Seed harvest and tipping

Seed harvest is the start of next year's crop. It is a huge operation to get all of the seed lifted and safely tipped and stored in sheds around the Island.

This year's seed harvest was always planned to be dug in August and September, due to delays in planting earlier in the year.

Digging is currently going very well following some rain that has really sunk in, and loosened the ground.

Workers remove as much clod as possible on the back of the harvester. This year for the first time, and following successful trials in 2017, all of the seed is being dug into bulk bins as opposed to sacks.

The seed is taken back to one of the sheds around the island and then tipped into a specially designed hopper before being tipped into trays.

The trays are all stacked in the sheds.

The seed will be stored until late October, by which time it will have produced its first shoot.

The 'apical dominant' (first) shoot is removed as all of the seed is hand-graded by size into separate trays and then stored over the winter for planting from the start of January 2019.