Why has the farmer got his combine harvester out now?

[Allmyarseandpeggymartin]

Not a euphemism!

The farmer who looks after the field behind our house is out quite happily in his combine harvester merrily going up and down the fields with huge spotlights at the front and back of the tractor. It’s pitch black.

I did a quick google as to why this might be which suggested getting the harvest in before a storm but It’s been lovely today and fine weather is forecast.

Any ideas Mumsnetters?

It’s a really late harvest this year. Normally you’d start drilling winter wheat about now for next year.

The quality of the crop has likely also started to fall. Farmers usually sell their crops ahead of time and will be hit with penalties if they don’t meet the quality, moisture content and yield of their contracts!

This year has been a nightmare for most arable farmers, too wet at the end of last year to get onto the land to sow so they switched to spring sown varieties, we then had a dry spring so much of the seed failed or grew late, some still hasn't ripened yet. Harvesting can only be done when the grain is dry or it will rot in the barn. Recent rain came at a bad time so now farmers are making the most of every dry hour they can. Flour prices are expected to rise as crops are poor, bread and all flour based products will rise in price this coming year.

It’s a really late harvest this year.

It certainly is here in the East Midlands. Mainly because we had one of the wettest winters ever and the farmers couldn’t sow their crops because their fields were lakes until early April. Farmers in Lincolnshire were literally using boats to get around their ‘land’. Then, it didn’t rain again until well into June.....

Yes most combiners are contractors. Or certainly when I used to live on a farm in wales they were. Nobody locally had enough arable land to make it worthwhile to have one. Maybe different in Lincs, etc.

So the contractors start on the south coast and work their way upwards. Stopping at the same farms every year. You don’t really get any choice of dates or time.

Perhaps it's brand new

My OH is from a farming background, but is not involved now. In his day the contractors would work through the night to get the silage in and so on. It is normal enough to this day from what I hear from his (still farming) family.

Has to be done when the time is right and the contractor is available.

Drove a (relatively) long distance tonight, say 2 hrs, and saw a few tractors/combines working in the dark. Don’t think I recall seeing this before, though no idea why va they’re working in the dark.

Unfortunately the harvest this year hasn't been great, so catching up is probably the only option for alot of farmers

@NightCzar

Perhaps it's brand new

Have you got the key?

@NightCzar and @BikeRunSki

Thank you for the education Mumsnet! I had no idea about the travelling contractors, I just thought each farmer had a tractor and that was it.

The timings make complete sense too - I remember the farmer drilling the seed (get me down with the lingo) as it was the start of April and Malcolm the busybody next door was panicking that the farmer had sold up and we were going to get a supermarket plonked behind us

Here for your viewing pleasure is the excellent nocturnal tractor work:

Malcolm the busybody next door was panicking that the farmer had sold up and we were going to get a supermarket plonked behind us

Unless Malcolm has just been parachuted in from central London, surely he's at least basically familiar with the general shape of the agricultural year, though? Or at least enough not to confuse putting in seed with excavating supermarket foundations without planning permission?

(I say this as someone whose husband, when we first lived in the country, had not understood that dairy cattle needed to calf to keep the milk cycle going. He has a PhD.)

We were out picking blackberries at about 7pm yesterday and there were at least 3 combines going in the fields around us showing no intention of stopping anytime soon. The forecast for today is crap so I guess they're making hay while it's not pouring with rain the sun shines.

@FishPalace That proper made me lol.

Busybody Malcolm has form for confusing one thing with another. He was once convinced that the lad next door was a drug launderer (his exact words) cos he’d got a BMW. Turns out it was a company car!

I can’t be cross with him though cos he gives me half of his rhubarb crop every year

'Make hay while the sun shines'

It's difficult to make hay unless the sun is shining for several days in a row.

They definitely aren't making hay though I'm afraid. Some straw as a byproduct perhaps!

You probably haven't noticed them working as late in the past because in the past they have been able to do it earlier in the year when the nights were lighter and therefore haven't required the powerful lights. They were still there, they just weren't as noticeable.

All of our farmer friends are working silly hours at the moment, often until late into the evening 7 days a week.

@BangingOn

All of our farmer friends are working silly hours at the moment, often until late into the evening 7 days a week.

Yes, I actually saw a minor traffic jam of harvesters near here late last night, as everyone is harvesting and the roads are so narrow that any machinery moving around pretty much has to take the same route. It looked surreal with all the flashing lights in the middle of nowhere.

my husband is out baling straw today.

Maize is being harvested around here and they work long long hours to get it in, the wetter the crop the more heat is used in the grain driers to dry it down to the correct moisture which either push prices up or cuts down profit margins

It was warm and dry last night, so maybe it was that reason? I put my washing out at nearly 10pm and it was really pleasant out, it was dry this morning.

Harvest is really late this year; the weather hasn't played ball at all so he's probably getting as much done while he can.
We don't usually combine after 9pm ish as it gets damp but lots of farmers will harvest through the night.

Half the crop came in early - down the road from us they had barley coming in at the end of July - and the rest is late.

The contractors are working 24/7 to get it finished before the weather sets in too wet.

They've just taken another load of silage off the field by me too, the grass has been growing like crazy!

@Allmyarseandpeggymartin

*@NightCzar and @BikeRunSki*

Thank you for the education Mumsnet! I had no idea about the travelling contractors, I just thought each farmer had a tractor and that was it.

The timings make complete sense too - I remember the farmer drilling the seed (get me down with the lingo) as it was the start of April and Malcolm the busybody next door was panicking that the farmer had sold up and we were going to get a supermarket plonked behind us

Here for your viewing pleasure is the excellent nocturnal tractor work:

They all have their own tractors, but combines can cost anything up to a quarter of a million and you only use them for a short while so it isn't always economic to own one themselves.