What late-night farming might be causing noise in Yorkshire?

[Birdscarer]

Hi all, hope this is the right place to post the question.

I've lived in Ryedale, N Yorks, for a bit over a year. I'm fairly severely affected by background noise, and am just rural and quiet enough for otherwise low sounds to be noticeable; motorbikes, distant roads, etc. From this month and around the same time last year I noticed a noise starting for some hours most nights, distant but penetrating. I first thought it was my boiler running unexpectedly, but it's something loud and further away - quite a high, constant whine, like a huge vacuum. It's not traffic, the local railway, or roadworks as far as I can tell. The area it's coming from is a large tract of fields, so I'm wondering if there's a specific thing farmers start doing around now at night that might cause it?

I want to stress this isn't a harangue at farmers or a veiled disturbance complaint. My thing is that once I know what's causing a noise it mainly stops bothering me, so my constantly-mowing neighbours and nearby farmer working in surrounding fields are fine. Countryside is surprisingly loud at times, but it's the right kind of loud - knowing that May is when everyone starts doing Farming Thing No.4 with big machinery would ease my mind a lot.

Thanks for any info you might have.

 

[simon-0116]

We have a local chilled food delivery van depo near by and you can hear the chillers / engines on Lorry units running all night. Some houses worse than others.

 

[ARW]

Are you near an indoor pig unit or poultry unit? Could be the blower fans?

 

[Slippery Slope]

Your description made me think of a self propelled forage harvester which is used to chop grass to be ensiled. It would correlate with the time of year and make the whining noise that you describe. They very often run late into the night but rarely throughout the night unless the weather is about to break. You would also hear it during daylight hours. The noise of the machine can be heard for miles!

 

[kfpben]

Your description made me think of a self propelled forage harvester which is used to chop grass to be ensiled. It would correlate with the time of year and make the whining noise that you describe. They very often run late into the night but rarely throughout the night unless the weather is about to break. You would also hear it during daylight hours. The noise of the machine can be heard for miles!

This. Sounds like a forage harvester.
Would ear plugs help?

 

[renewablejohn]

I would think its the guys doing the pelleted grass which I believe is in that area.

https://www.northerncropdriers.co.uk/

 

[Yorkshire lad]

I would think its the guys doing the pelleted grass which I believe is in that area.

https://www.northerncropdriers.co.uk/

I won’t be them they are 30 miles away from Ryedale
They are very near me

 

[Birdscarer]

Thanks all for the quick replies!

Your description made me think of a self propelled forage harvester which is used to chop grass to be ensiled. It would correlate with the time of year and make the whining noise that you describe. They very often run late into the night but rarely throughout the night unless the weather is about to break. You would also hear it during daylight hours. The noise of the machine can be heard for miles!

This sounds like the winner so far. Nights are quieter here so that's when it's more obvious, I've never noticed it during the day but it'd be absorbed in the noise of the near-ish A-road. I get to bed late so tend to hear it 8pm-2am or later. The machinery nearby in late summer was what made me suspect farming in the first place.

We have a local chilled food delivery van depo near by and you can hear the chillers / engines on Lorry units running all night. Some houses worse than others.

Are you near an indoor pig unit or poultry unit? Could be the blower fans?

It's not a local farm or depot and since it seems seasonal I didn't think it could be them. There's a big food industrial estate two miles away but it's not the right direction, and again I figured I'd hear it all year round.

Would ear plugs help?

They would, but it's not the noise so much as the association and not knowing the cause. If I disliked my neighbours their mowing and strimming would affect me, but I can place the source. It's an irrational reaction from living with loud London neighbours and not much I can do about it! Thanks though.

 

[Nearly]

Is it @Spud irrigating his spuds? Irrigating at night is more efficient for water use as there is less lost through evaporation.

 

[Tarw Coch]

If it’s through the night every night it’s unlikely to be a chopper. Chopping grass is predominantly a daytime job, going on after dark and certainly after midnight won’t be part of a regular routine allthough it can happen particularly if catching up after a breakdown or if the weather is going to break. It’s also highly unlikely you’ll hear it on a wet night.

 

[matthew]

If the noise is regular and annoying you, then on yer bike and go for a looksee.
It was whaat? No sh$t, Sherlock.

Then you can put your concerns to bed with the rest of you.

 

[Danllan]

Ferret planting...

 

[B R C]

Yes go and have a look, we all want to know now...

 

[Spud]

Is it @Spud irrigating his spuds? Irrigating at night is more efficient for water use as there is less lost through evaporation.

Not sure which bit of Ryedale you're speaking of, but I'd hazard a guess not far from Malton? It sounds very much like a silage gang, which are running around now - does the noise appear to move around each day?
We're not presently irrigating, but I'd doubt you'd hear the pump unless you were within a few hundred yards of it on a clear night.

 

[chaffcutter]

An engine-on irrigation pump would be very likely, local farms near us used to be moving round several reels and keeping them running through the night.

 

[spin cycle]

Is it @Spud irrigating his spuds? Irrigating at night is more efficient for water use as there is less lost through evaporation.

sounds like irrigation pump to me

 

[Spud]

An engine-on irrigation pump would be very likely, local farms near us used to be moving round several reels and keeping them running through the night.

It does sound like it, but there's no irrigation happening round here just yet, turf and carrot boys will be on, but they're nearer York

 

[Exfarmer]

Remember sounds travel further at night and with less background noise the ears are more sensitive.
It could well be an irrigation pump, 50 acres of potatoes need watering virtually continuously if just one irrigator is running, ( one inch per week irrigator doing average 7 acres night time only)

 

[puppet]

I can hear a background noise which is my fridge. If you can tolerate noise once you know the reason why not move nearer a road or town then all these intermittent noises will just merge.

 

[renewablejohn]

I won’t be them they are 30 miles away from Ryedale
They are very near me

Surprising how far sound travels when its quiet. I can hear the steam train in Bury and thats miles away from me.