This is one of the reasons I enjoy Harry's Farm. As someone who is not a farmer he educates us non farmers into the problems that our farmers in every day life have. WELL DONE HARRY. Anyone out there who can do the same for our fishing industry?
Whenever I watch Harry's Farm a little worm in my ear keeps saying"Farmers have to always moan about the weather, its either too hot or too cold, too dry or too wet, when its perfect for one crop its a disaster for another...." I grew up in the countryside and every year would be the same. If farmers could control the weather they still wouldn't get it right.
@clivewilliams3661 you wouldn't be saying stuff like that If you were in farming doing the job. .you're idea of them "moaning " is just them venting and basically confirming life isn't perfect so yes it will never be 100% so never be quite right.
@@paul8161 You clearly don't know farmers because the many that I do would concur with my comments, they are fully aware of the irony of it all. This year has been difficult for arable farmers like Harry, where the rain during spring was excessive but for livestock farmers it has produced a bumper crop of hay, which is particularly welcome for winter feed given the dire state of the ground that meant keeping livestock in barns longer than usual.
@clivewilliams3661 . I don't know farmers, I grew up in the countryside and went to an agricultural college. U might want a rethink on that insight and still live in the countryside..oops. 🙄.plus having someone agree with you or your point of view doesn't make you any more correct like it's some kind of pi££ing competition. It just means someone agrees with your opinion, like someone could agree with my opinion..
@@paul8161 I too grew up and still live in the countryside and count many farmers as friends and all of those would probably agree with me and they would recognise the comment, which is a traditional one that I first heard 60 years ago and was/is common in the farming community. My comment was never meant as a slur and I doubt that any farmer would see it as such. It would be a real shame if we had to live in a world that was PC such that we were in constant fear of upsetting someone.
Perhaps the government does know what it's doing, however dramatically reducing food supplies does not sound like whatever it is doing is in our interests.
Hardy: Now why did you get two tickets for Chicago when I wanted to spend my honeymoon in Saskatchewan? Laurel: Well the man said there was no such place as Suskwet... Sus... Susquashed...
Put in bee hives and the honey you harvest will sell rather rapidly. Your famous neighbor could sell it for you. My wife's uncle had a trailer with 20 hive boxes on it. He got paid for parking the trailer on some farmer's cropland and got great-tasting honey in return from his bees. Great pollinators for many crops. Our problem with our 1 acre of tomatoes and peppers is that the surrounding farmers spray to kill bugs but it also kills the bees. We have had to resort to hand pollination of our zucchini, yellow squash, and even our cucumbers. We grow this much because we have the land, we have 2 Category O 3-pt hitch-cultivating tractors, and other than what two 80-year-old people like us eat and can for our own use, 98% of the crop goes to a local food bank.
Yep, Borage is an amazing plant...it just keeps coming back each year, with no input. It's now already taken over two and a half veg patches, and the bee coverage, as usual, is insane. And you can eat the petals and leaves in moderation, make teas etc...medicinal. Great stuff. Good luck with the wheat.
@@richardmosley4549 when the gas prices went up a few years ago one UK company that suppled the UK with over 100% of 3 different vegetables and 50% of another 3 to 5 type or fruit or vegetable asked the government for help because the gas bill used to heat the company greenhouse went up 12 million over night the government told them to get lost - the company closed it doors and sold its land to a house building company within the the afternoon and that how the government got rid of a lot of UK food security and supply
@richardmosley4549 it's much more complicated than that, but remember it's his choice what to do with his land, not the government. To most farms, especially in more productive areas, the money they're offering for such schemes is piffling,
What happens if all the farmers grow the same thing? Market crashes and there are food shortages.......so you need someone to manage who's growing what to keep everyone happy. Not complicated
Very interested in your Borage. About 20 years ago I grew some in Scotland and it was exported to Canada and used for Medicinal purposes. My local Bee man brought some hives over to help with the pollination and he got some lovely honey Very mild and runny. Very much enjoy your two blogs or whatever they are called.
I remember helping out at harvest time combining with sound mechanical machines with very few electrics/electronics. It stands to reason that in a farm environment you will have vermin and they have a reputation for chewing wire and cable. On the old machines the only wire was usually thick gauge for the starter and the solenoid that could resist a chewing. Fine control wiring can't. It should be up to the manufacturers to build a combine or any agricultural machine that is fit for purpose and vermin proof.
@@venklar According to the Google god, there are about 800 parts in a combine harvester. However, I would guess that the computing power in a modern combine would be enough to put a man on the moon. All that electronic trickery and gimmickry will be vulnerable in a machine that is left in a vermin infested barn for 49-50 weeks a year without being used.
@silverdrillpickle7596 I've done 38 harvests, I've never had a major breakdown mainly because of proper care of my machine, most are not looked after we'll in my opinion.
Cats may not solve all such problems but they sure can help. My youngest took out half a dozen medium size rats, 4 squirrels and several small rats in last 6 weeks not counting the ones I didn't see. A few barn cats seem essential to me as non-farmer but I grow a lot of stuff.
Our 90 acres of SFI was devoid of bees until mid July. They have appeared, but not in the numbers of last year. The wet start to the year has really hit the insect, butterfly and bee populations
They're probaby mostly honeybees - the wrong bees. It's the wild pollinators that need saving. Numbers have been going down 1-2% per year since the 1940s. The last few years they have crashed - according to a lot of entomologists.
Yes, pretty isn't it......but it is not FOOD is it. We are far too reliant on overseas food. The Dockers could hold the whole country to ransom if they chose too.
I'd hardly call rapeseed food. And as for sheep, they're not profitable and have been subsidised by us for decades whilst decimating everything in their path
The Government have doubtless taken a bit of £obbying by food importers, supermarkets and the like. No domestic food production means lots of profits to be made on imports in a shortage market - slightly more serious than loo rolls.
That is short term thinking and dangerous for our health and food security. We live in an ecosystem and ignoring that is the road to worse problems than more costly food. The synthetic ecosystems we have implemented in agriculture today require massive amounts of engineered seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides that are poisoning us and the ecosystem we need to survive. It is a complex problem and symplistic answers lead to worse results. Lets try to learn a better, more sustainable and healthy way.
@@brendanmoran397 If we don't grow our food responsibly the ecosystem will do that for us. No, its possible to sustain life without killing it. Its a balance. Extreme solutions are in nobody's interest, so is doing what we have been doing for too long. Our bodies have become a science experiment by chemical producers that care about nothing but profits.
Harry - here in TX we leave hunting vehicles out in the field, and vermin eat through wires and fuel lines. We have found decent plugin ultrasonic repellents deter them. I put them in all my outbuildings now over the winter where I store stuff that I care about.
I’m on the Suffolk coast at the moment and a farmer friend told us that the chat amongst local farmers growing OSR this year is that it’s the best crop they’ve had for years. Been very wet here like the rest of Britain which is unusual as it’s normally the opposite.
Our wild flower mix, which was a beautiful selection of cornflower, poppies etc has turned to grass in its second year. If we had wanted to get rid of poppies in a wheat crop it would have been impossible.
With reference to your wire chewing issues. Manufacturers are now using plant based compounds to cover wires instead of plastic. Ford are having problems with their ABS system wires leading to the front discs. My friend has replaced 3 sensor units one his brand new car because a fox is chewing the wires.
@@Pesmog you can minimise the rodents chewing wires or even making nests in a Combine harvester or even a bailer, by opening all of the panels on the machine as rodents like rats and mice don't like the light.
Or maybe a person could install some LED lighting that ran off the mains (I think that's the right word in the UK) that you just plugged in while the combine wasn't being used in the off season to illuminate all of the under hood parts.
I worked on a farm in Essex at the end of the 90s that used to grow Borage on a fairly small scale 10-20 acres. We would bag it up in hessian sacks and use a multi hose blower to dry it... I also remember it be in VERY itchy if you got it on your skin! Also had to use a combine header with 'conveyor belts' rather than an auger...
Government agricultural policy is misguided. Farmers have to follow the money but national food security is far more important. It doesn’t help net zero either as shipping in food from other parts of the world is counterproductive.
What do you mean by food security though? The UK hasn't been self sufficient in it's food supply since... when? We're a small country with almost 70 million people. The UK will always be importing a significant % of it's food. It'll be even more the way the environment is collapsing too. There is no simple answer.
Harry to help against nibblement,I find that a mixture of GT85 and chilli 🌶 works a treat Recipe: get a spray bottle of GT85 and 6large hot chill peppers cut the fruit up finely and keep the seeds in add the spray and simmer in an old saucepan for fifteen minutes alow to cool and then when you have put the combined harvester away and blown off the dust spray the wiring with the mix it smells good and lasts well and the advantage is that once it actually evaporates what you get left behind is a mixture of the chilli and PTFE which keeps the dirt from forming on it and also keeps any moisture out Best of luck with the harvest
Borage of course makes a great liquid fertiliser so perhaps take a cut and process? Plow the remaining back in as a green manure. What do others think.
Bees (and beekeepers) love borage as it flowers when other flowering crops have usually finished. If I remember correctly, the seed is harvested for gla but it's a very fine seed that takes a bit of managing. It's also risky, in the sense that the plant can be knocked over by wind/rain and the seed spills onto the ground. That's why people say; if you grow borage once, you'll always have it. It does look beautiful though and, as you say, it attracts bees from miles around. It produces a very light honey with not much flavour but it doesn't granulate quickly like osr does. For that reason alone, it's quite sought after.
I live on the edge of the Chilterns near Maidenhead, and there is quite a lot of grain grown nearby. It's been interesting to me in the last few years of watching Harry's and a few other channels how much variation there is in harvest time. Most of the grain near me has been harvested over the last few days. Last year it was a few weeks earlier than Harry too. I wonder how much of the variation is down to varieties grown, time of drilling etc. I guess there is also a factor of folk deciding to make the most of the dry weather rather than gambling with getting rain, mould etc. There was a bit of rape nearby too, but that was combined several weeks ago.
When we have massive basic foodstuff shortages and have to import what we need (at who knows what price), I wonder who will get the blame? It is about time farmers took complete charge of agricultural policy in the UK and told our politicians to play in the children's' sand pit where they belong.
"Let them eat honey!" HOWEVER: no bees means no pollination means no food production for humans. In the United States, we have been having a collapse in bee populations over the last ten years or so.
@@jamesellsworth9673 Ten years? Here in the UK pollinators have been going down over 1% since the 1940s. We've lost 90-95% of pollinators and it's not getting any better. Most don't care as they don't appreciate the natural world, even if it is translated in pounds, shillings and pence.
I remember when the majority of towns and cities put flowers and plants around the parks and town/city centres. Our local town used to have a load of fantastic raised flower beds to attract bee's, but they had to be removed because of health and safety, as some stupid person might have fell off it.
I have some Borage in my garden, the bees absolutely love it. I have about thirty plants but there are hundreds of bees on it, the buzz from the bees is amazing.
The borage looks lovely and the bees love it - I don't think you'll have any choice as to whether or not you have borage in that field next year as, I find, it self-seeds very easily!
Great that you're doing things to benefit wildlife around the farm! Would definitely recommend contacting your local wildlife trust to see if there's some easy low intervention win wins projects you could undertake!
Patience is definitely a virtue the wheat on your farm looking good harry.lets hope for a good harvest after a frustrating season last year.as you say hope this corrects itself cos the government say they don't need correcting until the champagne and caviar becomes non existent keep up the good work and look forward to your next video
As far as I am aware there has never been a minister for agriculture who has ever been a farmer, it might help. We all know that the government intends to compulsory purchase farm land to build houses on it to house all the long term uninvited visitors to this country.
That borage field is incredible! Ive never seen such a crop! Im a gardener by trade and many of my clients have green alkanet popping up in their beds and margins. A few times ive been asked 'how to eat the borage'.. Its not borage! Its alkanet and not great to eat unless you like poisoning yourself!
Good to see you back. Were in the middle of winter here ( central wheatbelt of West Oz) and are unsure of how the crops are going to go as the rains were so late.
@@TwinPotManThe first part of your statement was correct, civil servants don’t do anything, but they do it at home now and not in the office. Oh yes and since the gift from China, there are significantly more of them employed to doing nothing nowadays. Obviously I discount any time that the civil servants spent disrupting, thwarting and conspiring not to implement government policies impartially (however stupid the majority of those policies were). They are supposed to be apolitical, but like the majority of the civil service it is a joke.🏴🇬🇧
You can get a unit which emits a very high pitch noise that rodents hate…I don’t have one on my van but an electrician I work with has one on his van, the noise is just audible and annoying, but if in a barn away from other people probably not an issue? Super channel! Thank you!
latest info Canola seeded in canada to produce 20million metric tonne with more now being crushed locally for domestic market particularly here in Saskatchewan where most Canola is grown in canada. Gov projects 6.9 million tonnes for export. Canola still in bloom here, but with very hot july no real rain expect crops will mature quickly. Dry hot weather may reduce yields here. Happy Harvesting all and STAY SAFE.
Hello Harry, Maybe you could harvest the seeds of the Borage? I don’t know what the seeds are worth, but it looks to me that other farmers would like to have such a field of Borage. And looking at the schemes of the government, “birdseeds” are going to go up in price. Thank for your regular updates, very interesting to watch as someone who doesn’t know a lot of farming. Greetings 👋🏽
One strategy to help prevent pests is to park the combine on chicken wire/mesh, as rats and mice can’t walk over it. They may still be able to jump onto it though? Could be worth a try anyway over winter
Think your Chief Mouser will be getting a P45 and looking for a new home. Catch the Grey Squirrels for a great pie or casserole. Great crop of Borage, the local Farmers Market will be happy to help you sell a very versatile herb. Any local Beekeepers that can put their hives on your farm in exchange for a few jars of Honey.
Your comment about your wild carrot is very interesting .. it’s there because you have a mineral deficiencies like low in phosphorus , lack of humus , bacteria , moisture. There is a relationship between your beetle issue , predators of the beetle grub feed on the nectar of the wild carrot , check out When Weeds Talk by Jay L.McCaman.
That's a bit of an urban legend. Yes, many plastics use soy as a base (Henry Ford himself experimented with it) but at the end of the chemical process there is not a trace of the original soy. No taste, no odor, nothing. It's now a polymer, indistinguishable from any other. Look at bamboo textile products: made from bamboo but ends up being ordinary rayon, which doesn't resemble the original in any way. Mice and other rodents like to chew. They don't particularly care what they are chewing on, because they are not eating it. You can tear out all your soy-based wiring and replace it with something else, but the mice won't notice and will continue to chew.
Emotive @harrysfarmvids as always. Once UK govt recognise the importance of food security again, the grower (you particularly with borage) are going to be left with an awful weed burden which is difficult and costly to remove to bring back into production. This must be remembered and factored in when entering into SFIs now etc as these schemes come and go but you’d like to think you’ll be growing food on that land again at some point in our lifetimes. How’s the 930?!
Borage + honeybees = great honey. So you are making a beekeeper somewhere near you very happy. Of course you could have a couple of dozen bee hives along the edge of your field then both you and the beekeeper could see an increase in yield. More seed for you. More honey for the bee keeper.
Bumble bees & bees love purple flowers. Fare play ta ya, your a true farmer. A farmer to me, is people that understand there planet & Nature & can work with it. We all need to remember, nature / Earth doesn't need Humans, but we need nature / Earth 🌎👌.
Could have been a beech/stone marten? Here in the Netherlands at least they are infamous for chewing through car wires, so a combine is probably on the menu as well
With increased turbulence in world Geo-politics. It's absolutely mad the government is encouraging farmers to not grow food. As a nation we need to be growing enough food to sustain ourselves. Maybe not for the globalised diet we've become accustomed to, but enough food so no one goes hungry if we don't import any food. Lofty ideals I know, but increases national security.
Definitely but around us acres of good arable land is going to disappear under solar panels. Complete madness, I understand the need for alternative energy but not in one of the most productive food growing areas of the country (Lincolnshire)
Install ultrasonic emitters in the parts of the combine that get chewed. Run them off a battery maintainer. It's something I did for a friend's combine in the US, and he hasn't had any rodent damage in 15+ years.
This is one of the reasons I enjoy Harry's Farm. As someone who is not a farmer he educates us non farmers into the problems that our farmers in every day life have. WELL DONE HARRY. Anyone out there who can do the same for our fishing industry?
Whenever I watch Harry's Farm a little worm in my ear keeps saying"Farmers have to always moan about the weather, its either too hot or too cold, too dry or too wet, when its perfect for one crop its a disaster for another...." I grew up in the countryside and every year would be the same. If farmers could control the weather they still wouldn't get it right.
@clivewilliams3661 you wouldn't be saying stuff like that If you were in farming doing the job. .you're idea of them "moaning " is just them venting and basically confirming life isn't perfect so yes it will never be 100% so never be quite right.
@@paul8161 You clearly don't know farmers because the many that I do would concur with my comments, they are fully aware of the irony of it all. This year has been difficult for arable farmers like Harry, where the rain during spring was excessive but for livestock farmers it has produced a bumper crop of hay, which is particularly welcome for winter feed given the dire state of the ground that meant keeping livestock in barns longer than usual.
@clivewilliams3661 . I don't know farmers, I grew up in the countryside and went to an agricultural college. U might want a rethink on that insight and still live in the countryside..oops. 🙄.plus having someone agree with you or your point of view doesn't make you any more correct like it's some kind of pi££ing competition. It just means someone agrees with your opinion, like someone could agree with my opinion..
@@paul8161 I too grew up and still live in the countryside and count many farmers as friends and all of those would probably agree with me and they would recognise the comment, which is a traditional one that I first heard 60 years ago and was/is common in the farming community. My comment was never meant as a slur and I doubt that any farmer would see it as such. It would be a real shame if we had to live in a world that was PC such that we were in constant fear of upsetting someone.
Not a farmer, not even British anymore but I still keep watching these fascinating videos. Good luck with the harvest Harry.
I'm not a farmer, basically live in the suburbs and yet I absolutely love this it is absolutely fascinating, please keep up the great work!
Exactly.
Perhaps the government does know what it's doing, however dramatically reducing food supplies does not sound like whatever it is doing is in our interests.
The government knowing what they’re doing? Don’t be silly! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It's all sort of the world agenda WEF globalism which is anti human as they want to reduce the world population and this is part of it
The ones controlling the government know what’s going on
All tory policies, so......
That's easy.... its not working in your interests and hasn't been for 20 years. It's just becoming more obvious now as the tyranny speeds up
Hello from Moosomin,Saskatchewan you have great videos and great at communicating. Thanks for sharing.
Hardy: Now why did you get two tickets for Chicago when I wanted to spend my honeymoon in Saskatchewan? Laurel: Well the man said there was no such place as Suskwet... Sus... Susquashed...
Put in bee hives and the honey you harvest will sell rather rapidly. Your famous neighbor could sell it for you. My wife's uncle had a trailer with 20 hive boxes on it. He got paid for parking the trailer on some farmer's cropland and got great-tasting honey in return from his bees. Great pollinators for many crops. Our problem with our 1 acre of tomatoes and peppers is that the surrounding farmers spray to kill bugs but it also kills the bees. We have had to resort to hand pollination of our zucchini, yellow squash, and even our cucumbers. We grow this much because we have the land, we have 2 Category O 3-pt hitch-cultivating tractors, and other than what two 80-year-old people like us eat and can for our own use, 98% of the crop goes to a local food bank.
Harry's Honey, although folks might blow a raspberry if they think it's to do with crazy Megan and Harry
''I'm sure the government know what they're doing'' - I love the irony there Harry....!!!
I do enjoy knowing you've stolen all Jeremy's bees! 🐝🤣
@@Andy_T79 I can just imagine him shouting "Haaaaarrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!"
Yep, Borage is an amazing plant...it just keeps coming back each year, with no input. It's now already taken over two and a half veg patches, and the bee coverage, as usual, is insane. And you can eat the petals and leaves in moderation, make teas etc...medicinal. Great stuff.
Good luck with the wheat.
As a gardener I too have noticed the lack of bees and wasps about at the moment.
Our garden is rammed with them, then again our garden is stuffed full of pollen rich flowers. They particularly like the verbena.
My garden is full of bees, they love the lavender.
Wet & cold spring bits quite simple
We have quite a few bees visiting the garden, but not seen many bumblebees
Bonkers Britain - paying farmers not to farm. What on earth could go wrong....?
@@richardmosley4549 when the gas prices went up a few years ago one UK company that suppled the UK with over 100% of 3 different vegetables and 50% of another 3 to 5 type or fruit or vegetable asked the government for help because the gas bill used to heat the company greenhouse went up 12 million over night the government told them to get lost - the company closed it doors and sold its land to a house building company within the the afternoon and that how the government got rid of a lot of UK food security and supply
@richardmosley4549 it's much more complicated than that, but remember it's his choice what to do with his land, not the government. To most farms, especially in more productive areas, the money they're offering for such schemes is piffling,
@@MikeLScott-lu5oxThat does not mean that the government’s approach is sound public policy.
@@woodrow60 I don't think anyone ever claimed it was.
Porridge or borage? 🤔
When the farmer has to ask the politician what he can grow on his farm you know that the world is f*ck*d.
I heard him say: if I'm allowed FFS.
To remain valid for the AB8 scheme...
That’s British subjects for you
What happens if all the farmers grow the same thing? Market crashes and there are food shortages.......so you need someone to manage who's growing what to keep everyone happy. Not complicated
@@darko9256 He said they are cutting food production 50%. Remember you are always free to do as your told!
Very interested in your Borage. About 20 years ago I grew some in Scotland and it was exported to Canada and used for Medicinal purposes. My local Bee man brought some hives over to help with the pollination and he got some lovely honey Very mild and runny.
Very much enjoy your two blogs or whatever they are called.
I suspect that when one owns a combine, there’s always a problem.
19,000 moving parts near a family of mice.
I remember helping out at harvest time combining with sound mechanical machines with very few electrics/electronics. It stands to reason that in a farm environment you will have vermin and they have a reputation for chewing wire and cable. On the old machines the only wire was usually thick gauge for the starter and the solenoid that could resist a chewing. Fine control wiring can't. It should be up to the manufacturers to build a combine or any agricultural machine that is fit for purpose and vermin proof.
19k moving parts is… a lot! No wonder they are not that reliable.Is there really no way to make it simpler?!
@@venklar According to the Google god, there are about 800 parts in a combine harvester. However, I would guess that the computing power in a modern combine would be enough to put a man on the moon. All that electronic trickery and gimmickry will be vulnerable in a machine that is left in a vermin infested barn for 49-50 weeks a year without being used.
@silverdrillpickle7596 I've done 38 harvests, I've never had a major breakdown mainly because of proper care of my machine, most are not looked after we'll in my opinion.
@@MikeLScott-lu5oxthink Harris takes good care of his too and I remember he had some problems before and not rodent related 😁
Maybe the combine should be given an emotional support animal in the form of 1 to 3 cats
Cats go REALLY well under spinning rear tyres I've heard .......... just sayin
Decades ago I did a summer holiday job in a factory that had lots of semi-wild cats that were encouraged to do a job against the rats etc.
An evil old, grumpy barn cat. Seeing squirrel = lunch!
Cats may not solve all such problems but they sure can help. My youngest took out half a dozen medium size rats, 4 squirrels and several small rats in last 6 weeks not counting the ones I didn't see. A few barn cats seem essential to me as non-farmer but I grow a lot of stuff.
Love this channel Harry, best of luck with the harvest.
Our 90 acres of SFI was devoid of bees until mid July. They have appeared, but not in the numbers of last year. The wet start to the year has really hit the insect, butterfly and bee populations
We'll all be eating wild bird seed soon because that's all there is. Great video. All the best 🇬🇧.
12:13, that is a beautiful field… glad the bees enjoy it
They're probaby mostly honeybees - the wrong bees. It's the wild pollinators that need saving. Numbers have been going down 1-2% per year since the 1940s. The last few years they have crashed - according to a lot of entomologists.
Yes, pretty isn't it......but it is not FOOD is it. We are far too reliant on overseas food. The Dockers could hold the whole country to ransom if they chose too.
@@oliveringram3056 Oh no! The Dockers!
@VanderlyndenJengold there are such things as wild honey bees you know?
@@Grover91 Ken and Barbara - yes, I met them once. Nice couple.
' I am sure the government knows what they are doing ' are you kidding ?
I'm sure he means that the actions are entirely intentional, and not in our interests.
I'd hardly call rapeseed food. And as for sheep, they're not profitable and have been subsidised by us for decades whilst decimating everything in their path
Its called irony
The Government have doubtless taken a bit of £obbying by food importers, supermarkets and the like.
No domestic food production means lots of profits to be made on imports in a shortage market - slightly more serious than loo rolls.
I assumed this was filmed before the election? We literally have a different goverment now who have yet to finalize new policy on agriculture.
Great video. Hope the weather holds and you get the combine into the fields next week. Keep up the good work.
The wheat aint ready until The Wurzels sing their song.
“It was a squirrel, it drives farmers nuts “ Brilliant.!
You mean to tell me that if you pay farmers to NOT grow food……..you end up with less food???? I mean, who could have seen that coming?
That is short term thinking and dangerous for our health and food security. We live in an ecosystem and ignoring that is the road to worse problems than more costly food. The synthetic ecosystems we have implemented in agriculture today require massive amounts of engineered seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides that are poisoning us and the ecosystem we need to survive. It is a complex problem and symplistic answers lead to worse results. Lets try to learn a better, more sustainable and healthy way.
@@tedlazakis5670 I read this as “we need to cut the population by 80%.”
@@brendanmoran397 If we don't grow our food responsibly the ecosystem will do that for us. No, its possible to sustain life without killing it. Its a balance. Extreme solutions are in nobody's interest, so is doing what we have been doing for too long. Our bodies have become a science experiment by chemical producers that care about nothing but profits.
Harry - here in TX we leave hunting vehicles out in the field, and vermin eat through wires and fuel lines. We have found decent plugin ultrasonic repellents deter them. I put them in all my outbuildings now over the winter where I store stuff that I care about.
Super jealous of how well your crops are looking. Got it in the neck both autumn and spring here in Ireland. Roll on 2025 harvest already. Clean slate
good luck mate!
Thank you for the update Harry; very informative. Hello from Ontario, Canada.
The farm is looking an absolute picture! Hope the harvest all goes well!
I’m on the Suffolk coast at the moment and a farmer friend told us that the chat amongst local farmers growing OSR this year is that it’s the best crop they’ve had for years. Been very wet here like the rest of Britain which is unusual as it’s normally the opposite.
Another great video Harry 👍🏻 looking forward to seeing the combine in the field and also the yearly figures video
Our wild flower mix, which was a beautiful selection of cornflower, poppies etc has turned to grass in its second year. If we had wanted to get rid of poppies in a wheat crop it would have been impossible.
With reference to your wire chewing issues.
Manufacturers are now using plant based compounds to cover wires instead of plastic.
Ford are having problems with their ABS system wires leading to the front discs.
My friend has replaced 3 sensor units one his brand new car because a fox is chewing the wires.
Harry's is the third combine I have heard of this year that had chewed wires. It can be a frustrating time consuming problem to diagnose
@@Pesmog you can minimise the rodents chewing wires or even making nests in a Combine harvester or even a bailer, by opening all of the panels on the machine as rodents like rats and mice don't like the light.
Or maybe a person could install some LED lighting that ran off the mains (I think that's the right word in the UK) that you just plugged in while the combine wasn't being used in the off season to illuminate all of the under hood parts.
A fox? That's the first time I've heard of that happening. 😂 I thought only rodents chewed wires... 😮
I worked on a farm in Essex at the end of the 90s that used to grow Borage on a fairly small scale 10-20 acres. We would bag it up in hessian sacks and use a multi hose blower to dry it... I also remember it be in VERY itchy if you got it on your skin! Also had to use a combine header with 'conveyor belts' rather than an auger...
Government agricultural policy is misguided. Farmers have to follow the money but national food security is far more important. It doesn’t help net zero either as shipping in food from other parts of the world is counterproductive.
What do you mean by food security though? The UK hasn't been self sufficient in it's food supply since... when?
We're a small country with almost 70 million people. The UK will always be importing a significant % of it's food. It'll be even more the way the environment is collapsing too. There is no simple answer.
Better to have a healthy bio-diverse environment for when we do need it.
@@VanderlyndenJengoldcutting it back from 2/3 to 1/3 isn't the answer!
Harry to help against nibblement,I find that a mixture of GT85 and chilli 🌶 works a treat
Recipe: get a spray bottle of GT85 and 6large hot chill peppers cut the fruit up finely and keep the seeds in add the spray and simmer in an old saucepan for fifteen minutes alow to cool and then when you have put the combined harvester away and blown off the dust spray the wiring with the mix it smells good and lasts well and the advantage is that once it actually evaporates what you get left behind is a mixture of the chilli and PTFE which keeps the dirt from forming on it and also keeps any moisture out Best of luck with the harvest
Borage of course makes a great liquid fertiliser so perhaps take a cut and process?
Plow the remaining back in as a green manure.
What do others think.
A squirrel is just a rat with a bushy tail
Rat = Smooth tailed squirrel.
Rat with good PR.
That borage is going into a corner of my garden next year!
Thanks, great video, I enjoyed the "We've been in France recently. ." - hopefully a Harry's Garage road trip imminent. Cheers.
Bees (and beekeepers) love borage as it flowers when other flowering crops have usually finished. If I remember correctly, the seed is harvested for gla but it's a very fine seed that takes a bit of managing. It's also risky, in the sense that the plant can be knocked over by wind/rain and the seed spills onto the ground. That's why people say; if you grow borage once, you'll always have it. It does look beautiful though and, as you say, it attracts bees from miles around. It produces a very light honey with not much flavour but it doesn't granulate quickly like osr does. For that reason alone, it's quite sought after.
Thank you, for the update.
Mothballs, dryer sheets, BARN CATS!! Also, no left over food in cab. Clean it properly, in n out prior to putting it up.
I live on the edge of the Chilterns near Maidenhead, and there is quite a lot of grain grown nearby. It's been interesting to me in the last few years of watching Harry's and a few other channels how much variation there is in harvest time. Most of the grain near me has been harvested over the last few days. Last year it was a few weeks earlier than Harry too. I wonder how much of the variation is down to varieties grown, time of drilling etc. I guess there is also a factor of folk deciding to make the most of the dry weather rather than gambling with getting rain, mould etc. There was a bit of rape nearby too, but that was combined several weeks ago.
When we have massive basic foodstuff shortages and have to import what we need (at who knows what price), I wonder who will get the blame? It is about time farmers took complete charge of agricultural policy in the UK and told our politicians to play in the children's' sand pit where they belong.
What price? Much cheaper than we can produce it for here. Compare the price of third world honey with our home produced honey. Massive difference.
Thank you Harry! I wondered what the blue flowering crop I keep seeing everywhere is - Borage! Hope the wheat goes well.
Feeding the bees - starve the humans seems to be government policy.
"Let them eat honey!" HOWEVER: no bees means no pollination means no food production for humans. In the United States, we have been having a collapse in bee populations over the last ten years or so.
@@jamesellsworth9673 Ten years? Here in the UK pollinators have been going down over 1% since the 1940s. We've lost 90-95% of pollinators and it's not getting any better. Most don't care as they don't appreciate the natural world, even if it is translated in pounds, shillings and pence.
I remember when the majority of towns and cities put flowers and plants around the parks and town/city centres. Our local town used to have a load of fantastic raised flower beds to attract bee's, but they had to be removed because of health and safety, as some stupid person might have fell off it.
Don't forget the birds........
Thanks for the update, Harry. Seems mad not to be using more productive land for food, but what do I know?
I have some Borage in my garden, the bees absolutely love it. I have about thirty plants but there are hundreds of bees on it, the buzz from the bees is amazing.
.... thinking about that for next year bee garden
@@sianwarwick633 Oh yes you must bees absolutely love Borage.
Great to hear your farming news from 🇬🇧 watching from usa.
Thanks for the spaghetti Harry! The radishes aren’t bad either! Put more rapini on it. 🐿️
The arugula isn’t bad either! It’s Enhanced Stubble!
Breaking News!
It's too cold 🥶.
It's too hot 🔥
It's too wet.
There's too many Squirrels.
plus as a farmer you constantly owe everything to everyone, isn't rural life a wonderful thing?
A good time to start a squirrel farm then.;D
The Farming Blues
The borage looks lovely and the bees love it - I don't think you'll have any choice as to whether or not you have borage in that field next year as, I find, it self-seeds very easily!
Thanks for another interesting update Harry.
Great that you're doing things to benefit wildlife around the farm! Would definitely recommend contacting your local wildlife trust to see if there's some easy low intervention win wins projects you could undertake!
Patience is definitely a virtue the wheat on your farm looking good harry.lets hope for a good harvest after a frustrating season last year.as you say hope this corrects itself cos the government say they don't need correcting until the champagne and caviar becomes non existent keep up the good work and look forward to your next video
As far as I am aware there has never been a minister for agriculture who has ever been a farmer, it might help. We all know that the government intends to compulsory purchase farm land to build houses on it to house all the long term uninvited visitors to this country.
That principle seems true whatever the subject. Being qualified/ experienced in a subject is as good as being disqualified to actually run anything.
William Waldegrave mid 90s
The position is just seen as a stepping stone and not taken seriously
George Eustice was from a farming background. Mind you he was an arch Brexiteer so he’s to blame for a lot of the issues
Don't remember him, must have been ineffective and mediocre.
The area for "helping birds" seemed in fine fettle - but I didn't see a single bird in it.....
Really interesting and well presented. Thanks for posting.
That borage field is incredible! Ive never seen such a crop! Im a gardener by trade and many of my clients have green alkanet popping up in their beds and margins. A few times ive been asked 'how to eat the borage'.. Its not borage! Its alkanet and not great to eat unless you like poisoning yourself!
Another terrific episode. Thank you.
We crumb up citrus soap bars & sprinkle around our combine , Never had a rodent issue in the last 10 years
Good luck with harvest
Good to see you back. Were in the middle of winter here ( central wheatbelt of West Oz) and are unsure of how the crops are going to go as the rains were so late.
When civil servants who have never been to the countryside decide to turn every UK farmer into an owner of a simulated farm.
Civil Servants don't do anything unless instructed to by the Government Minster and their "special advisers".
Oh shut up.
@@TwinPotManThe first part of your statement was correct, civil servants don’t do anything, but they do it at home now and not in the office. Oh yes and since the gift from China, there are significantly more of them employed to doing nothing nowadays. Obviously I discount any time that the civil servants spent disrupting, thwarting and conspiring not to implement government policies impartially (however stupid the majority of those policies were). They are supposed to be apolitical, but like the majority of the civil service it is a joke.🏴🇬🇧
@@anthony208except it wasn't China. Plenty of patents going back decades - Wuhan happened be useful cover.
I absolutely love the countryside in the summer. Not so much the winter....
You can get a unit which emits a very high pitch noise that rodents hate…I don’t have one on my van but an electrician I work with has one on his van, the noise is just audible and annoying, but if in a barn away from other people probably not an issue? Super channel! Thank you!
latest info Canola seeded in canada to produce 20million metric tonne with more now being crushed locally for domestic market particularly here in Saskatchewan where most Canola is grown in canada. Gov projects 6.9 million tonnes for export. Canola still in bloom here, but with very hot july no real rain expect crops will mature quickly. Dry hot weather may reduce yields here. Happy Harvesting all and STAY SAFE.
Wonderful crop Harry I hope things go well.
Thanks for another great upload👍
Hello Harry,
Maybe you could harvest the seeds of the Borage? I don’t know what the seeds are worth, but it looks to me that other farmers would like to have such a field of Borage. And looking at the schemes of the government, “birdseeds” are going to go up in price.
Thank for your regular updates, very interesting to watch as someone who doesn’t know a lot of farming.
Greetings 👋🏽
Not much harvesting happening in Leicestershire either, just done a cycle right round to Vale of Belvoir, all the fields still very green!
One strategy to help prevent pests is to park the combine on chicken wire/mesh, as rats and mice can’t walk over it. They may still be able to jump onto it though? Could be worth a try anyway over winter
Thats the best comment I've heard for a long time Harry. "I'm sure the government know what they're doing". When has that ever been true.
The government know what they are doing. Maximum sarcasm detected.
Had some good weather here in Eastern Poland...grain is just about all in..
Your borage field is beautiful, shouldn’t be a problem keeping it.
Think your Chief Mouser will be getting a P45 and looking for a new home. Catch the Grey Squirrels for a great pie or casserole. Great crop of Borage, the local Farmers Market will be happy to help you sell a very versatile herb. Any local Beekeepers that can put their hives on your farm in exchange for a few jars of Honey.
Your comment about your wild carrot is very interesting .. it’s there because you have a mineral deficiencies like low in phosphorus , lack of humus , bacteria , moisture. There is a relationship between your beetle issue , predators of the beetle grub feed on the nectar of the wild carrot , check out When Weeds Talk by Jay L.McCaman.
Some wires use soy based insulation, mice love it.
That's a bit of an urban legend. Yes, many plastics use soy as a base (Henry Ford himself experimented with it) but at the end of the chemical process there is not a trace of the original soy. No taste, no odor, nothing. It's now a polymer, indistinguishable from any other. Look at bamboo textile products: made from bamboo but ends up being ordinary rayon, which doesn't resemble the original in any way.
Mice and other rodents like to chew. They don't particularly care what they are chewing on, because they are not eating it. You can tear out all your soy-based wiring and replace it with something else, but the mice won't notice and will continue to chew.
Thanks for the video
The borage looks like it's working really well for honey production.
So they'll probably tell you to get rid of it.
This is one of the reasons I enjoy Harry's Farm
Emotive @harrysfarmvids as always.
Once UK govt recognise the importance of food security again, the grower (you particularly with borage) are going to be left with an awful weed burden which is difficult and costly to remove to bring back into production.
This must be remembered and factored in when entering into SFIs now etc as these schemes come and go but you’d like to think you’ll be growing food on that land again at some point in our lifetimes.
How’s the 930?!
Combine driving should be added to the Olympics 😂😂😂
Borage + honeybees = great honey. So you are making a beekeeper somewhere near you very happy. Of course you could have a couple of dozen bee hives along the edge of your field then both you and the beekeeper could see an increase in yield. More seed for you. More honey for the bee keeper.
Harry I would have thought you would know the trick of putting moth balls in your combine to keep the vermin away.
That borage made me shudder. Had a huge problem with the stuff on an allotment plot many years ago thanks to the previous occupant.
Thundering with a puney bit of rain here in Bano!
Bumble bees & bees love purple flowers. Fare play ta ya, your a true farmer. A farmer to me, is people that understand there planet & Nature & can work with it. We all need to remember, nature / Earth doesn't need Humans, but we need nature / Earth 🌎👌.
Harry I hope you sell all that borage as can be used for so many things
Could have been a beech/stone marten? Here in the Netherlands at least they are infamous for chewing through car wires, so a combine is probably on the menu as well
Good round up, patience soon be harvesting
Wild carrot....in 🇨🇦 we have called it Queen Anne's lace....since I can remember....
With increased turbulence in world Geo-politics. It's absolutely mad the government is encouraging farmers to not grow food.
As a nation we need to be growing enough food to sustain ourselves. Maybe not for the globalised diet we've become accustomed to, but enough food so no one goes hungry if we don't import any food. Lofty ideals I know, but increases national security.
Definitely but around us acres of good arable land is going to disappear under solar panels. Complete madness, I understand the need for alternative energy but not in one of the most productive food growing areas of the country (Lincolnshire)
the bureaucray in farming to NOT produce food is unbelievable !
The tories started this mess and we all know labour will make it worse. Paying farmers not to produce food is absolute madness
Yep!
Ps New Zionism Was-Labour . . .
Very interesting and entertaining video, Harry.
Loving seeing all the borage crops around the country - does anyone know what it's used for? Is it profitable for farmers?
looks deadly that combine
Install ultrasonic emitters in the parts of the combine that get chewed. Run them off a battery maintainer. It's something I did for a friend's combine in the US, and he hasn't had any rodent damage in 15+ years.
@Simon_935I agree. Domestic units are pretty hopeless. You need a commercial spec emitter with a high output.
That borage looks amazing 👍
Nice to see something other than green for once. I prefer New Holland Equipment.