Harvest Time At Laceys 

With the recent spell of hot weather, you will have seen the sight of combine harvesters methodically working up and down fields of barley, sometimes late at night where the bright lights resemble a football stadium. There is much more to harvest than meets the eye, and it goes on throughout the year not just in the summer months. Here we dive into what the recent barley harvest looks like at Laceys Family Farm.

A Typical Harvest Day 

Laceys is an unusual farm in some ways combining both animal and arable farming. And the day starts as it always does for 365 days of the year, making sure the cows are fed and well before harvest starts later in the morning.

The combine engines are fired up and it is out on the field, the operator sitting high in their command post with an array of instruments to begin the harvest. These machines are really advanced with a host of technology, for example they can map yields from the crop giving farmers an accurate number for amount of grain produced from that particular field. The grain can only be harvested when it is fit and ready, and when there is 14% moisture or less. Harvest is not without its dangers, and farmers are all too aware of the devastating impact of combine fires – part of the reason you might see combines working through the night rather than in the heat of the day.

The combine threshes the grain, separating the grain from their stalks as it cuts the crop and is closely followed by several tractors with trailers whose job it is to collect the grain and ferry it back to the grain stores at the farm. The combine then spits out a trail of straw behind it, which is baled up and used for bedding for the cows. Laceys need about 500-600 acres of straw for the cows and has about half that in barley crop, which is why good relationships with friendly neighbours is essential! 

Laceys use the grain predominantly for animal feed for the residence on the farm, and around 260 tons  of surplus  grain is sold each year. Samples of grain are sent to labs for testing to ascertain the quality of the grain. 

Market Dynamics 

An unseen part of farming is knowing when to sell. The headlines you might see in the news of grain shortages and the price of grain skyrocketing, rarely translates into more profit for farmer who have absorbed huge increases to the cost of fuel and fertiliser. The market dynamics are out of the farmers hands and crops are grown without knowing what they are going to sell for. 

Highlights

It is tremendously good fun driving a tractor for the day! There is a lot of process and careful planning which goes into arable farming. You have to be skilled at many different trades whether it be running a small business, managing the weather and making decisions on the land use. For example, fields are rarely left fallow and winter turnips often follow a barley harvest for sheep to graze on during the colder months. Ultimately seeing the full crop life-cycle is an incredibly satisfying job. 

Planning for the future 

A lot of forethought goes into the planning of future years, although this plan needs to be kept flexible to see what fits in the crop rotation, weather conditions and other factors such as anticipated yields. Some farming decisions are made from government back initiatives, for example, Laceys is a trial farm for DEFRA’s sustainable farming incentive – which has goals to improve soil qualities. 

But don’t expect to see pumpkins grown at Laceys anytime soon or indeed many vegetables in the Chiltern Hills (with the expectation of Allan’s tomato run). The depth of soil is not really good enough to support vegetable crops.