Berkshire Farm Girl’s harvest diary
The unseasonal weather over the summer put extra pressure on agricultural farmers to gather their crops
ELEANOR Gilbert – also known as Berkshire Farm Girl – is on a mission. She wants to educate people about farming in the 21st century.
She is just beginning her second year at Harper Adams Agricultural in Shropshire and continues to juggle university life with farming.
This summer’s unseasonal wet weather presented its own particular challenges and the harvest season did not prove easy.
Eleanor keeps a seasonal diary for Out & About magazine and in the autumn edition chronicles the ups and downs of gathering this summer’s harvest:
Harvest 2021 is finally under way starting two-three weeks late. In comparison we had almost finished this time last year.
By the middle of July, we are normally well ahead, but this year is a very different story.
At the time of writing this in the first week of August, we haven’t even started the wheat yet. With frequent rain showers we are almost at a standstill.
We have been unable so far to finish combining one field yet because we have had to abandon it due to the rain
Therefore, we have taken every opportunity we have been given – sometimes changing counties from Berkshire to Hampshire in one day
and even combining some of the crops at a high moisture to bring back into the shed for drying. This is not ideal, but in the current situation we have no choice.
With all this in mind we are preparing for all the crops to be ready at the same time.
This is going to put on additional pressure at an already busy time. You will see several operations in one field at the same time as we try to catch up.
For instance, we will be simultaneously combining, grain cart, baling and even doing some drilling.
Ideally, we would have sown the OSR (oil seed rape) by now to combat the pest cabbage stem flea beetle.
However this is not possible because we still have crops in the ground from this season which are unfit to combine, making it very hard to fall back on cultural methods before we rely on chemicals.
Long hours are going to be required during any hot days we get to ensure we can get the harvest in for the country. We will be snatching every chance we have around this unpredictable weather.
It looked like a promising but late start, with crops yielding well, especially OSR, but farmers are now desperately worried and anxious as they watch their crops ripen at a sluggish pace because there has been limited sunshine and a cooler climate followed by regular rainfall.
We have had to make sure all spare parts, fuel and supplies we need are ordered in advance and in plenty of time since there are delays in shipping as the pandemic and Brexit have affected the global supply chain.
We have even resorted to moving our own grain to the mills as HGV drivers are unavailable after so many track and trace notifications.
This season I am driving a black 6155R, which is very unusual with only four in the country.
So far, I am getting a positive response from it with some strange faces and happy smiles off drivers as I pass through Newbury.
I would have to say you either love it or hate it, just like Marmite.
The tractor has a command pro gearbox – my favourite gearbox as it allows me to drive it using a joystick, which is easier for me as I struggle to reach the pedals.
Keeping the tractor clean is very hard. I wash it and within 20 minutes it is dusty and dirty, but I like to keep it sparkling.
I am looking forward to putting many hours on the tractor and driving all summer.
Look out for farm machinery on the roads and please help us by driving a little slower and moving over when there is big machinery on the roads. This will help us feed the country.
I wish I could write more, but I think the sun is starting to shine…
Remember farming is everyone’s bread and butter.
Long hours are going to be required during any hot days we get to ensure we can get the harvest in for the country