Harvest is near, very near.

[JDog]

I took this picture just now from my back garden. 

The lads with the combine say it's 19% moisture and as it is not going to be dried they will have to stop as it needs to be 15% or lower.

[yickdaz]

You could shoot from there 🤣

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, Yes to much moisture can have detrimental affect to the grain when stored not forgetting problems with the combine, a few more hours of sunshine should bring the level down and hopefully they can start cutting, a Moisture Meter is essential but i remember when the farmer just bite the grain and knew when the crop was ready for cutting

[hushpower]

They normally take a cut round the outside of the feild to let the wind in if any about 11am  then start cutting bout 1pm when the heat is starting ....in my time that is 

[mossy835]

when i was comebining its nice to get it if you can get it 14% to 15%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 24 by mossy835

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

Hello, Yes to much moisture can have detrimental affect to the grain when stored not forgetting problems with the combine, a few more hours of sunshine should bring the level down and hopefully they can start cutting, a Moisture Meter is essential but i remember when the farmer just bite the grain and knew when the crop was ready for cutting

These modern day combines, and even the not so modern can tell them just about everything to do with the crop they are cutting by a press of a button , those ole time farmers certainly knew when the crop was ready for combining , one chap I knew would take a few ears of corn then roll them about in his hand , blow the chaff off and he could tell if it was ready or not , another ole boy wasn't up to that , he had an ole combine ( and still got it ) that is now classed as a classic vehicle with only a 15ft cutting head ,  his next door neighbour had a fairly up to date combine and when he made a start he then knew his crop was also ready , although I think he has now bought himself one of those little hand grinders which tell you the results .   MM

[B686]

Farmer near me has been given a 50ft header to try out. I remember whin I was a kid me and my dad used to walk with the combine when it was cutting to shoot foxes as they ran out . I remember the combine didn’t even have a cab the bloke driving it used to give us a thumbs up if he had seen one . He always used to have the fattest roll up fag in the corner of his mouth that I have ever seen to this day. Proper character he was .

How things have changed.

Edited July 24 by B686

[mellors]

Barley and rape on one farm here were combined a week ago.

Most of the crops will go this week as long as the dry weather holds those double head machines make short work of them. 

[kitchrat]

12 hours ago, B686 said:

Farmer near me has been given a 50ft header to try out. I remember whin I was a kid me and my dad used to walk with the combine when it was cutting to shoot foxes as they ran out . I remember the combine didn’t even have a cab the bloke driving it used to give us a thumbs up if he had seen one . He always used to have the fattest roll up fag in the corner of his mouth that I have ever seen to this day. Proper character he was .

How things have changed.

Wow, 50ft! The land must be very level just up the road from me. In Canada, where the crop is much thinner, they can use such things as the machine can handle the volume, but the land is undulating so they have split headers which are articulated to follow the ground contours.

By the way, they were cutting barley last week here and yesterday were at 13%. Now it has rained overnight so it's all stop. 

[Wylye]

“Only a 15ft header”

The first combine we had was a Massey with a 5ft header. You could cut more corn with a pair of scissors. We went all modern after that with a Claas Matador and a 14ft cut. My granddad used to shake his head in despair and grumble about such a huge machine.

How things change.

[marsh man]

11 minutes ago, Wylye said:

“Only a 15ft header”

The first combine we had was a Massey with a 5ft header. You could cut more corn with a pair of scissors. We went all modern after that with a Claas Matador and a 14ft cut. My granddad used to shake his head in despair and grumble about such a huge machine.

How things change.

No doubt when the first five foot headers first came on the scene it might had made the odd farm worker lose his job , although they used several chaps to thrash the corn on the ole belt driver thrashing machine , your 14ft Class might be the one I was thinking about , the chap have retired now but he have still got the combine and it came out every year when he farmed the land , when he got to retiring age the estate took the land back , now they can cut all the corn with the tracked combine before he had done the first cut , many a time he would start 11.30 and as he got near his house his mum would come out and point to her watch as whatever he was doing he had to stop dead on 12 o clock for dinner , he would have his cooked dinner and a glass of sherry to wash it down  before he would walk back down the field to jump back on his combine , when he had a load he would drop it off on his small tractor and trailer and take it back to his farm , a load more work in getting it off before he made the return trip to start the process all over again , still he was happy and he looked at it as time was his own and it took as long as it take , can't argue with that .    MM

[Wilts#Dave]

Only twenty odd years ago now an old chap who’s land we shot (he only rented a couple of fields that were always winter barley) used an old open top combine as well as a ‘vintage’ drill. 
Used to take him an age to combine the fields but when he had, funnily enough pigeons always descended on his stubble (and drilling).  Had some lovely shooting for a few years until he packed up and someone else took it over with proper machinery. 

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, Wilts#Dave said:

Only twenty odd years ago now an old chap who’s land we shot (he only rented a couple of fields that were always winter barley) used an old open top combine as well as a ‘vintage’ drill. 
Used to take him an age to combine the fields but when he had, funnily enough pigeons always descended on his stubble (and drilling).  Had some lovely shooting for a few years until he packed up and someone else took it over with proper machinery. 

I would imagine nowadays with the cost of the modern combine that it would be a loophole for contract combining , trouble is they can only work for around three months each year , but that is also the case with Peas and Sugar beet and these small farmers cannot afford a machine for every crop they grow so I recon that is all ready in force .  MM

[Wilts#Dave]

27 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I would imagine nowadays with the cost of the modern combine that it would be a loophole for contract combining , trouble is they can only work for around three months each year , but that is also the case with Peas and Sugar beet and these small farmers cannot afford a machine for every crop they grow so I recon that is all ready in force .  MM

Not sure what you’re getting at in relation to what I wrote? 
The chap in question rented the fields for years and simply got too old to want to farm it any more, nothing to do with money. He enjoyed running vintage machinery, as you say any really small farmer won’t be able to warrant or afford to run a modern combine for small acreages…..just doesn’t make economic sense.
But then again small farms that are purely arable don’t make enough money to support themselves these days, sign of the times. 
Not sure it’s a ‘loophole’ just for contract combining though, plenty of medium size farms run their own secondhand machines.  

[marsh man]

18 minutes ago, Wilts#Dave said:

Not sure what you’re getting at in relation to what I wrote? 
The chap in question rented the fields for years and simply got too old to want to farm it any more, nothing to do with money. He enjoyed running vintage machinery, as you say any really small farmer won’t be able to warrant or afford to run a modern combine for small acreages…..just doesn’t make economic sense.
But then again small farms that are purely arable don’t make enough money to support themselves these days, sign of the times. 
Not sure it’s a ‘loophole’ just for contract combining though, plenty of medium size farms run their own secondhand machines.  

Yes you are right Will , there are still a lot of the ole timers and maybe one or two of the younger ones who still use a vintage combine for the pleasure of it rather than the finance side , but what I was getting at was with the very high cost of todays combine it would b e out of reach for a lot of the small farmers , maybe the medium farms can join forces with there neighbours , or carry on using and maintaining the machine they have already got ,  what with climate change and it also stated in our paper that farm income was down last year by 10 per cent, it must be quite a stressful job being a farmer nowadays .   MM

[oldypigeonpopper]

8 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Yes you are right Will , there are still a lot of the ole timers and maybe one or two of the younger ones who still use a vintage combine for the pleasure of it rather than the finance side , but what I was getting at was with the very high cost of todays combine it would b e out of reach for a lot of the small farmers , maybe the medium farms can join forces with there neighbours , or carry on using and maintaining the machine they have already got ,  what with climate change and it also stated in our paper that farm income was down last year by 10 per cent, it must be quite a stressful job being a farmer nowadays .   MM

Hello, Have you read the latest from Adam Henson 🤔,  but your right on farming today , I know quite a few in the Vale that a finding the going hard what with the weather and the cost of loosing acres of crops due to flooding this year

[Wilts#Dave]

2 hours ago, marsh man said:

Yes you are right Will , there are still a lot of the ole timers and maybe one or two of the younger ones who still use a vintage combine for the pleasure of it rather than the finance side , but what I was getting at was with the very high cost of todays combine it would b e out of reach for a lot of the small farmers , maybe the medium farms can join forces with there neighbours , or carry on using and maintaining the machine they have already got ,  what with climate change and it also stated in our paper that farm income was down last year by 10 per cent, it must be quite a stressful job being a farmer nowadays .   MM

My name’s Dave (not Will). Absolutely the big kit is out of reach for the small acreage farmer, things change sadly and to make money / warrant the huge outlay you need a large acreage or just pay contractors to do certain jobs.  
Hence lots sell up and cash in as they’re asset rich and very cash poor! 

[B686]

Most the farmers I know say their main income is commercial renting out barns and fenced compounds and container storage . I do a lot of digger work doing compounds and fencing and hard standings for containers.

[marsh man]

10 hours ago, Wilts#Dave said:

My name’s Dave (not Will). Absolutely the big kit is out of reach for the small acreage farmer, things change sadly and to make money / warrant the huge outlay you need a large acreage or just pay contractors to do certain jobs.  
Hence lots sell up and cash in as they’re asset rich and very cash poor! 

Sorry about getting your name wrong Dave , when I first looked at your user name I thought it said Will # Dave , no wonder I can't hit many Pigeons nowadays 😎

10 hours ago, B686 said:

Most the farmers I know say their main income is commercial renting out barns and fenced compounds and container storage . I do a lot of digger work doing compounds and fencing and hard standings for containers.

Some farmers locally have tried , or are trying many other ways to make income , only in this mornings paper there was one chap who is doing well by the sound of it , they opened a farm shop in 2021 , since then it have expanded with a restaurant , a butchery , bakery and deli counter , tomorrow is the opening day for a Goat shape Maize maze, he now employs 50 people and he won Star Of The Year at the Farm Retail Awards , so yes some of the farms are putting there land to other uses like fishing lakes and camping sites , and not forgetting some have become well off with new housing sites .     MM 

[oldypigeonpopper]

11 hours ago, B686 said:

Most the farmers I know say their main income is commercial renting out barns and fenced compounds and container storage . I do a lot of digger work doing compounds and fencing and hard standings for containers.

Hello, Not forgetting renting out former farm workers housing 

[B686]

Hi took this photo on way back to where we were staying after leaving the game fair . Somewhere near Wilcote 

[stockybasher]

Great picture that, its got it all, different light, the dust etc - well done !

[B686]

Thanks 👍
just pulled up and took it on my phone.

Edited July 27 by B686

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, B686 said:

Thanks 👍
just pulled up and took it on my phone.

Lovely photo , I can't imagine trying to shoot Pigeons on those huge fields , well huge to us where a 100 acre field are a rarity round these parts.

By the way , What was the Game Fair like ?

[B686]

Hi it was ok wouldn’t rave about it but it is a day out. Lot of expensive clothing great if that’s your thing. Not mine