The pre-harvest lull that I mentioned last week didn’t last long.

With the forecast for a fine week, we gave the silage ground a dry day, then cut it, spread it out, rowed it the following day and then the contractor moved it with a massive self-propelled harvester and the job was done. No breakdowns or complications.

I had thought that the barley was some way off, but as often happens with winter barley, it came in quicker than expected

The dependence on contractors is a real change from my childhood, but with a range of enterprises, the cost of tooling up for each of them with modern equipment would require an enormous amount of land to justify.

Anyway, the winter fodder supplies are now pretty well secured. I had thought that the barley was some way off, but as often happens with winter barley, it came in quicker than expected, helped by high temperatures and brilliant sunshine.

At the same time, we had a look at the oilseed rape and that too had matured more than we expected and was ready for desiccation. I had lined up a neighbour with a high-rise self-propelled sprayer to do the oilseed rape.

After an initial teething problem, he got through the crop in a few hours. For safety, despite the good weather, we included a pod sealer and will now leave it for about three weeks before harvesting. Given the rain and flood devastation in Germany, we can only hope that harvesting conditions will be ok in early August.

As this is a closed system and not subject to the normal routine servicing, which had been carried out, it is not clear what happened

My other contractor arrived over on Sunday evening with his comparatively new combine. It has done a very small acreage for a modern machine bought new, so we were both horrified to discover that seals had collapsed and let the hydraulic oil mix with the engine oil, with the suspicion that significant damage had been done to the gearbox. As this is a closed system and not subject to the normal routine servicing, which had been carried out, it is not clear what happened. Monday was a wasted day, but on Tuesday, a demonstration model was delivered and harvesting began.

As I write, it’s ongoing, but how such a serious fault developed in such a fresh machine and how the cost of repair is apportioned remains to be seen. But the whole question of warranty coverage in sealed systems that should last for the bulk of a machine’s life needs clarification. And to cap the activity, we got the hay in – all 4x4s in as good a condition as I can remember.