Small Straw Bales in a Soggy September

Its a very dark ,soggy September day here on the farm, We have had four lovely weeks of dry weather, it has been dry for so long that this morning our Vizsla puppy, Frank, refused to go out in the rain until he was absolutely desperate, I think he had forgotten all about what rain was. He's in for a nasty surprise soon with the Winter weather just around the corner. The wonderful dry spell has enabed us to get the wheat and barley combined , the fields cleared of straw and a lot of ploughing started too. We only have one field of oats left to cut which wasn't ready yeaterday, plus the beans then we are all finished harvesting for this year. Its then time to sow the Winter seeds after the fields have been ploughed, cultivated and a good seed bed prepared so the crops get the best possible start. After sowing the crop is rolled in (my favourite job) and hopefully that's it until the Spring .

The straw thats left behind after the corn is cut is baled and put into shed as it is used for animal bedding. You will all have seen the large round or square bales in the countryside or being hauled around the roads. In the past the only bales that were made were much smaller as they were moved and lifted by hand until things became more mechanised and larger bales were easier to handle and stack, plus more economical as they required less manpower. People still need small bales but they aren't popular to handle plus they're aren't many small balers around to make them .Guess what - we still have a small baler and we made some small bales to sell in our shop. We made some last year and ran out very quickly but couldn't make any more until this harvest. I thought I'd share a photo with you of a stack of the small bales stacked by me and ready to go into the shed to be sold in our shop.

Bird Food Production is still ongoing as well as the harvest work so please don't worry, we have plenty of wild bird foods if you need to stock up. Have a lovely September and let's hope its not too soggy so we can finish Combining our Oats and Beans.

https://www.laverockhallfarm.co.uk/wild-bird-food/laverock-deluxe-wild-bird-food-detail

https://www.laverockhallfarm.co.uk/wild-bird-food/laverock-sunflower-hearts-detail