Mundane News

[raleighnut]

The field that surrounds us was barley this year, and they harvested it in the first week of July!! However, the ground is too hard to plough, even with their monster tracked tractors. It is just baked too hard. The wheat harvest is a write off, as are the feed beans, but the barley was OK, just about. As soon as it rains there will be machines out all over the place ploughing, drilling and so on, but 2mm of rain in over 3 months isn't a lot of use to a farmer. They can't even do the hedges because the flail might strike a flint and set off a fire.

It's illegal to trim farm hedges during the nesting season.

 

[MikeG]

It's illegal to trim farm hedges during the nesting season.

Whilst that's true, the only birds nesting around here now are pigeons (their 3rd brood of the year), which the farmers have to shoot by the hundreds. It's a rule brought in recently by the EU which means it is actually impossible for farmland hedges to be maintained in arable areas, because by the Sept 1st deadline there are crops in the field, rendering them inaccessible. However, it's not so much the hedges which need trimming now as the undergrowth around the edge of fields, and the inside of ditches.

 

[alicat]

Just got back to find Elder Son had missed his dentist appointment. Again.

We tracked Elder Son down at his girlfriends, but I still had to spend some time making a new appointment and smoothing things down with the secretary...

Teenagers, I ask you...

How old is he? I think I would let him sort that out himself if in the late rather than early teens.

 

[PeteXXX]

On the subject of pigeons, our one legged pigeon still turns up every day for its food, a'slippin' and a'trippin' along the fence

Another broody bird attempted to feed with a few twigs held in its beak.. No success, but eventually, it dropped the twigs and grabbed some food..

 

[Gravity Aided]

The old ways are changing, but are they for the better.

As a man whose family was involved with heavy horses, I would say not.

 

[Gravity Aided]

[QUOTE 5339938, member: 9609"]the general rotation of the crops should allow the farmer to cut probably 2 out of every three years. Its usually Rape following winter barley that's in before Sept. that will get in the way of cutting the hedges on the field side.

you're right about the pigeons, we're absolutely plagued by the dam things around here, I think its only the winter months they're not breeding.[/QUOTE]
Ours got under control only when the rail yards were cleaned up from grain spillage(because we hardly use yards any more) and the introduction of crows by the state to keep the pigeon population at a far more manageable level.

 

[classic33]

As a man whose family was involved with heavy horses, I would say not.

Still remember the smaller fields being ploughed using horse and plough.

They remain two small fields, but unused for years. One is a hay field, now silage, the other is for livestock.

 

[biggs682]

knocking on drive side when under load so got to be either hip , knee , ankle , shoe , cleat , pedal or bottom bracket

 

[Levo-Lon]

Back to work and 31° today might get a damp down later

 

[Andy in Germany]

Back to work and 31° today might get a damp down later

Having read that I checked what it'll be like here. The weather report says:

32° And it'll likely pish it down later.

Then it'll be hot again, then Thursday and Friday we'll have mahoosive thunderstorms and it'll pish like it's never pished before.

That's a rough translation anyway.

The last time it really rained it came down so hard there were metre high fountains coming out of the drains, so we could be in for a show...

 

[Andy in Germany]

While on the suibject of heat I passed some roadworks (Known as Strassenbau in Germany) yesterday amd they were putting down an acre of ashphalt, in 30° heat.

As I passed a van I noticed the company name: "Strassenbau Hell"

Can't argue with that really...

 

[Andy in Germany]

How old is he? I think I would let him sort that out himself if in the late rather than early teens.

We're trying, but it isn't going to plan. I also wanted to move fast because some places (quite reasonably) charge if you don't turn up.

He starts his apprenticeship next month and generally kids grow up pretty fast at that point, so I'm not giving up hope yet.

 

[MikeG]

[QUOTE 5339938, member: 9609"]the general rotation of the crops should allow the farmer to cut probably 2 out of every three years. Its usually Rape following winter barley that's in before Sept. that will get in the way of cutting the hedges on the field side.......[/QUOTE]

Winter wheat and barley are both generally planted before September around here. And judging by the field we live in, there is no crop rotation at all. At least, not one dictated by agricultural requirements. We've had rape, wheat, wheat, barley, and next year will be barley, in the 4 years we've lived here. Barley, by the way, is a beautiful crop. They use a really old variety (it's sold for specialist brewing) which produces quite an uneven crop, with plant heights varying by up to 18 inches or so. The delicate, hairy heads wave around delightfully in a breeze, and the stubble is soft when its been cut. It also seems to need about half the amount of spraying that wheat requires.

Back to the hedging thing.........the farmer is very cogniscant of compressing the soil, and a tractor going around the perimeter of a field 3 or 4 times does a lot of soil compression. So in normal weather, with some dampness in the soil, they won't do the hedges even if they could fit it in with the harvest/ drilling. He told me that he reckons that they'll get the chance to do the hedges about one year in 10 under this relatively new regime, and it's one of the reasons he voted for Brexit.

 

[MikeG]

There's a fox barking in the wood.

 

[Mo1959]

Winter wheat and barley are both generally planted before September around here. And judging by the field we live in, there is no crop rotation at all. At least, not one dictated by agricultural requirements.

I've noticed this too. In my young days, farmers nearly all rotated crops and planted a root vegetable like potatoes or turnips to give the fields a rest from the constant barley/wheat growing they seem to do now. No wonder they need so much fertilizer to grow things now.