Wheat Harvest
A couple of day's frantic activity is coming to the end. It took all of seven hours for the contractor to harvest the wheat on Monday. With two combines, it is over before you know it. I was beginning to get frustrated waiting for the moisture levels of the grain to reduce but our patience has paid off because we were able to put it straight into the stores without the need to dry. Yields not surprisingly down on last years record but better than originally expected. Overall, the weather around harvest has been kinder this year than last.
The two fields we have allocated to sow with oilseed rape next year were broadcast with the seed prior to wheat harvest. This method provides large savings in establishment costs as the only "cultivation" required is two passes of a cambridge roll. We have found that for us this is the most reliable and cheapest way to establish the crop. By broadcasting, we also provide more over-winter stubble, which has the potential to be a good source of grain and weed seeds. The contractor has already started cultivations in preparation for next year's wheat crops. The spring beans should be harvested within two weeks weather permitting.
Birds
The two barn owl chicks fledged at the start of the month are still regularly seen around the barns. The breeding season for most species has ended but there are still a few yellowhammer, blackbird, stock dove and swallow with chicks. We are in the process of analyzing 2009 breeding season following our annual breeding season monitoring which started in April and finished at the end of June. Overall, it looks to have been a good year. Results will be on the website within the next couple of weeks.
First Breeding Barn Owls
A great story to start this post and a first for the farm. We have added barn owls to the list of birds that have breed at the farm. This makes it the third species of owl to breed at the site after Little and Tawny. I took a group out at dusk last week and it was magically to see the adults hunting so effectively across the fields. They are seen regularly, at dawn and dusk, around our field margins, pasture and our beetle bank hunting voles to feed the chicks. The chicks should fledge any day now. You can see more on this story along with some video of the chicks being ringed by following the link. http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-222543
Harvest starts
Last week the contractor harvested the oilseed rape. The weather had been frustrating with showers making it difficult to predict when we would be able to combine. The yields look significantly better than the last few year, I am relieved to say, the first field averaged 3.9t/ha a significant improvement on last year pathetic 1.5t. Hopefully the ground will dry enough for the tractors to start preparation for next years crops, the fields that were in oilseed rape will be sown with winter wheat probably at the end of September or start of October. We are anticipating that the wheat should be cut in about two weeks and the spring beans in a month weather permitting.
Bat surveys
Last week 30 staff and volunteers undertook a bat survey as part of programme of our on-going non-avian biodiversity monitoring. Twenty five individuals from two species, common pipistelle and Daubenton’s were recorded. This year we have surveyed a wide range of taxa including plants, butterflies, moths and other insect groups. The results from these surveys are eagerly anticipated as it gives us a valuable opportunity to examine how our management has affected their numbers and diversity since our baseline years in 2000 and 2001.