Tipping seed

The bagged seed needs to be carefully tipped into trays

With the sun shining, lifting seed is starting to gather pace across the island, but that is only half the story.

Once bagged up and on pallets, all of the seed is taken back to various sheds around the island to be tipped.

The pallets are unloaded into sheds, and each sack is then carefully tipped into wooden trays for storage over the summer.

The wooden trays are stacked on pallets and each pallet is labelled to record the field that it came from, the date of harvest and the strain of seed on the pallet.

The pallets are then stacked in the sheds, and fans are used to ensure that there is good air circulation.

The seed will stay like this until it is taken out of store again from early to mid October to be stood. This is the process when the apical dominant shoot is removed, and the seed is graded into different sizes and 'stood'; an operation that continues from then until February.