Plot

After months of hard work Clarkson's farm arrives at a make or break moment; harvest time. Off to a rocky start, Clarkson must find a vital piece of equipment and fit four days of work into 24 hours, to harvest hundreds of acres of crops.

After months of hard work Clarkson's farm arrives at a make or break moment; harvest time.

Jeremy has a busy day at the farm starting at 6 30 am. Lets the hens out of their houses, feeds the fish, cooks a sauce for the shop, mows the wildflowers, mends a fence, picks from vegetables for the shop, takes the vegetables to the shop and throws out stuff that has gone bad (which didn't sell), goes to check on the bees, sheep and the lambs. Big job of the day is to clear the hay and the sheep feces out of the barn. Meanwhile the tractor has to be prepared with a plow to clear the barn (Kaleb isn't happy as he has to get the plow out of the shed with his smaller tractor to fit onto the bigger tractor) and the sheep have escaped and are out on the road. As Jeremy rushes out, he discovers that the sheep haven't escaped. Meanwhile the big tractor is way too big for the barn as well and wont fit it. SO, Jeremy uses Lisa's smaller tractor to clear the barn. Then fish feeding and collecting the eggs.

The rape is ready for harvesting with 8% moisture. But Jeremy cant get a combine harvester for hire (he didn't buy one as it costs 0.25 MM pounds).. and every other local farmer in the area has already hired the harvesters for their farms. Kaleb is lucky to procure a harvester from his friend Simon, who has just finished harvesting his field. A wet front is moving in and Jeremy gets 2 days to harvest his field. Jeremy and hook the combine harvester and get into the fields. Simon is driving the combine. When the combine is full, Kaleb maneuvers the lorry into position and the first lot of oil-seed rape is out. Jeremy is next, while Kaleb goes to unload his trailer in the barn.. Jeremy cant sync his driving with the combine and as a result some of the oil-seed spills out to the ground.. Jeremy rushes back to the barn to unload his cargo, but takes 6 attempts to back up the trailer into the barn. if Jeremy gets a good crop. it would be worth 23500 pounds. The team is doing 10 acres an hour. But the yield from the field is one tonne per acre (expected yield is 1.5 tonnes per acre). The team works through the night to harvest the oil-seeds.

The next morning, the sky is overcast and the moisture is at 10% (it needs to be between 6 and 9 % for harvesting). So the team decides to harvest the barley instead, which is at the right moisture level. They start, but Jeremy realizes that there is no place to put the barley. Jeremy has to sell the barley asap as it will rot if it rains. he starts calling the grain merchants. He finally manages to get a lorry after a few calls. But soon he realizes that one lorry can only take 2 trailers of grain. Jeremy needed 20 lorries. its Saturday evening now and they wont get more lorries till Monday. Work has to stop.

Meanwhile, Jeremy decides to sell the lambs. Then as the weather clears, Jeremy resumes the harvesting and sells his grain to a merchant. Wheat was still left. The wheat is still moist and needs another week before harvesting. One of the rams dies from a twisted intestine. Soon the wheat was good for harvesting. With wheat the quality of the grain determines the price. Gerald replaces Simon in the combine harvester. Jeremy could understand Simon perfectly, but could never understand a word Gerald said.. And the trailer and the combine need to be in sync for the transfer of grain to take place. Predictably things go wrong. By Aug, the harvesting of 546 acres is complete. Jeremy takes a wheat sample for testing. Good wheat sells for 185 pounds per tonne, avg wheat sells for 150 pounds per tonne. The protein content is 13.5%, which is the top of the line for wheat. He is offered 185 pounds/tonne for it.

Jeremy's spring bottle water fails some tests and have to be removed from the shelves. But the rest of the shop does well. It sells the oil from the rape seeds and the lambs chops from the farm. Charlie does the 1st yr numbers. 137K pounds from crop sales (90K pounds down from previous yr). this resulted in 144 pounds of profit after deducting all operating costs + seeds, fertilizers and sprays. Even with the govt grants, Jeremy would have been better off selling it off, and living off the interest. Kaleb wants Jeremy to give up farming. Jeremy decides to give it another yr.