The modern harvest is upon us.

It comes earlier than ever.

New breeds of wheat and barley ripen earlier and now July seems to be the main harvest month, rather than mid-August and into September, even October.

Timing however is not the only difference.

Rooted in my vocabulary is the word ‘stookin’.

This means the placing of sheaves into ‘stooks’.

Early in life I did this, not very effectively as the sheaves seemed bigger than me.

Seventy years ago corn was cut by a reaper-binder.

This was a simple machine which did exactly as the name suggests.

It cut the corn and tied it in sheaves which were placed in ‘stocks’ where it dried out.

At the end of the war, and during it, these ‘binders’ were pulled by horses or slow moving tractors.

It was not swiftly done.

One exciting time was as the reaping of a field moved into the final stages all rabbits who had moved to the centre of the field where there was still cover ran for the hedge grove.

The farmer would be waiting with his gun.

Most made it however.

It was fun watching.

Soon after the war ended a new exciting invention appeared in Cotswold fields.

It was a combine harvester.

This wonderful machine cut the corn and thrashed it at the same time.

The grain was deposited into a tractor pulled trailer and taken to the farm.

The straw was left for another new machine, the name of which was self-explanatory.

It was a baler.

You can see stacks of straw bales in fields today.

The first combiners were all red, moved slowly but did a job that meant the end of sheaves, stooks and stooking.

The harvests of the past meant one important factor.

Overtime! September meant back to school.

Never was overtime cash more welcome.

Uniform could be paid for.

Harvest happens so quickly these days that it can pass by unnoticed.

As one who staggered with sheaves at an early age I remain proud I played a small part in the crucial part of the countryside year.

Does this make me part of our proud agricultural history?