Farming News – August 2024

The winter barley has now been harvested and the straw baled. I started to use the combine harvester on the 3rd Friday in July, but I had to stop after 50 metres because a bearing on the return’s auger had seized and it took 20 hours of work to replace it. Luckily, I had a replacement bearing in my workshop, so I didn’t have to wait until Monday to buy a replacement. 50 years of repairing farm machinery has taught me that if one bearing wears out, it’s prudent to buy a second, which will soon be required.

The sheep shearing is now completed but this is around a month later than normal, partly because the weather was very cold last month and also because I had covid and didn’t feel able to tip over 16 stone sheep to shear them. I had a heart attack after my last infection of covid and wasn’t going to risk that again.

Although the summer has been showery, somehow, we have been able to make much more hay than normal. The rainy spring has given excellent crops of grass and there have been enough dry intervals to make the grass into hay.