There are rather few unharvested wheat fields in my area now. Farmers have been working all hours to get the harvest in.
Arable farmers spend the whole season wishing the weather were different! Earlier this year more rain was needed - the prolonged dry spell which delivered only a quarter of the average rainfall between April and June has reduced yields. But in the last few weeks farmers have been hoping for dry weather so that the wheat could be harvested and drying costs avoided.
At Hope Farm the harvest is in and wheat yields are quite low (just over 8 tonnnes/hectare compared with highs of 11 t/ha in previous years) but we avoided having to spend money on drying the wheat (saving about £15,000 as a result). Wheat prices are high this year - around £160/tonne. That's not so much to do with low yields in the UK but more to do with crop failures around the world. So, as almost always, it could be better but it could be worse.
And this is the time when wheat is being harvested all over the northern hemisphere. Harvest time. Harvest festivals. Harvest mice. Combine harvesters.
There's obviously a bit of a contrast between my blackberry-picking at the weekend and the wheat harvest. Those farmers harvesting the field have invested huge amounts of money in the land, the machinery, pesticides, fertilisers and seeds and only get paid when the crop is harvested and sold. However good a farmer they are, if the rain never stops or if there is a world glut of wheat, then it's a bad year. In contrast, my harvesting of the hedgerows requires no investment by me (except I may have contributed through my taxes to grants I guess). We've come a long way from hunter-gatherers.
Trimbush - nice post! thank you.
“We’ve come a long way from being hunter-gatherers” says Mark
But I’m not so sure about that.
The ‘man’ – generally - still goes out to ‘hunt’ – usually in ‘packs’ - and the ‘woman’ still ‘gathers’ – the fact that she uses a supermarket trolley in which to ‘gather’ is neither here nor there; she may even get there by 4x4 - to be sure – burying the food in a freezer on her return - to keep it safe.
Society has just become more specialized – that’s all – the best hunters hunt and the best gatherers gather .
The rest are solicitors or accountants – those that can do neither become politicians!
And the species ‘tesco mandibulis’ threatens itself with extinction with so many lessons still to learn