Farm roots shine through when ‘helping’ with silage

A SETTLED week of weather has sent all of the local farmers into overdrive – racing to gather in the harvest before the next low pressure system looms overhead.

As I write, the once shin-height grass in the fields opposite my house is down and drying nicely in the warmth of the midday sun. A light, refreshing breeze is surely helping to speed up the process. I fully expect to hear the rumble of machinery again later, putting the grass back into neat rows ready for the baler.

Since the first cut at the back end of June, the grass has displayed its usual resilience and strength to grow back at a decent pace – with a little help from some manure and rainfall. I counted around 50 large bales then, so it will be interesting to see what it amounts to this time. I’m looking forward to having dry feet come the end of a dog walk. However, the hole in my boots is probably to blame for the sodden socks.

Speaking of dogs, Finn is fascinated by the concept of horizontal grass. Walking in the fields for the first time after cutting, he was clearly struggling to understand what had happened to the ‘jungle’ he used to bound through like a gazelle. Renowned for being extremely intelligent, it didn’t take this border collie long to think up another way to enjoy and/or abuse the grass. If you read my Notebook back in July about Finn’s extremely noisy habit of tearing moss out of the lawn, this is along similar lines.

Who needs a tractor and rake to turn the grass ready for baling when there’s a willing and able puppy living right next door?! As the (slightly adapted) saying goes, you can take the collie out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the collie. A country boy through and through.

Andrew Forgrave Border collie Finn was fascinated by the concept of horizontal grass