Instagram is a secret vice of mine. I post a few photos now and then, but use it primarily to follow people I'm interested in. And that includes a number of farmers in the UK.
Why the UK? Well, I'm an aging Iowa farm boy, so know a little about farming operations here. Learning a little about farming in a place I don't know interests me --- and English is the only language I'm fluent in. That makes the UK a logical choice.
I like to get up in the morning --- well into the day there --- and see what's been happening down on various farms over there, courtesy of farmers who share their stories on Instagram.
By far the largest farming operation I tune in on is operated by Ed Horton in the Cotswolds, near Cirencester, Gloustershire, in partnership with his father. This is a mixed grain and livestock operation of some 7,000 acres; the field crops mixed cereals --- barley, wheat, rye, oats, spelt; the livestock, shorthorn cattle and sheep.
This morning as the sun was rising, the wheat harvest was completed at Poulton Fields Farm (the image here, shared a few days ago, actually is of the barley harvest).
For the first time in anyone's memory, because of recent extreme heat and drought in the UK, the wheat was combined before dawn to take advantage of overnight dew that dampened it. The usual problem is too much moisture and worries that the crop might not be dry enough.
Heat and drought have plagued most of the UK farmers I follow as well as my Instagram "friends" in France this summer. So we're not alone here in hot and dry southern Iowa. And that, along with all the other implications of climate change, is worrying.
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