James Cossins reflects on navigating a challenging harvest, balancing the crop quality against the costs of drying grain during the erratic summer weather
As I write this (1st September) our cereal harvest is finally complete. We started in mid-July, and it has been a rather stop-start harvest operation due to the on-and-off showery weather since. Only on one or two occasions have we had heavy rain, but light showers do slow up the harvest. We try not to have to dry the grains too much, due to the cost of the drying process and the use of fossil fuels. So we have to balance out the cost of potentially leaving the crop to deteriorate and lose quality in the field or to get the combine out and dry the crop. Generally, with a reasonable combine capacity on the farm, we tend to wait a little and harvest the crop dry. In some cases, if bad weather is forecast, we will cut the crop and take a small amount of moisture out. Experience has taught me that if you wait for all your crops to be dry enough, the weather will catch up with you and lead to the loss of yield and quality. Luckily we do have drying facilities to take moisture out of the grains.
The harvest results have been a pleasant surprise after the wet autumn and winter and the wet spring meaning a late sowing of our spring crops. The spring barley, even though it was sown a month late, gave us an above average yield for the farm and it has also made the grade for malting – therefore gaining a premium over feed barley. The wheat yields have also generally been good, with the later-sown crops performing better than the earlier ones. This may be partly due to less fungal disease pressure in the later crops.
Tuberculosis at Rawston
At the beginning of July we had the dreaded TB test. After nearly four days injecting and reading results we ended up with just the one reactor cow – the same result as the last test two months ago. The animal was close to calving, so with the agreement of AHPA we decided to let the cow calve, and then send her to off the abattoir. The final test results came back negative … SO frustrating as it means we needlessly lost the cow, and we are still unable to sell animals on the open market.
There has been a lot of publicity recently, following the BBC documentary featuring a certain rock star claiming that wildlife are not a cause of the spread of TB, and that we should look into the current testing regime. I agree that we do need a more accurate testing programme put in place so that we are not needlessly culling cattle. For a long time we have been told a cattle vaccine is ‘only a few years away’ but we still don’t know when it will happen. There are trials being carried out vaccinating the wildlife to see if there will be a reduction in the prevalence of the disease in the wildlife.
Recent results indicate that the current strategies for controlling badger populations have resulted in a 56 per cent decrease in the number of cattle affected by tuberculosis. This suggests to me that the measures implemented – encompassing wildlife management, regular cattle testing, and enhanced farm biosecurity – are effectively reducing the spread of the disease. Let’s hope our next test at the end of the month ends up clear.
As we move into the autumn our thoughts are already focusing on planting next year’s crops: our oilseeds, forage and cover crops are already sown. Here’s hoping for a rather more average weather pattern than the last 12 months.
