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 Farm News 11th May 2010 |
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Despite one of the harshest winters for several years, the crops came out of the winter looking well. The oilseed rape which was drilled using our home built seed drill, looked particularly well going into the spring, with only minor areas being affected by pigeons, and is flowering well at the time of writing. The only problem is a distinct lack of bees in the crop which could be detrimental to pollination and without some warm weather it looks as though the situation is unlikely to improve. Spring has certainly been later arriving than normal, but the change in conditions around mid April allowed the linseed to be sown in good conditions with the soil warming nicely and the sunny conditions giving the impression that spring had finally well and truly arrived. A month has passed |
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of the recent dry and often cold conditions the crop is struggling to get going as germination is somewhat slow and patchy. |
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The winter wheat is about to receive its final dose of nitrogen and one advantage of the dry conditions is that the crop is pretty much disease free at the moment and so we are hoping to save some money by reducing the amount of fungicide needed to keep the crop clean. ‘Claire’ and ‘Solstice’ remain the main stay varieties grown on the farm, but this year we are also trying a new bread making wheat, ‘Gallant’, as well as ‘Scout’ which is a biscuit wheat. A decision as to whether or not we continue with the newcomers will be made after harvest when we will know how well they yield. |
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As part of our ongoing machinery replacement policy the decision has been made to change the older of our two tractors for a new one. After much discussion and analysis of the costs we have decided to buy a Massey Ferguson 6495. The older members of the Sternians will remember that the Farm used Massey Ferguson tractors in the 1970’s, the servicing records for which can still be seen, written on the workshop wall! The Farm is a member of the Entry Level Stewardship Scheme which is coming up for renewal later this year. Hopefully we will be accepted for a further term without having to make too many changes to what we are already doing. This provides us with land management options which are designed to provide wildlife habitat around the farm. The benefits of our existing scheme can be seen in the amount of wildlife that can now be seen almost on a daily basis. The areas of tussocky grasses provide sites for ground nesting birds and small mammals. The barn owls especially like these areas when they are hunting and can are often seen near to the old poultry buildings. Buzzards are a common sight and there seems to be a explosion in the number of skylarks this year which make use of the bare plots within the wheat fields. As yet we only have one pair of lapwings on the farm, but hopefully numbers will increase as time. Linked to this is a research project which the Farm is hosting as part of a PHD research project by Mark Ramsden from Imperial College. Mark is setting up three monitoring sites around the farm to see which types of plant resource provide the best habitat for beneficial insects such as hover flies, beetles, and lady birds etc. Currently the project is very much in its initial stages as the plots will take some time to establish and it will continue over three years. Paul Sigley, Farm Manager |
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