Topic: how farmers do things

[Chrispy]

Where or what in does the rape seed harvest end up.

Anything that contains vegable oil, you can buy it, find it next to the sunflower oil in the supermarket.
If you have a diesel car, then a little goes in the tank and probably in animal feed as well.

[Kea]

To me it's a useless crop (OSR) I do all I can to avoid it because I can tell when it flowers without even seeing it and I have to avoid food it's added to because it makes me ill.

[tomatoada]

Thanks for the reply.  I don't think I buy anything with it in.    I use lard for frying and only butter for other things even cakes.   Olive oil for other things.
I too get a sore throat when it is in bloom.

[Geoff H]

I dont know whether OSR has caused a rise in flea beetle - aren't they a pain everywhere? They do increase the pollen beetles which is tough if you grow sweet peas. As a former teacher I had to abandon a yellow painted classroom because the pollen beetles went for the yellow walls and then made myself and the kids start itching.....and I had been telling them off for fidgeting!
They also increase the number of cabbage root flies. Round here if you don't protect summer brassicas with collars the entire crop will keel over.
For a beekeeper it is a mixed blessing. It does produce a lot of nectar but the honey has to be taken off the hive quickly and spun out of the comb otherwise it sets like concrete. It then has to have special treatment to break up the granules and produce creamed honey.
The bees will ignore other sources if OSR is around so tough if you want your fruit trees  pollinating. At one location I keep bees there is a wood full of bluebells in spring. However sometimes local farmers put OSR as a break crop. If they do it next year then it will be no woodland honey.

[tonybloke]

how many hives have you got? (I got a couple)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I have four, plus two empties. We need to increase the profile of beekeeping here!

[saddad]

I'm all for that... don't keep them myself. Perhaps a sub-thread like Chillies in edibles?  :-\

[tonybloke]

yes david, that would be a good idea, a sub-thread in 'kept animals' (even though they are insects)

[sarah]

I think a bee keeping thread would be a great idea too.  Maybe you should mention it to the new mods.

[gardentg44]

[why do they spray it to kill it? don't they just cut it?
didn't realise how much i didn't know about rape!]

They spray it with a systemic weed killer such as roundup or hoedown,
which kills off the rape, and speeds up the drying prosess.
They then harvest the pods only.
the rest is usless and will not rot down therefore must be burnt.

[tonybloke]

[why do they spray it to kill it? don't they just cut it?
didn't realise how much i didn't know about rape!]

They spray it with a systemic weed killer such as roundup or hoedown,
which kills off the rape, and speeds up the drying prosess.
They then harvest the pods only.
the rest is usless and will not rot down therefore must be burnt.

farmers plough the stems in, they ain't allowed to burn stuff any more!! ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Problem is, straw etc sits in the fields a while before it's ploughed in. Meanwhile, it rots, often by fungal decay. If you kick a heap of dry, rotten straw or hay it releases a great cloud of fungal spores. These cause asthma. We had an expert on pollination speaking to our local Beekeepers' Association the other week, and he had been involved in identifying the specific pollens causing hay fever. He worked with people doing similar stuff with spores, so I asked him about the increase in asthma since I was at school. They're suggesting that a lot of it is due to rotting straw in the autumn filling the air with spores.

[gardentg44]

[why do they spray it to kill it? don't they just cut it?
didn't realise how much i didn't know about rape!]

They spray it with a systemic weed killer such as roundup or hoedown,
which kills off the rape, and speeds up the drying prosess.
They then harvest the pods only.
the rest is usless and will not rot down therefore must be burnt.

[farmers plough the stems in, they ain't allowed to burn stuff any more!! ;)

]

in theory but not in practice

[tonybloke]

[why do they spray it to kill it? don't they just cut it?
didn't realise how much i didn't know about rape!]

They spray it with a systemic weed killer such as roundup or hoedown,
which kills off the rape, and speeds up the drying prosess.
They then harvest the pods only.
the rest is usless and will not rot down therefore must be burnt.

[farmers plough the stems in, they ain't allowed to burn stuff any more!! ;)

]

in theory but not in practice

have you seen farmers burning stubble?

[OllieC]

[why do they spray it to kill it? don't they just cut it?
didn't realise how much i didn't know about rape!]

They spray it with a systemic weed killer such as roundup or hoedown,
which kills off the rape, and speeds up the drying prosess.
They then harvest the pods only.
the rest is usless and will not rot down therefore must be burnt.

[farmers plough the stems in, they ain't allowed to burn stuff any more!! ;)

]

in theory but not in practice

have you seen farmers burning stubble?

Not since I was a kid, no...

[SamLouise]

Unfortunately, us new moddlies don't have the authority to create a new board or sub-board so I can't help out there.  The only thing I can do is create a sticky topic of bee keeping in the wildlife (or relevant) section but I'm not sure if that's any good?

:)

[Geoff H]

how many hives have you got? (I got a couple)

I have 5 but one will die out. i have 4 strong colonies going into the winter. The 5th was given to me and was a mongrel race. i think they were British black bees/Pit Bull. They were ferocious and i decided to find the unmarked queen and requeen which was difficult as they used to go up my cuffs into my veil. One day they swarmed and after my initial shock I thought "good riddance" as they headed for the woods.
I checked for queen cells and ordered a new queen, but they killed her. I did not want the offspring of that hive and I was not going to risk my other queens by combining so I am letting them die out.
I lost my original colony last winter. I bought two in June, collected a small swarm and have built up a very small cast that just turned up in my garden. So they have eaten a lot of sugar but not much honey yet.

I have two carniolan hives at home cause they are nice and I can garden round them. I have two black bee colonies that I have on a farm --too defensive for home.
On my allotment i want to get some Italians cause they are gentle. I don't have to worry about neighbours but i need bees that I can garden around. I plan to use frames of my Carniolans and buy in the queens.
We need a thread on bees and allotments. it got quite heated on a beekeeping forum.

[tonybloke]

i have asked for a beekeping thread on the 'website suggestions', and I think we may get a 'sticky thread' on the 'kept animals' section. :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Those sound like hybrids, Tony. Reasonably pure native bees are known for gentleness (one reason why I keep them), but crossed with Italians or Carniolans, you can get some ferocious colonies. They can easily look black, as that's the way natural selection pushes bees in our climate, but that doesn't mean very much.

[gardentg44]

[why do they spray it to kill it? don't they just cut it?
didn't realise how much i didn't know about rape!]

They spray it with a systemic weed killer such as roundup or hoedown,
which kills off the rape, and speeds up the drying proses.
They then harvest the pods only.
the rest is usless and will not rot down therefore must be burnt.

[farmers plough the stems in, they ain't allowed to burn stuff any more!! ;)

]

in theory but not in practice

[have you seen farmers burning stubble?]

yes tony bloke a have.

these stems don't rot for years so up in smoke they go .

they also blame it on the youths ov to day which is the easiest option.

poor farmers. 

so many thousand pounds for [waterlogged setaside]  so much for water logged corn
drowned potatoes.  all subsidised