Never believe in the old grandad’s tale
“WAIT until you think your grain is ready for cutting – then go away someplace for a week and cut it when you get back.”
So runs the advice handed down over the generations to farmers who often become over-anxious about getting their crops harvested.
And it’s true that at this time of year even the hint of a dry day is enough to send us out into the fields to see if we can get any of the grain cut before the rain reappears.
However, I was speaking to an old friend who’s a bit of a big noise in agricultural politics. He’d be the first to admit he spends more time in meetings around the country than on the tractor or combine seat.
Happily his son has risen to the task of filling in while he’s away, ably aided by my friend’s father who, like most farming grandads, is always keen to get involved, despite being well past retirement age.
The last time I was speaking to my friend, though, he was a bit bemused.
Arriving hotfoot back from an important meeting in Brussels a couple of weeks ago he’d been expecting to see the harvest under way on his return home. However, nothing had been cut and, to his surprise, his son was away for the weekend.
Although a bit loath to own up, he admitted that while he would have liked to have started into the harvest himself, he might have been struggling to cope with some of the bells and whistles on the new combine.
When his son returned after the long weekend he got on with the job and quickly caught up. But being quizzed as to why he’d gone away, the son said his grandad had told him the story with which we opened, about leaving the grain an extra week.
When my friend asked the offending grandad if he had indeed conveyed this tale he was told: “Yes, I did – but I didn’t mean it!”
So, while some people may have the patience to leave crops a little bit longer until they are fully ripe, it was heartening to know I’m not alone in suffering a lack of this essential quality during harvest.
And that’s why a decent spell of weather over the coming weeks to let the crops ripen as they should do and spread the harvest out a bit would be good all round – rather than straining my patience (and everyone else’s) as we try to shoehorn as much as we possibly can into every brief dry spell.
Wecanbutliveinhope...