Farmer Focus: The sun is shining, the combines are rolling

The sun has shone and the rain has fallen – although not as much as usual (so far) – and the combines have been rolling.

We have only 121ha of our own land, on three different farms, so we contract the work out. Our harvest is all about gathering up straw.

We mainly buy our straw off a local family farm, whose fields range from half a mile away from us to six miles away.

We know it’s vital to clear the fields as fast as possible, so when the straw is fit it’s a case of dropping everything and getting those bales in.

This year I’ve been upgraded. I’m normally only allowed on the tractors and a loader – stacking the bales into threes in the field.

Using the JCB is a job I’ve steered clear of for many years, but this year I’ve stacked bales and even unloaded them. However, I’m leaving the stack well alone. If it were to fall over, I know whose fault it would be.

So far our straw harvest is going well. We have gathered in just less than 4,000 bales, and now have a little break until the spring barley is fit.

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Back on the pigs, everyone has been working extra hard because we have had to pull people off to drive the tractors and JCBs.

So we have all had some early mornings and late nights to make sure our day-to-day job is still carried out to the same high standards.

The heat that hit us in early July has also made extra work for us – making sure all the pigs have ways of cooling down.

Outdoors we provide wallows and indoors we have been spraying all pigs with the power washer – this not only cools the pigs, but also freshens the air.

This time of year can cause problems with seasonal infertility. The sows are clever and we know they don’t want to be getting in pig as they will be farrowing in the winter, so sometimes we can see some irregular returns.

Vicky has changed a lot of small things on the indoor breeding unit over the past few years, which has resulted in consistent figures.

Fingers crossed, we will see little difference in our conception rate again this year.

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Kate Morgan and family farm 1,700 sows indoors in East Yorkshire and 1,200 outdoor in North Yorkshire, taking all the progeny through to slaughter.