Step 1. Mow

Got a real treat for you over the next few days ….

 Last Friday we were involved in a bit of film making. Vince Bucello from Midstate Video Productions spent the day on farm filming for a documentary on agriculture in Australia.

Vince has kindly allowed me share some stills taken from his drone.

It gives a whole new perspective of farming,
in particular the process of making oaten hay.

Mowing oats.

This paddock is sown in bays for surface irrigation. The mower is mowing one bay only, just for the camera and has almost completed the job. The rest of the paddock is to be harvested for seed. Our oaten hay is normally made on dryland country i.e. non-irrigated, with our irrigation reserved for the production of seed or grain and lucerne (alfalfa) hay.

To the left of the mower parts of the crop have gone down (lain over) due to the weight of the heavy yields. Although the crop has gone down the plants will continue to grow, the seeds ripen.

 Farm-ily Oct 23 shows how high this crop is.

The little patchwork squares above where the mower is are the trial plots of oat varieties Farm-ily Oct 13.