Forty Years On

After a gap of forty years Strickley is growing oats. We've had the seed for a while now - all we've been waiting for is the right weather. After a spell of dry weather when we got some grass seeds in we had a couple of weeks when it seemed to rain almost every day. At last the clouds have cleared and for the past couple of days it's been dry, but very windy . But we've got the ploughing disced and levelled and instead of broadcasting the seed ourselves (who knows where the wind would blow it) have called in a contractor to drill it in. I haven't managed to take any photographs, but be assured, it's a more up to date setup than the one in this picture.
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Even with a precision drill it's not guaranteed that every seed will germinate and grow - we would hope for more than 25% success rate - but maybe it will be -

One for the Row

One for the Crow

One to Rot

And One to Grow

And if you want to join in with growing these seeds, then click here and sing along!

We won't be combining these oats - but they are being undersown with grass as I write this Blog, and will go for forage later in the year. Forty years ago the oats were combined and bagged for use on the farm - do you recognise anyone in this photo? Take note of the trendy hand-crocheted headband.