Straw harvest always happens in a rattle!  Barley straw was wrapped up in little more than a week in late July/early August.  Yields where the best weve seen for some years, 2 tonnes to the acre +.  Our new big square baler turned up just in time (pictured) and did what it said on the tin by baling a tonne of straw qucker and packing more kg in to one bale.  After a few teething troubles the baler ran well and when baling a bale a minute, the reduced down time from mechanical problems made quite a differance to daily output.

Wheat straw harvest promised better yields of straw, quite the opposite to the grain it was producing.  Early harvested crops produced good yields and reasonable quality straw but as harvest became delayed crops deteriorated leaving a broken up product after the combine.  In the peak of the wheat straw harvest dry weather prevailed (thankfully!) but his will mean alot of straw, although dry, will not provide a good bedding material.

Tonnages are up at Smithy Briggs which will go towards meeting existing customer demands for straw and hopefully taking on some new customers throughout the year!