The emergency combine drafted in to cut the winter barley finished the job in lovely conditions on Thursday. Never have I had such golden straw nor have I ever had such consistent low moistures.

Every load was below 15 with bushel weights as high as 71.6.

I sold the straw on the flat. I was mildly surprised when my customer moved in with an 8x4x4 baler and had it all baled and either stacked or gone by Saturday evening. What also surprised me was the variability in the yield of both barley and straw.

Despite each of the three fields receiving identical treatment, the smallest field of about 10 acres did little more than 3.1t to the acre and about three and a half big bales. The rest did about 3.7t and around five big bales for each acre.

I checked the pH of the small field and the most recent soils sample showed a pH of 7, which would obviously be ideal.

Other possibility

The other reasons may come down to that field which is furthest from the yard receiving less slurry than the rest or was it more prone to disease? Unlikely as all three fields were given the same protection treatment.

We will do a bit more investigating, including perhaps having an organic matter test.

But, by any standards, this has been an unusual winter barley year with some very good yields, good weather and good demand for both the grain and the straw.

The winter oats has turned ripe-looking much quicker than I expected. Another week or 10 days will do a lot.

Regardless of weather conditions, when we are harvesting the oats I am committed to chopping the straw under the new Department scheme.

Cattle

On the cattle side, we have tentatively started buying in some stores. We have plenty of grass though the regrowths after the second-cut silage are very slow in the hot, dry weather.

With forward grain prices high, the aim is to buy cattle that will gain at grass and need limited concentrate feeding to finish when they are in the shed.

I am not surprised that Angus has become the most common beef breed used in the dairy herd.