One of the features of this harvesting period has been the incredible accuracy of the weather forecasts. Each spell of two to three fine days has spurred us to frantic activity and the start of this week has been no exception.

We started harvesting the beans, and despite it having been Round-upped a full three weeks ago, the moisture content of individual plants is clearly variable.

But with heavy rain forecast for the remainder of the week, we took the view that it was time to cut.

We also had a proper look at the oilseed rape and took the difficult decision to grub up one field because of a very poor plant stand. We will re-plant with winter barley rather than waiting to put in spring OSR.

Other weather related woes

The other weather-related woe is that we have no option but to shred the oaten straw.

We baled about one-third of the field and then left it to get it fully fit for big baling.

But with each turning and re-wetting it became more and more sodden and we gave up hope of ever salvaging it. We have now shredded it and we will grub the field to tear up the strong growth of volunteers and hopefully put in a crop of commercial winter wheat in good time.

Bull weanling

We have made good progress in buying in bull weanlings but there is no doubt that the price for the improvement in quality we are buying is up on last year – I would reckon about 20c/kg.

We have had excellent growth of grass so they are going into strong covers – probably too strong in some cases.

We are zero-grazing some of the heaviest and giving the grass alongside the predominantly cereal diet.

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