We finished our main harvest in the first week of August, the earliest for many years. As I write, we have just a few cover crop seed plots and the millet left to cut. Two months without rain has had a pretty devastating effect on all our crops, with low yields – and super dry. Too dry. So dry that not only do we lose weight – and weight is cash – but we risk rejection. Oilseed rape, for example, gets deductions if the moisture is below 6%. Not only that, we get penalised if we load seed into lorries at above 25 degrees temp. How we are supposed to cool it down within a week of harvest, when night-time temperatures were as high as they were in early July, I’m not sure.
The acute dryness meant we had to stop harvesting in the heat of the day, with moisture levels lower than we have ever recorded. Spring barley was down to 9% at times. Will and Brendan packed up around 4pm and, for many days on the trot, started again at four in the morning to benefit from the dew adding moisture. It worked for much of the time, before the moisture decreased as the day advanced and the sun grew hotter.
Brendan’s pictures say it all in the early mornings. Opposite page is the OSR (oilseed rape) harvest on Shillingstone Hill with Hod Hill below the rising sun.
The hunt for grazing
The dry weather, from 16 June to 19 August without measurable rain, followed by a welcome but wholly inadequate 8mm, is unprecedented and has left the farming community facing a difficult winter.
There has been no grass for animals for many weeks on some farms, where they are already eating into precious winter rations. One farmer friend has fed a whole 500-tonne clamp of silage to his cows.
Arable farmers, who would normally have been sowing cover crops right behind the combine, have not dared risk putting expensive seed into the ground. It might germinate after a short burst of rain, only to perish if the drought continues.
Here we are at the end of August, having sown barely an acre and wondering what we will feed our cattle on in winter. The growth window for cover crops is shrinking rapidly as the days get shorter. And what of oilseed rape, which we would usually be sowing now? The advice is to hold off until we have had enough moisture to sustain germination and early growth, estimated to need at least 15–20mm of rain.
It has been hard work finding suitable grazing for the sheep. We moved them across a very unproductive spring wheat stubble, where the paucity of straw bales gives you a fairly accurate idea of the kind of grain yield.
The herbal leys are still productive after two months without rain, but the permanent pastures are all brown and withered, and have been for ages.
The sheep have been dispatched to far corners of the farm in the hope that they will knock back brambles and gorse, but they are not particularly happy.
The herbal ley is still sustaining the cows and calves, while two small groups now have some rough hay to keep them going. The nearly-fit beefies have just been moved into some two-year legume fallow at the end of its run, which was quite a bit of luck.
Fetch a ducking stool
The most traumatic aspect of the long dry period has been the very real fear of fire.
Through July and August there have been numerous fires within just a five-mile radius, at Bryanston, Stourpaine, Pimperne and Winterborne Whitechurch, to name a few.
The scariest was the Pimperne fire, where burning stubble got within 150 yards of gardens, houses and the A354. Fires have been caused variously by farm machinery, including sparks from rakes and combines, cigarette ends and bonfires.
Bonfires! I ask you.
And smokers in the open during such a drought should clearly be treated by ducking stool.
Farmers, if they have any sense, will be geared up with water bowsers, pumps and hoses, and a cultivator ready to hand should the worst happen on their own or a neighbouring farm.
Luckily, one of our near neighbours set up a WhatsApp group a couple of years ago which now has more than 30 farming members in the area. It discusses only fire matters. If someone smells or spots smoke, everyone has a look out, or maybe sends up a drone to try to pinpoint it. Then, if able, they head off to help fight it.
Bearing in mind that fire engines generally carry only around 2,000 litres of water, a farm bowser carrying, say, 10,000 litres can make a huge difference to the fire brigade’s effectiveness.
It would help a lot, however, if the fire service would start a programme of providing farmers with the special fitting they use to connect to a bowser.
See George’s full summer round up, including his thoughts on the coming grain market prices, bluetongue and deterring flea beetle, on his blog View From The Hill
