Northernlights

Lots more geese today.See quite a bit of fresh snow in Svalbard.Possibly a trigger for sending them south although a north wind this afternoon helps as well.Very changeble today blue skies one minute then very dark moody skies with showery rain as it is just now Definitely cooler at 9c

Another dreich damp day with drizzle and low cloud and currently 15c. More unseen gesse overhead today heading south probably not local as I thought yesterday as another farmer has heard and seen the same.He reckons they are two weeks early.Are they forecasting an early winter?

Very autumnal today with blustery showers not to cold at 15c maximum.A few geese flew over today probably ones that reside here all year but with the trees starting to take on their autumn colours its becoming seasonal very quickly. Fields too wet to take in any bales so greased tractor ,fed cattle and knapsnacked sprayed new seed size whin and broom bushes( a yearly task.) in the evening to save fences and having to chop them when they grow.

Very heavy rain here and cold at 9c. A real shock after the warmth of the last week.Glad we have secured harvest.

Very windy yesterday and we stayed mostly on the dry side of the dividing line between dry and wet.Gusts of wind were a bit of a nuisance as we baled another block of hay as the rows of hay were blown about but without the wind it would never have been dry enough to bale. The heat of the last weekend really made this late hay it is still a green colour. Seems we are on the line again today between wet and dry with a gusty wind overcast skies odd spits of rain and 20c

Its actually good to see a dampish morning to do paperwork as been manic on the farm making late very good hay,weaning cows and calves and loading grain. Currently overcast and 16c

Back to haymaking today after four week break currently sunny,sea breeze and 22c

Very windy with plenty of sunshine and a few passing drizzle showers in the morning.Fabulous drying day so in the afternoon we finished baling the straw (rows of straw being blown about in the wind ) and even baled some late hay. Best hay drying day of the summer in fact. So grain/straw harvest secured.Really felt like a traditional harvest day in September.

Harvest finished for 2019 after what has been a very challanging summer. Very breezy but mostly cloudy day helped to dry up the crop and the straw to get the last field and start baling the straw.

Fine bright breezy afternoon at 18c so back combining with 41 feet of cutting width on two combines making short work of another two fields. All stubbles green with meadow grass and in second photo barley undersown with grass and clover has overtaken the barley as it ripened and died back.

After a dry night we managed to start combining again in sun and wind but with one eye across the Firth watching the black rain clouds.Managed to stay dry till 4.00pm and completed another two fields.

Some rain overnight so thought very unlikely to get combining but a day of sunshine and strong wind allowed us to start late in the afternoon and complete a small field. So harvest 19 has started twelve days later than last year..Hope it stays dry overnight to get some more tomorrow as barley is now very ripe and fragile after all the wind and thunderstorms it has suffered.

Well high summer is over here as the swifts left yesterday after a fairly good breeding season with just four pairs arriving in the house and around 24 leaving. With the Nairn games on Saturday winter arrives on Sunday according to some of the locals a saying I have heard many times over the years. With the schools going back next week it just adds to the feeling that autumn is on its way..

Don"t ask that question in the middle of a bunch of farmers as you"ll get lynched. Just look at the pictures of flattened wheat in East Lothian on line.However we have just had two dry days in a row so we managed to wrap up another 170 round bales of dry grass. Yields are at an all time high and we have enough for almost two winters now. Grass yields are at an all time high this summer with ideal rain, heat, humidity and in my opinion high CO2 concentrations leading to excessive growth. Hoping forecast is right for weekend to allow harvest to start as barley severely brackled(broken over) and needs to be rescued now. Currently sunny, moderate west wind and 16c

The fact that its cooling off is a real relief for malting barley crops as any pregermination of the ripe grain means the grain is rejected outright and its value severely reduced.Brief dry period early afternoon but now light rain and cool at 11c. Really do need to see a good September to rescue this summer on the farm. Note its just above freezing on the summit of Cairngorm currently.

Highly unlikely but given all the rain and humidity the biggest problem is blight just because the farmers have not been able to spray them enough to keep it at bay.They are already burning them down and chopping the tops in my area leaving huge tracks as they do it.Very wet and 10c here

To make good hay or silage needs a 48hour drying weather window. Since mid May we have had just 4 X 48 hour windows and have been making hay or silage on every one of them .Yes we have had single dry days and thats enough to sow neeps or cut hay or silage but this summer in general has been fairly wet. On our heavier slighly clay soils a dry season has always been better for good results on the farm than a wet one and this in spite of being at the top of a hill whre the water drains away very quickly. From the above comments it can be seen that the summer here has been a pretty poor one and with the recent heavy rain even the spring barley has finally started to go flat making the harvest in the next few weeks a difficult one.

Family also know that I am approaching the time of year when I get P.H.T every time heavy rain or gales are forecast and the crop is getting very ripe. Note P.H.T. or pre harvest tension. Makes a grumpy old farmer even more grumpy

Did "nt make sense to me decades ago until my last old employee said heavy rain ripened the crop in spite of little sunshine.To explain this effect I quote the use of conditioners (plastic fingers )on modern mowers which bruise the grass and make it lose water or wilt much faster than normal thus speeding up silage and haymaking. Huge drops of rain do the same to crops by battering ,breaking over and bruising the stems in standing crops thus speeding up the ripening process .Crops today definitely much riper than three days ago. A gale can also have the same effect.

Got up the nerve to look round the spring barley fields after an afternoon at the Grantown Show. The torrential rain on Tuesday has brackled (broken over)a few areas but the main effect has been to bleach the crop speeding up the ripening process so we are looking at 10 days now instead of three weeks away. So you don"t need sunshine to ripen a crop continuous heavy rain will do the job.Seems there might be a window to do some second cut silage next Monday /Tuesday heres hoping. Currently dry broken cloud and 12c.

Valley gutters just inspected all clear so just the volume of water being the problem. And right on cue its raining again.

Have had a big problemwith diamond back moth caterpillars both in the field on the neeps and in the garden on the cauliflower.Was too late spotting damage in garden and they ate out the heads of the cauliflower. In the field we had to spray twice something I have never had to do in over 45 years of growing neeps. I believe they come from the continent if weather conditions are favourable and can smell a field of brasscas at a distance of 10 miles

Got all the buckets in place moved funiture and rescued small items from the side of house where leak is . Rain on radar is hopefully easing Wondering if bird or something has died and is blocking gutter will look tomorrow but rain was terribly heavy.Gutters are inspected twice a year spring and autumn and are swept out so it is not as if we do not do any maintenance I for one am convinced of climate change and this is just an example of it. These heavy rainfall events are becoming much more frequent. A bit late posted but we were very busy mopping up until about 2.00pm this morning. Thankfully rain eased.A lot of sheds have had water flowing into them. The volume of water was just too much for the drains and we are at the top of the hill so there must be some flooding issues lower down

FURTHER UPDATE Rain so heavy it has overflowed the valley gutters on the roof of the farmhouse and water is flowing into the house. Going to be a long night rescuing belongings.. The last time this happened was December 2010 when melting snow at Christmas could not get away due to all the ice in the gutters.

Just spent a humid evening putting small bales of hay away for the winter . Was dry above so could transfer them between sheds,.However torrential rain has started to fall in the last half hour. Currently 16c. Update Just had a big rumble of thunder to the west of me with still more torrential rain.