September 2004       Click here to see this month in 03 or 02

Not the best picture due to the fact it was taken with my camera phone, but it shows sun rise around 6am on the 1st of this month. I’d got up early to apply the pre-emergence herbicide to our Oil Seed Rape before traveling back to Hadley to continue harvesting our beans.
Spraying OSR

Harvest finished for us this year on the 3rd with the completion of our winter beans.

Cultivating Spring Bean Stubble

Spring bean stubble received it’s first pass with our cultivator press in preparation for drilling winter wheat.

Wheat stubble where the straw has been chopped has been cultivated to incorporate the straw to encourage it to decompose ready for secondary cultivation and drilling of a second wheat crop.
Incorporating Chopped Straw
Planting Winter Wheat

We made a start on drilling Claire Winter Wheat on the 6th in near ideal conditions.

Rolling following planting improves seed to soil contact and retains moisture to promote even germination.
Rolling

In preparation for drilling Carat Winter Barley at Stamford, last years oil seed rape and barley stubble received a shallow pass with our cultivator press immediately following harvest to allow the weed seeds to germinate which have been sprayed off with Glyphosate. A second pass of the press at 150mm deep immediately prior to drilling has generated a stale seed bed.
Drilling Winter Barley

Winter wheat drilled earlier this month, has emerged well. Volunteer spring beans have also grown well and will need to be controlled soon.
Winter Wheat