Weather permitting, we are going to be starting harvest at Swangleys later this week. This year the entire agricultural part of the farm is dedicated to growing beans, which have now wilted off and reached the dryness needed for harvest. The remainder of the farm is used for environmental stewardship initiatives that you might have noticed in the fields locally.
Harvest is THE crucial moment in the calendar for us as a farm business and is when our entire year’s labour and investment in the land is finally converted into a saleable product. It’s also a major operational challenge and involves coordinating the arrival and assembly of multiple combine harvesters plus articulated grain trucks, tractor pulled grain wagons and all the people, fuel , spares and other resources needed to get the entire farm harvested in just a few days. All of this activity is carried out by external farm contractors and 2024 will be the first harvest at Swangleys by our new contractors – who began work for us in autumn 2023. Although relatively new to Swangleys, they are extremely experienced and competent.
So, please bear with us while this job is done – there will be a short term spike in the number of large vehicle movements around Knebworth, Woolmer Green and Datchworth, along with dust and noise from fields while they complete this essential and urgent task.