UK Agriculture four seasons
Month - September
September
As the days shorten, both the quality and growth rate of forage declines. Farmers often choose to provide their livestock with supplementary feeds to help maintain growth rates or milk production. One popular feed is brewers grains, a by-product of beer production which makes an excellent supplement in beef and dairy feed rations.
September
September is the time of the autumn equinox, a period usually characterised by mild but wet and windy weather. Conditions can change quickly and so farmers will be watchful of their stock, particularly to ensure that they do not begin to poach productive grassland. Larger animals like beef or dairy cows cause much more poaching damage than their youngstock or sheep.
September
Forage maize is widely grown for feeding to beef and dairy cattle. Normally it is cut with a specialised forage harvester, ensiled and fed through the winter months. It tends to produce a good quality silage that is consitent in quality. It is a popular feed with cattle themselves.
September
A young piglet a few days after birth. Pigs are not seasonal breeders and so will breed at any stage of the year. This allows farmers to manage the breeding pattern of the herd so that the herd output is reasonably constant throughout the year.
September
Lambs that were born earlier in the year are now drafted for sale for meat. Lambs that are not yet "fit" become store lambs that are fed on over the winter months reaching the market at any time up to the following Easter. For the early autumn months store lambs remain on grass, but later they will move on to forage crops like stubble turnips.
September
Stooks of wheat with sunflowers in the distance. With modern combine harvesters most wheat straw is chopped and spread, to be incorporated back into the soil. Nowadays the only straw that is bound in stooks will be the straw of old fashioned varieties that is destined for thatching.
September
Throughout most of the UK harvest will be largely complete with the grain in store. However, some crops remain in the field, typically linseed, spring oilseed rape, spring beans and sometimes, after a wet August, wheat. As the nights begin to draw in, dew prevents combining and progress with any remaining harvesting, slows.
September
By the middle of Septmeber ploughing is fully underway as the ground is prepared for autumn sown crops. Although ploughing is a traditional cultivation that has been practised for many millenia, it is now common for farmers to undertake "minimal tillage" cultivations. These tend to cultivate only the top couple of inches of soil, rather than inverting 9 inches or so, as is the case with ploughing.
September
Winter oil seed rape is usually sown in late August and shortly after sowing will receive a pre-emergence herbicide. This will help to control grass and broadleaved weeds that readily germinate in the early autumn conditions.
September
Sugar beet is an important crop in the East Anglia region. The crop provides around 50% of the UK's sugar needs, the balance coming from overseas sugar cane. However, recent reform of the EC Sugar Regime has reduced support for the beet crop and imports of cane are expected to rise in the coming years.
September
Beans are fresh in season along with many other vegetables and lots of fruit. Fresh seasonal produce always taste great and if you have bought it from a local producer you will have the added satisfaction of knowing that the "food miles" will be low.
September
Locally grown tomatoes are fully available throughout September and the early autumn. If the grower has heated glasshouses the production season may be extended until the end of the year.
September
A prime cut of local beef makes an excellent BBQ meat as the summer season draws to an end. Don't forget to buy local charcoal - it burns hotter than anything else and comes from woodland that is coppiced - a completely sustainable resource.
September
Ink caps in grassland. Many toadstools appear overnight in damp autumn conditions shedding millions of spores. While toadstools tend to disappear with the first frosts, fungi continue to break down organic matter returning nutrients to the soil.
September
Kindling wood prepared for the onset of colder weather. Sustainable produce like this has, until recently, been relatively expensive by comparison with fossil fuels. Now with increased fuel prices and a greater awareness about global warming, timber is returning to prominence as a fuel source.