About an hour ago we finished combining our last field of winter wheat. August 24th is the earliest we have ever finished and under different circumstances that would have been the end of harvest. But this year we have an acreage of spring rape (drilled after much of the winter rape failed) and it is still a few days short of being fit to cut.
However, gathering the wheat has been the easiest for years. A lot of it came into the barn at under 14% and more than half has not nor will it need to be dried. Thanks goodness for that! At least its kept costs down for a crop that, if sold at current prices, would probably lose us £25 to £30/t. Will values rise as the marketing year progresses? Who knows? But we have stored alomost all of it in hope.
Last evening, in anticipation of the end of the wheat combining today and by way of a modest celebration, we had a joint of Dexter beef for supper - all in the interests of market research.
A young couple who are friends of ours wants to start a small herd of Dexter's (small in numbers as well as in size) and we have agreed to help by providing some of the grazing. The idea is to finish them and them and then market them as cut meat. The purpose of the supper was to assess the USP's of the breed.
They are small - consistent with the lighter meals we need to eat to lose weight. They live on grass - which means their welfare is as high as it can be and it makes them particularly "green". And the meat is delicious - as I can confirm from last evening meal. I reckon the young couple are onto a winner. I wished them luck and will help them all I can.