My harvest is all tucked away in the bins.

A big thank you to everyone at Camgrain whether they man the telephones, sit behind a computer screen, in front of a control panel, an Infratec or have a broom or spanner in their hand in one of the yards. Everyone is equally important in making the intake go smoothly and safely – Thanks again to you all!



Whilst again here in the East rain delayed progress more than we would have hoped, many areas have had it much worse with some farmers reporting that they have had to dry every grain they harvested and commenting that it has been the most difficult harvest for many years. Yields here have, again, generally been average with a couple of highlights and no disasters - the hot dry June and wet July taking the blame for this. The spring oats have been particularly difficult; they are known to have ripe harvestable seed heads on top of green straw which our combines don’t like. This results in having to leave very high stubble and put less of the green damp material through the machine. This year the moist ground has made the problem of them not wanting to die much worse; this, and some patches being laid flat by July rains, has necessitated in a change of stubble management involving mowing it down low post combining.

Moist ground has its pluses and minuses. Whilst OSR and cover crops have germinated well, the soil for many will have suffered damage from weighty harvesting equipment and will need more remedial cultivation than usual. Slugs also like the damp conditions and have been feasting on newly emerging OSR thinning the plant stand and, in some cases, causing the need to reseed. One of my cover crop mixes has been designed to feed sheep. To my certain knowledge there haven’t been sheep on this farm for 65 years but they could form an important part of my new organic(ish) rotation - so I’ll be looking for a well behaved

flock to host for a while in the spring!

It's amazing how much wildlife treat our crops as a home or a playground these days. We have always had rabbits and hares but of late the number of foxes, deer (several types) and badgers have increased dramatically - they particularly like the tall crops such as beans and oats but now, in the evenings, wander around the trimmed off fields looking a little lost.

Cropping plans for next year are being made. My GP1 blend will be having Crusoe added as a 4^th variety. Planet spring barley may be changed to Laureate, which I hope will hold its heads up more reliably than Planet which has weak straw once ripe dropping its heads down low making them unretrievable by the combine which can result in large losses.

The final change may be to grow some Ryeans, I’ll leave you to guess ….