Cambridgeshire farmer Anne-Marie Hamilton talks about crops

With combines working all round us, an intense discussion took place late on the Wednesday afternoon (July 17), about how soon it would be before the oil seed rape at Wood Farm would be ready.

Finally, someone had a bright idea – and went to have a look at the crop! There was instant panic as, despite the long-drawn-out cold and wet spring and summer, the crop was fully ripe and more than ready to cut. 

Half an hour later, the combine rolled into the field and harvest 2024 officially begun.   

It was quite a sight as the combine that arrived this year, care of our business partner, cuts a swathe through the crop that is forty feet wide each time it travels across the field.  It then feeds the whole dried plants into the combine to thresh out the seeds, pushing the empty straw out the back of the machine and onto the floor. 

With the capability of harvesting fifteen acres an hour, our oilseed rape harvest this year was, unbelievably, completed in just over 8 hours. 

As he watched it work its way across our fields, our business partner’s son summed up everyone’s thoughts by declaring the combine, “A beast!” 

He wasn’t far wrong as when we began farming many years ago, it would have taken us a couple of weeks to achieve a similar result with our old combine, which could only cut a maximum 12 feet of crop at a time with each pass up the field. 

Whilst the oil seed rape is now safely in the barn, I wonder who will be rushing to combine our winter wheat? 

Rob and I did a tour of the farm this evening to look at the remaining crops – and found that, apparently, we have now done the fashionable thing and diversified. 

Anne-Marie stumbled across this sign on her farm. (Image: Anne-Marie Hamilton)

If the sign that we found on the edge of the field is correct, we appear to be farming sharks, as we could clearly see a couple of them basking in the middle of our winter wheat crop! 

How they managed to arrive on a farm that is so far from the sea remains a total mystery.  I don’t suppose that it would have anything to do with the fact that our younger son, who is a bit of a practical joker, has been to stay this weekend – would it?