Canon Mc Bride visited the McKavanagh family Farm as they began to harvest this year’s Barley crop. It is a family affair for parishioners Vincent, Pat & Anne and grandsons Lorcan and baby Jack. This year’s harvest has been delayed by a month because of the poor summer weather so Pat and Vincent took advantage of the recent good spell to get the grain and straw indoors. The crop had not grown as well as in previous years and parts of the field were still wet. The impressive Combine Harvester cuts a 25 ft wide sward and separates the grain from the stalk. The grain is pumped immediately into a trailer and taken straight to the farmyard. The straw will be baled later and brought indoors.
As the harvester draws the Barley into the machine it monitors the moisture content of the grain which helps to determine whether a further drying process will be required. Harvesting on this scale doesn’t come cheap. The harvester alone costs in the region of £350k and yet, is only in use for about one month each year.
Both the Barley grain and the straw( the stalks) are used to feed the Cows on the family dairy farm. The Cows ultimately convert the feed into Milk. We thank God for the good weather and may God bless the hard work of all our farmers.
