is Pigeons will leave Winter barley fields a week to ten days prior of the fields been cut , I presume this is because the grain is getting hard , and yet as soon as it is cut the Pigeons return on the stubble's with the grain still hard , the most I saw yesterday was on the rape fields , the wires than ran across the fields were full of Pigeons and they seemed to know they were safe from the hit men , like you say for us oldies it is far to hot for shooting a few Pigeons and we are now going to have a ride up the coast where there is a nice sea breeze to help you out .

Have a good day  MM  

think its possibly to-do with braking the corn down to feed their young, its easier/quicker to brake down milky or putty soft grains than rock hard dry grains.

shooting pigeons in hot weather never bothered me when I was a lot younger but as I got older it was less appealing sitting there with sweat running down my face and back.

also It could be that, like you, I have been shooting all my life and killed a lot of pigeons in that time and no longer have the desire to kill so much, or it could be I am just getting to old for this game in this heat.

[oldypigeonpopper]

3 hours ago, marsh man said:

I don't think we have reached the peak of this hot spell of weather until later on next week , today it is already scorching and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the smaller farms make a start today on the bigger farms they might leave it till tomorrow to avoid paying overtime .

Yesterday I gave it a miss as I went on Pea stubble last Tuesday and Friday and got more than enough for the amount I take to the village pub every two weeks , yesterday afternoon I had a nice walk around my main pigeon place and to be honest I saw very little activity as all crops were still standing and I would had done as much , if not more damage than the Pigeons with setting up the decoys and finding any shot birds .

This time next week I hope I have had my first go on this years grain stubble , we will then know that Summer is getting well underway and the mellow days of Autumn is just around the corner .

Hello, at least you got out , this hot weather knocks me out 🙄 , need some rain to cool down 😁

[mossy835]

we must be getting old, im not so keen to get out this weather. years ago id have been out there.

Edited July 10, 2022 by mossy835

[old'un]

44 minutes ago, mossy835 said:

we must be getting old, im not so keen to get out this weather. years ago id have been out there.

apart from getting old there's another point about shooting a decent bag in this weather, some years ago i went to shoot on some rape stubble, my mate turned up wearing moccasins and a pair of shorts. it was so hot it was melting the tarmac, we got setup around one-ish and was shooting pigeons from the off, we had taken some wet hessian sacks to cover the birds but even that did not stop them getting fly blown and at the end of the day most had turned blue because of the heat.

[Old Boggy]

32 minutes ago, old'un said:

apart from getting old there's another point about shooting a decent bag in this weather, some years ago i went to shoot on some rape stubble, my mate turned up wearing moccasins and a pair of shorts. it was so hot it was melting the tarmac, we got setup around one-ish and was shooting pigeons from the off, we had taken some wet hessian sacks to cover the birds but even that did not stop them getting fly blown and at the end of the day most had turned blue because of the heat.

Your mate clearly hadn`t been shooting over rape stubble before to realise how spiteful those stalks can be.

A fly blown bag does take the edge of shooting somewhat.

I`ll leave those hot days to the youngsters and won`t be going out until the temperature drops a tad. Having said that, our rape is being cut starting tomorrow and we`re meant to be having a heatwave. Hopefully, the latter part of the week will be a bit cooler.

OB

 

[old'un]

1 hour ago, Old Boggy said:

Your mate clearly hadn`t been shooting over rape stubble before to realise how spiteful those stalks can be.

A fly blown bag does take the edge of shooting somewhat.

I`ll leave those hot days to the youngsters and won`t be going out until the temperature drops a tad. Having said that, our rape is being cut starting tomorrow and we`re meant to be having a heatwave. Hopefully, the latter part of the week will be a bit cooler.

OB

 

he sent his dog.

[mossy835]

is it a good thing to take dogs out in rape stubble,hurd some bad things a bout that,

[old'un]

24 minutes ago, mossy835 said:

is it a good thing to take dogs out in rape stubble,hurd some bad things a bout that,

never had a problem with any of my dogs, think they soon learn how to work between the stalks, working a dog in standing barley is worse than rape stubble.

lets face it, if you have a working dog they will get a few injuries over their lifetime, dogs can get injuries from working in grass.

I had a spaniel that was fearless in cover, at the end of a days beating he was cut to pieces, had a dog with ripped stomach after jumping a barb wire fence, dogs with badly cut pads after stepping on metal, glass, etc.

 

Edited July 10, 2022 by old'un

[marsh man]

3 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

Your mate clearly hadn`t been shooting over rape stubble before to realise how spiteful those stalks can be.

A fly blown bag does take the edge of shooting somewhat.

I`ll leave those hot days to the youngsters and won`t be going out until the temperature drops a tad. Having said that, our rape is being cut starting tomorrow and we`re meant to be having a heatwave. Hopefully, the latter part of the week will be a bit cooler.

OB

 

Afternoon O B , Just got back from a run up to Cromer , yes it was hot but I have known it to be a lot hotter than it was today , in the motor it got up to 26 ( inland ) and a bit cooler on the coast , in all that way I only saw one big field of barley cut and the bales were off , didn't really notice if there were any Pigeons on there , in this sort of heat I don't see that much movement till it start to cool down from mid afternoon.

On the way back I stopped at a reservoir to give my dog a couple of retrieves to cool him off a bit and then made my way to a Pea stubble to give him a run , I didn't see any Pigeons for the simple fact they had a metal detectors convention over the weekend and there was still a number trying to detect some precious metal , one metal they will detect off that field and that is lead shot 

GOOD LUCK on your rape stubble , ours will be two to three weeks away but we should have some grain stubble way before then .

[oldypigeonpopper]

19 hours ago, mossy835 said:

we must be getting old, im not so keen to get out this weather. years ago id have been out there.

Hello, 10 or so years ago I would be the same, and ratting right through the winter nights, now it's days hibernating in this weather and a heated jacket for winter

[hawkfanz]

20 hours ago, mossy835 said:

is it a good thing to take dogs out in rape stubble,hurd some bad things a bout that,

couple years ago i had rape stubble it was about 14inches tall covered in pigeon but no way would i shoot it the stalks are lethal for the dog.

[old'un]

31 minutes ago, hawkfanz said:

couple years ago i had rape stubble it was about 14inches tall covered in pigeon but no way would i shoot it the stalks are lethal for the dog.

you could have shot it and picked the birds yourself?

[hawkfanz]

i could but seein as i only av 1 leg its a tough jobb for me too.

[old'un]

52 minutes ago, hawkfanz said:

i could but seein as i only av 1 leg its a tough jobb for me too.

sorry, obviously i was unaware of your situation.

I agree to a point that there is potential for injury but in all the years I have been working dogs I have never had a dog injured when picking birds on rape stubble, but that's not saying it could never happen.