How harvest works

[@eggy900]

Hi Oli. Thanks for your excellent videos, we’ve recently moved to the edge of a Staffordshire village with maize growing behind us and pastures in front. Your channel is giving us a lot of insight into the hows, the whys and the history of the countryside around us

[@greatpowerpolitics6023]

Absolutely love your content! I love the blends of actuality, history, notes, and in other videos, more societal and national themes. Sometimes the more indepth videos can be hard to follow due to the constant drum of language and information but that's probably me being distracted. Love your work, as I find in the modern day farming is often forgotten, keep going mate

[@FriscoDojenia]

I’ve been loving your videos man! The algorithm made me stumble upon your channel a couple days ago and I love how you present the history of farming, rural living, and agriculture. I might be a yank but I’m sure there are many similarities between the rural communities of the UK and US. Maybe you could expand into farming practices and rural living in other parts of the world later down the line (before the government for inexplicable reasons decides to tear it down and build a new railway).

[@mydogbullwinkle]

The Claas is such a cool looking tractor. I love their brand livery. I bought a little SIKU die-cast model Axion 950 on a recent trip to Germany as a desk ornament.

[@paulthompson8467]

Fine video Ollie keep up the good work 👍

[@fandangofonteinskalita1333]

Such an amazing channel, keep it up, Ollie!

[@peterfoster8004]

What super measured view of modern agriculture.

[@LudvigIndestrucable]

I would have been interested to hear a bit more explanation of the differences between historical and current practices after harvest. I'm assuming the issues of grain drying and mustiness are a result of the combine harvester removing the sheafing and threshing drying stages?

[@jamesthomas4841]

" hedges are not wildlife corridors" They are. Just because we can observe the tracks of some larger creatures crossing the fields doesn't mean that others do not move along the cover provided by hedges. All those small rodents being predated by Kites will be a lot safer from them in the hedge. Wildlife also includes invertebrates and flora which certainly do spread along the corridors provided by hedges.

[@KC_G4S]

Yea this is just established fact on animal behavior for hedges near farms across the world. Animals do cross fields, farms or otherwise, but they know tree lines and hedge rows provide the most cover and so if they are carrying young or suspect a predator is nearby, will instead travel close to cover.

[@nicks4934]

Why do you trim hedges in the summer and not the spring? Berries would be available for birds?

[@waelisc]

there's a law against trimming hedges march-august

[@spencersanderson1894]

Yeah, you’re not allowed to cut hedges in nesting season. Unless you have permission. Hedges usually get cut in autumn, or from August onwards like matey above me said. That does cut off most of the berries though so you’re right. I think it should be done in very early spring when most of the berries are gone and the birds are starting to change their diets.

[@waelisc]

According to British Trust for Ornithology data, despite the red kite's exponential recovery, the 4.4k breeding population is dwarfed 15:1 by buzzards and 12:1 by tawny owls - that's 63k buzzards vs 4.4k kites 🤯 Even though barn and little owls have similarly small populations (4k and 3.6k), red kites' exponential growth is not reflected in the linear decrease of little owls and the *increase* in barn own numbers to a peak of ~6k before stabilising at the current 4k around 2012, still 3x the 90s population, at the time kites were reintroduced. I think red kites' are basically victims of an inflated media profile and the data simply doesn't suggest they're damaging or out-competing. The BTO also discuss a lot of European studies on these bird populations, which would probably make for interesting reading.

[@waelisc]

BTO sources: Breeding Birds Survey data.bto.org/trends_explorer/?species=Barn+Owl Bird facts database www.bto.org/understanding-birds/welcome-birdfacts

[@keithgubbin2354]

Hare nest- 'form'

[@aaronswanson6719]

Great video. Watching this and other KZbin farmers, I’ve been wondering why British farmers store their grain in long sheds having to use pushers versus using tall steel bins with augers or conveyors like we do in America?

[@farmingexplained]

Great question, I have no idea. You do get some grain silos dotted around but they're relatively rare over here. Thanks for watching!

[@willbass2869]

​@@farmingexplainedin the US/Canada the steel grain BIN is almost exclusively for on farm storage. SILOs are the multi story concrete behemoths you see near rail lines/ports. The complex of dryers, silos, conveyors, scales etc is often just referred to as "the elevator" in everyday vernacular. Many on farm bins have a floor system that allows for propane heated forced air to pass through and dry down the grain. Farmers can then store some or all of the crop until following spring/summer and capture the higher $/bushel. Some guys just don't have the capital or infrastructure for bins with forced air so they end up simply driving directly from the field to "the elevator". A sample is pulled from the truck to measure moisture & protein. You can retain ownership and pay drying/storage costs or simply sell direct.

[@KC_G4S]

I watched Clarkson’s Farm and some of your points in other videos really remind me of the takeaways in that show. What are your thoughts on it? It would be interesting to hear a British farmer’s take on it. Cheers from the US!

[@pdsnpsnldlqnop3330]

Can you do another episode with the history of wheat? In WW2 times we ate Canadian wheat and that is still preferred for home bread baking but British wheat works fine nowadays. What changed? Can you also do that zooming down the road in the different vehicles 'car reviewer' style? 0 to 62 times, make it 0 to 60 kmh, if you can get that fast. Cup holders, USB-C sockets, lumbar support, isofix mountings, braking distances, mpg, red versus normal diesel cost and acquisition, potholes and suspension, depreciation and insurance - all that jazz. Do your best Mat Watson impression with 'stick of truth' and those sorts of in jokes for the motorist. I am sure you could grow the channel with such a review.

[@Epidian]

Nitrogen/protein/gluten content was what changed.

[@rongo6690]

Hi! firstly, thank you for your videos and the levels of research you put into them. They are very well presented and have become a great, accessible, educational resource for UK agricultural history and current practice. I had always considered the recent surge in populations of birds of prey a good thing; demonstrating each level of the ecosystem below them to be in good health and well populated. And assumed that population levels respond cyclically to the populations above and below them in the food chain. I had not considered effect on “competing” predators such as owls. How would this have worked historically? Would it be that nocturnal predators are disadvantaged to a greater extent by things like light pollution?

[@farmingexplained]

Good question - although the kite population has definitely boomed and owl populations have declined around my area in the past couple years I will do more research on this. We'll look at a cultural history of the kite because they were hunted to extinction on purpose and thus for a reason (same with beavers), so it will be interesting to see why our ancestors disliked them so much!

[@yevsey169]

Do graineries never get used in the old world? I'm completely baffled to just see wheat dumped into a shed. I do like the adhoc drying fans though.

[@keeksputels1851]

In my view red kites are only an issue now because the farming is done so fast. Cutting silage or harvesting wheat is so so fast compared to in the past, any small creatures that get exposed have no time to take cover. So they are soon spotted by birds, and then it becomes habitual to them. As they are daytime hunters/scavangers, perhaps it would be better to harvest at nighttime to give the little creatures a better chance to escape. But that would be a hard sell to the farmers and their neighbours

[@MrGofarkyself]

I know the ignominy of driving the chaser bin and being shouted at over the radio by 2 or three combine drivers at a time. Good fun for 18 hour shifts.

[@philipdetombe7054]

Why don't you store your grain in a silo? While I'm from a Midwestern American city I still remember the silos popping up as soon as you drove into farmland but I've never heard of grain stored in a "shed"

[@willbass2869]

Here on the Texas coast, we receive masses of migratory "mourning dove". They start moving down from as far away as Kansas. They follow the harvest, in reverse. Sept. 1 is first day of dove season in my area.....it sounds like a war zone with all the hunters. We also get plenty of hawks, they move in as things up north freeze. I've seen them lined up on utility lines bordering fields, sometimes a dozen or more. They scan the field being combined and swoop in on various voles, field mice, rabbits being flushed. Last, we get hundreds of thousands (millions) of geese, mostly snow geese & "speckled bellies". The rice farmers will often flood a harvested field for them and lease the land to hunters. BIG money maker! They probably make more money from hunting revenue than the crop.

[@malkomalkavian]

Will the kite population not just crash and balance out?

[@waelisc]

If the red kites are outcompeting other species, then those other species' populations will crash first, then the red kites last. That means the crash in the outcompeted populations will be longer and deeper. Since population grows exponentially, the remaining small population of outcompeted species would recover slower than the larger remaining population of red kites. In that specific scenario, perhaps the outcompeted species would never properly recover.

[@Equiluxe1]

I had a Yorkie cross dog attacked by a red kite here in Norfolk, walking around the hedgerow of a stubble field I was watching some hares when the corgi cross I also had on the lead jerked away and as I looked up I noticed that he had made a grab at the kite that tried to attack the other dog neither the dog or kite got caught but it was pretty close for both. The combines on the Raynham estate which are my neighbours are so big that that the reels on the headers are in two sections, I think total width is 36 feet or more, when they travel between fields on the roads they often have a wheel on both verges at the same time, the holiday cyclists get annoyed because the combines wont pull over to let them continue cycling, trouble is there is no room for them to pull over as there are ditches and hedges along with embankments preventing this so the cyclists have to get out of the way.

[@piggyman1585]

♥️🇬🇧

[@noahh-7355]

I’m planning on setting up a society in Cambridge for a new political party and would love to discuss how to address farming with you. Is there any way I can contact you with more details?

[@farmingexplained]

[e-mail] - I thought this was in the channel description but apparently not!

[@karlslicher8520]

Time to restore some Eurasian Lynx then install some cameras and plan how to spend the real KZbin mega bucks.

[@Epidian]

Decimation isn't so bad, it's only 10%. Or does Ollie actually mean devastation?

[@pepsimaxaddict02]

Are you allowed to do anything to curb the number of birds? Is that something you would even consider? Great video!

[@keithgubbin2354]

What do Budweiser and sex in a canoe have in common? They are both f*** ing close to water!

[@SebNutter]

Why do you say 'too many' kites and buzzards? That is rather arbitrary. Do you have proof to say they have 'decimated' what they prey on and outperform other species such as owls? I love your videos and your analysis but some of it seems lacking in factual basis in a bid to reinforce your own predetermined ideas. The reason red kites became extinct in England was down to persecution, hunting and poisoning (according to the RSPB which I am aware has its own agenda that is to protect birds). Now they are a protected species and efforts have been made to ensure they can breed safely they have reestablished themselves.

[@FLopesVieira]

Monocultures can be a dead zone. I depends on the "crop" for example if you have a forest of the same wood tree the forest will be empty. No birds no foxes or rabbits at least in my country.

[@hmhmoinsdk]

in the end the population of prey and predator will come to an equilibrium - i don't think red kites are a problem in that regard - they also shouldn't be that much of an issue for owls - owls hunt at night and red kites during the day - so they fill different niches yes there are more kites now than in the past - yes that makes total availability of prey for other birds a bit less - but in total it doesn't decrease the number of prey - it should shakes up the distribution a bit i dont see why having some owls + kites is worse than having lots of owls and no kites

[@waelisc]

hypothetically, if kites and owls are preying on the same population, then they share the same niche - more prey taken by one leaves less for the other, no matter when the hunting occurs. I've looked into some population stats though from the British Trust for Ornithology and there's no obvious correlation between different raptor and owl populations, so there are clearly many factors at play

[@hmhmoinsdk]

@@waelisc no that just means they are competing for one particular resource - a nieche is the total of all needs a species has regarding its surrounding

[@waelisc]

@@hmhmoinsdk that's alright then, they can just go hungry 😂

[@hmhmoinsdk]

​@@waelisc that's not how biology works - if having competion was a reason for one species to go extinct, all forests would only have one kind of tree since they all compete not just for water but also nutrients and sunlight. Barn Owls in the UK actually are itself an example of wildlife protection : in the 90s there were only roughly 4000 Breeding pairs in the UK in the 2000s there were more than 10000 and in 2015 they were moved to the greenlist red kites were reintroduced in England in 1990(!) therefore despite the redkite being reintroduced, the barn owl population more than doubled ...

[@waelisc]

@@hmhmoinsdk if you look at my other comment on this video from earlier today, I've already outlined the BTO statistics around farmland birds of prey, including kites and barn owls, and made the argument kites are not a current problem 🤔 As for your point about niches and outcompeting, a) trees do compete with other flora for light, which is a key part of woodland management and b) look up the "principle of competitive exclusion", when you find the time