Harvest for us isn't about wheat or barley or arable crops but just about grass, grass and more grass.
At least, we hope it is. We cut, dry and bale the grass as silage or hay to feed to the cattle during the winter and to the ewes at lambing time. Every year we stare intently at metcheck and accuweather hoping for a run of a few days dry weather to make silage, and a week of dry weather to make hay.
When we see that wonderful forecast, we get on the phone, book in the baler and Worzel heads out to cut and turn the grass.
But what happens in a summer like 2022 when we have a run of many weeks of dry weather?
To start with the dry weather meant that we could get a reasonable number of bales from a first cut, but unfortunately we had a bit of a misunderstanding with another farmer who cut and removed a couple of fields of grass that we had agreed to buy from a local landowner. There was no malice intended - it was a simple misunderstanding and negotiations took place regarding the second cut. But, that second cut didn't really materialise. Farmers everywhere struggled through the summer of 2022.
But for us, on the steep, thin soiled, coastal slopes of Seaside the grass started to burn and there was nothing for the cows to eat. We moved some of the stock slightly further inland and then the dry spell continued, the grass yellowed and stopped growing there too. We had to start feeding the cows some of the silage we had stored for winter, which obviously reduces the amount available for winter feed, but also gives us some difficulty as we are limited in the areas that we are allowed to feed the cattle. This is to protect the soils from erosion when the feeders remain in the same place for a long time because the cattle making their way to the feeder and standing around the feeder erodes the soil.
Even though there hadn't been much growth we tried to take a second cut, but had to pull out because of the risk of the blades on the mower striking a flint in the soil, causing a spark and starting a fire. Many farmers are looking at having to buy in silage or hay to feed their stock over winter - which will of course put the price up as it will be in such short supply. Some farmers will have to turn to buying in concentrates, and some will look to sell stock before winter to reduce the amount of feed that they will need, potentially flooding the market with stock and therefore reducing the value of the stock.
None of this is good news for the farmer. As for us, we think we have enough silage and hay to get us throuh the winter, we are still desperately looking at the weather apps and hoping for a bit more rain, then a good sunny growing spell, followed by a nice few dry days to cut and bale some more silage.