02 September 2013

Malt barley in Finland: harvesting tasks

Our friend Timo sent us some pictures and comments about his harvesting task from Finland.

As main product Timo is growing six-row malt barley. Instead of beer the malt product is used by bakeries and it must have high protein level (over 12 %) and germinability (over 95 %).

Barley is sowed at the beginning of May and thanks to long days in Finland it is ready for harvesting in the middle of August. In Finland autumns are rainy and grain can never be waited to be under 14 % humidity. So it has to be harvested with moisture of 17…25 % and dried by oil burner. About 10 liter oil is needed to dry 1,000 kg of barley. Timo has an old dryer with capacity of 150 hl and the drying takes half a day time. So more time is needed for drying than for harvesting.

Timo has a Finnish-made Sampo-Rosenlew 2045 combine harvester with 3.9 m cutting table. Market-share of Sampo-Rosenlew has long time been over 50 % in Finland. As a light weight harvester it is suitable in wet fields and it is easier to clean inside than other combines. In Finland all harvesting work is done in August and September and because of the rain it is often not possible to have more than 30 harvesting days/year. So it is not possible to harvest more than 300 ha/year with one harvester. Most harvesters are used only for 30…100 ha/year. So the machinery costs are high both in harvesting and drying.

This year Timo's crop was in average 6,500 kg/ha that is over his 8-year average of 6,300 kg/ha. In the whole Finland the average crop is under 4,000 kg/ha. Also the quality was good this year.

He has storage for the whole crop like most farmers have in Finland. The price is lower in the autumn when those farmers who don't have storage have to sell their crop.


 

Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland
Harvesting in Finland

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous3/9/13 12:10

    Muy buen reportaje, es muy curioso e interesante ver otras formas de trabajo que se dan el mundo.

    un saludo a todos los que haceis posible twins farm!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ¡¡Muchas gracias por tu comentario!!


      Saludos.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous3/9/13 22:19

    Hello Timo and Twins' Farm!!

    This post is different, and it is really grateful!!

    The colors of the pictures is not common for Spain.

    Thank you for your new post. We are looking forward more posts like this.

    Regards
    TRICAMA
    ______________________________________________________________

    ¿Qué tal todo Timo and Twins' Farm?

    Este post es diferente y es de agradecer. Es interesante ver esta variedad de publicaciones.


    Los colores de las fotos son diferentes a lo que estamos acostumabrados en España, por la luz, la vegetación...

    Muchas gracias por este post, esperamos que no sea el último

    Saludos
    TRICAMA

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi.
    Thanks for your comment!!

    We try to have a large variety of topics.

    Best regards.
    ----------------------------------
    Hola.
    Gracias por tu comentario.

    Intentamos tener una gran variedad de contenidos.

    Saludos.

    ReplyDelete