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 Farm News December 2011 |
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Looking back to June this year, harvest was looking to be a somewhat dismal affair. The prolonged dry spell throughout the spring was taking its toll on the crops and things were looking bleak. Wheat crops were starting to abort tillers (secondary shoots), the spring sown linseed had struggled to germinate without significant rain and although the winter beans had a good number of pods they were failing to produce any seeds. The oilseed rape was the only crop showing any signs of promise, despite having been constantly attacked by insects as the hot sunny conditions were ideal for their rapid increase in numbers. Talk in the industry was of a very early harvest which wouldn’t take long to complete and some farmers in the eastern counties were in two minds as to whether or not it would be even worth combining their fields.  As is often the case, things eventually turned out to be quite the opposite. Rain in July swelled the wheat crops keeping them alive and we actually started the wheat harvest a week later than usual. Despite some good weather, crops needed additional drying mainly due to them being under ripe rather than wet because of rain. These under ripe crops can cause problems since they contain “green grains” which contaminate the sample and can cause heating in the store grain. Difficult decisions have to be made at times like these since cutting too soon will mean the crops need drying to remove greens, but waiting for the crop to ripen naturally could delay harvest and then there is the possibility of losing the weather and still ending up with crops that require drying. In the end we decided to push on with harvest and eventually finished the wheat on the 31st August, but harvest wasn’t completed entirely until the 24th September, when we cut the linseed. Having done some calculations, I am now pleased to announce that the farm produced enough wheat to keep 13,750 households in bread for the next year, enough linseed to oil to keep around 5 million cricket bats in pristine condition next season, and enough oilseed rape to fuel a land rover on bio diesel and drive it to Australia and back 26 times! Following harvest the weather changed yet again to give us one of the hottest and driest Octobers on record. Wheat planting started later than planned on 30th September and was completed on 11th October. The crops generally emerged very well due to the warm conditions, but some of the heavier land on the farm dried out too much and germination was delayed until it rained. The continued mild conditions have allowed these later areas to catch up and crops look very even at the moment and, because of the later sowing, they aren’t looking too thick and are free from disease despite the warm weather of recent weeks. The major change for the farm in terms of cropping is the decision to stop growing winter beans. This is due to the fact that weed control in the crop is becoming increasingly difficult, especially charlock which is also a problem in the oilseed rape. Rather than continue with two problem crops in the rotation, it makes more sense to replace the beans with something that will allow us to control the charlock giving the farm more opportunity to reduce the incident of the weed in the future. The spring sown linseed has also been problematic as the dry springs have resulted in very uneven germination and thus late ripening and harvest. However, linseed can provide good charlock control as there are more herbicides available capable of dealing with the weed and so we have taken the decision to replace both winter beans and spring linseed with winter linseed. The other advantage of this is that it should be ready to harvest in mid-July rather than September which will fit in with the harvest students better, the main disadvantage of growing the winter variety is that the weather may or may not play havoc with it over the winter, too mild and it continue to grow and will flower early in the spring making it susceptible to late frosts, too hard and it may not survive at all, so watch this space………….. |
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Paul Sigley, Farm Manager |
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