IT has been a week with no rain but although we have had a mixture of warm sunshine, wind and quite a lot of time with a thick layer of cloud above us, the workload seems to be gaining pace.

Here on Manor Farm we have finished harvesting all our winter barley, which has all been sold and taken from the farm.

About a third of our winter wheat has also been gathered, but the rest is not quite ripe and would benefit from a few days of bright sunshine.

The wheat harvested had a moisture content below 15 per cent, with a better yield and quality than the barley.

Some of the wheat has been sold but the rest is being stored locally, ready to feed to our cows during the winter.

The straw has all been baled and most of the bales have been brought back to the farm where they are stored ready for use in the months ahead.

The oilseed rape grown by a neighbouring farmer on two of our fields was also harvested recently, the straw baled and taken back to his farm.

Oilseed rape straw yields about 1.5 tonnes to the hectare and although it is considered to be an agricultural waste product it has a number of uses, as a biomass fuel, horse bedding or a valuable source of fibre in livestock diets.

When used as horse bedding it is chopped and the dust extracted to give an absorbent soft bedding, which composts quite quickly.

Back on Stowell Farm, the straw from Kevin’s oilseed rape was chopped as it passed through the combine, before being released back on to the fields as an important source of organic material, which will be incorporated into the soil during cultivation.

While on the subject of straw, during a recent visit to Devon I noticed a field of thatching straw near South Moulton.

Special varieties of wheat are grown for thatching, such as Maris Huntsman and Aquila.

These varieties of wheat are grown because modern ones have short straw, which is hopeless for thatching roofs.

The thatching straw produced is known as Devon reed, wheat reed or just simply wheat straw.

The by-product is not for cereal use, but for next year’s seed.

The wheat is cut with a binder, then tied into sheaves, before being left in the field in small pyramid stacks to dry.

The sheaves are then put through a threshing machine to remove the grains, leaving the tied bundles of combed wheat reed.

Nowadays the wheat reed is still produced traditionally, but in places a header on a modern machine removes the grain leaving the straw standing.

It is then cut and bundled later.

On Chuggaton Farm, the first calf of the season has been born, an Aberdeen Angus x heifer calf and there are many calves due to be born during the next few weeks, so Adele and Steve are preparing for a busy time.

Their dry cows have been moved to a fresh field and the cows due to calve within the next two or three weeks are being fed a supplementary diet with extra nutrients.

Although a busy time is fast approaching, at the moment there are only about 50 of their 100 cow herd being milked, so milking does not take long.

On Stowell Farm the recently sold ewe lambs have been collected and transported to their new home.

The ewes have been moved to fresh pasture, and all the round bales of barley straw are safely stacked for use in the winter.

During the school holidays at Roves Farm there are different themes each week for the tractor ride.

A new theme involving dinosaurs was launched on the last day of the week and as the tractor driver yours truly was persuaded to appear astride a dinosaur for the finale of each performance.