It seems to be an early 'harvest home' this year, or perhaps it's just the effect of the lockdown, but the large wheels of baled straw seem to have arrived much earlier than normal. Either way they appeared quickly enough and they'll be gone quickly enough to the stockyard for animal bedding for the next year.
On Thursday afternoon the field was forty acres of wheat and by midday Friday it looked like this, now, on Saturday evening they've all transported to the huge stacks in the stockyard for bedding. In the spring it'll all be transported to a large local potato farming operation for soil improvement. Back to the earth if you like, nothing is allowed to go to waste.
A few of the wheels get left behind and I use them as target backstops and vantage points. The Terriers pee on them and I zero the telescopic sight using the safe backstop of the metre and a half thickness of tightly packed straw to stop the round, on that basis full use is made of the straw. When we get some rain and the ground has softened a little the ploughs, harrows and cultivators will be on the land and that means the beginning of autumn is here.