High Level Scheme Plus 1 Year

Its now one year since I signed our 10 year HLS agreement. We are up to date with the capital work with some more fencing and hedge planting to do in the next 12 months. We have already had a inspection, which turned out to be a good thing as it identified some inaccuracy's in our measuring. We then became short of points but the inspector found a hedge that was unclaimed so we are back on track. Another main point was that our 6m margins that were carried over from Countryside Stewardship were not wide enough there needs to be 2m of cross compliance + 6m of margin so adjustments have been made when we drilled the autumn crops.

Some of the margins have been flouristicly enhanced (wild flowers added to already established grass margins). The margins were topped, then lightly disced. The seed is very expensive and like a bag of tea leaves, it seemed to risky to use a normal drill.  I drove the van whilst George sat on the tailgate and sprinkled seed out of the back. They were then pressed and rolled the results are yet to be seen but I have found some trefoil growing. The mix used was sainfoin, trafoil, black medick, red clover, knopweed, ox eye daisy, yarrow, red campion.



Pollen & Nectar mix after 18 months



We have now planted 5ha of pollen and nectar in 4 areas. 1ha was planted in 2010 and are now doing very well, I would like to thank Syngenta for there support with this. We have planted 4 mixtures of fine grasses and wild flowers. With the dry spring  early growth was slow but when it rained, mid June everything came to life. 1/3 was topped mid July, 1/3 mid August and 1/3 untopped this helped prolong the flowering period however the August cut did not really flower again so probably too late or maybe we will observe differences next spring.

 

Phacelia in bloom and wheat harvest



The remainder of the area was sown spring 2011 but nothing happened until it rained. This mix included phacelia the idea being that it would be flowering by June so when we had school visits they could all walk in and smell the smells, hear the sounds and see the sights. However it did not flower until July /August. The seed mix was sainfoin, vetch, red clover, alsike clover, birdsfoot trefoil, lucerne, black knapweed, musk mallow, phacelia, borage.

No bent knees here

Our HLS program includes 7ha of wild bird food plots. A mix of fodder radish, quinoa, barley triticale, wheat millet were sown in May but did not really germinate until the rain came on 'Open Farm Sunday' Sunday. Also sunflowers were added because the seed is cheap and it should look good to passers by but more importantly the birds like them. Most plots have done well the one in the picture is 7ft tall and like a jungle mostly quinoa and fodder radish with the cereals very poor. I am now waiting for some cold winter months to see how well it is received by the birds. I have a man from the BTO arranged to visit through the winter to make some assessments on the bird numbers making use of the sites.

Hopefully plenty of winter food







How much can you learn about arable farming in one morning?



"Better than a boring old coach"



A few weeks ago, year 6 of Wicklewood Primary School came to visit. We picked them up on a trailer, already the highlight of the trip. We walked into a wheat field and I asked, "why do we grow wheat?", "what is it used is for?" - bread, biscuits, cakes flour, wheatabix, shredded wheat. "What else?", holding up a egg box, "EGGS", "do eggs come from wheat?" I went on to explain that most of the wheat in Norfolk and beyond is used to feed chickens, turkeys and pink animals with curly tails.



Now they are experts and want to use the 4m drill



As an arable farmer, of all the things we do, one of the most important is to put seeds in the ground. I have borrowed a garden planter that drills a single row of wheat nicely. We have a small area that Roger keeps power harrowed where they can all have a go drilling wheat. Just around the corner is our Vadastad 4m farm drill. "What do you think this does?", a boy raised his hand and then very articulately explained to the group where the seed goes in and where it comes out. You don't need me then.

I like to give some perspective to the scale of are farming operation so I carry a square metre. If you throw it down in a field of wheat then that is enough wheat for a loaf of bread.

What can you fit in to a square mertre? 11 sugarbeet,
 1kg wheat, 400g OSR

The next task is to measure the size of a field. They disappeared into a flower meadow with a clip board, measuring wheel, and a teacher. The boys came back with flowers in their hair and the girls the answer 1.1ha.

Oilseed rape.

 1sq m - 80 seeds - 400g crop - 45% oil - 180g oil, cold pressed is less saturated fat than olive oil, yellow flowers, a pigeon's favourite food in the winter. On to the next crop.

Sugar beet.

After a brief explanation of the crop the question is how many tonnes per ha of sugar beet are in the field. Half the group went off with square metres and worked out the average plant count. The others dug up 11 plants and weighed them in a bag. Following a discussion led by the children on the inaccuracies of our methodology we went back to the meeting room for some lunch.

With the teachers guidance the class worked out that there were 12.8t/ha. The average plant count was 13 but we only planted 11.5. By coincidence, our field's man from British Sugar came to see me today and has chosen the same field to use a monitoring field. He will do exactly the same exercise every month to give the factory an indication of the expected yield for the region. Let's see how accurate he is.

The Children were asked in groups to write down what they remembered / found interesting.

• Pigs eat wheat, and oil seed rape is 45% oil.
• There are 10000 m2 in 1 ha and you measure the length times by the width.
• There was a wild flower meadow planted that is a good source of pollen and nectar for bees and other insects.
• The sugar beet crop will be 80t/ha by November. It is typically 18% sugar so there will be 1.4 kg of sugar per m2.

Thanks for keeping me on my toes. The class of 2011 are a credit to the school and the village.

Do they know anything we don't about strip tillage?

Nathan Morris of NIAB TAG and I recently went to Southern Germany to a strip tillage conference with two objectives.  Firstly to see if they knew something we didn’t, and secondly to develop relationships so we can work collaboratively in the future.  The event was organised by the University of Hohenheim and based at their research farm Ihinger Hof.  I was particularly interested in the farm as it is very similar to the farm here at Morley, with a range of plot trials and larger cultivation work.  They even have a grass weed trial were blackgrass is encouraged.  It sounds as though the farm manager also pulls his hair out. Strip tillage is where a narrow band is cultivated about 200mm wide, then seeds are sown in a row at the same time or later. Needless to say, this technique is only suited to crops that can be sown in wide rows e.g. maize 75cm, sugar beet 50cm, oilseed rape 50cm, beans etc.  The land in between the rows is left untouched.

The first afternoon of the conference (following some ham and noodle soup/water) started with presentations from Michael Horsch.  Although the visual part of the presentation was good and we got the gist of what he was trying to promote, unfortunately the only spoken words of German I know are Volkswagen and Claas.

The second day started with a tour of the trials involving strip tillage followed by demonstrations of 7 different machines working in a field.  Before the morning started, we asked the organisers if anyone could help with the translation. Veit Nubel was assigned the task. Veit is a fieldsman for Sudzucker, the equivalent of British Sugar, but more to the point good at translating German to English. Once other delegates realised that we were English they all come over to us and wanted to talk about our English ways, particularly how to establish oilseed rape behind a subsoiler.



Ihinger hof sugar beet mid May waiting for rain


The sugar beet established using a strip tillage approach suffered from the same problems as the crop at Morley, some rows very good and some poor due to crop residue, previous crop wheel marks and poor seed to soil contact a particular problem with the absence of rain. The establishment ranged from 75-80% with strip tillage but 90-95% with the conventional mulch tillage (a chisel plough to 20cm). Very similar establishment to the 2011 strip tillage trial at Morley.






OSR establishment trial not the X factor

 The oilseed rape trials looked more impressive. This had been sown with a precision planter at a target of 20 plants m2.  Under the canopy the stems were evenly spaced and all of equal thickness. They also have problems with slugs but a discussion about pigeons was lost in the translation however there is a big problem with mice. The previous crop was triticale with the straw chopped, the standard was Mulch tillage which generally controlled mice but where the strip tillage machine had not disturbed the soil the mouse runs were still there and they had lost up to 20% of the crop. Over the last few years the yields had been just as good with the strip tillage as any other method.

The demonstrations of the machines were very interesting as it gave time for delegates to chat and pass opinion. It was clear to see which worked best on the chosen field, but we don’t all farm on a silty clay loam in southern Germany but interesting none the less. Nathan Morris has been using a Yetter machine for 6 years with variable degrees of success but without the reliability to commit to whole fields. Some of the machines showed the potential for coping in a wide range of soil conditions. I also think we need a better drill that can cope with a more variable seedbed.

For more information about the event uni-hohenheim

Who Has been Eating My Oil Seed Rape Crop

Since the day our oilseed rape crop was planted something has been eating it. The latest concern has been pollen beetle although they were easy to find during stem extension 4-5 weeks ago I believed that they never reached the threshold of 15 per plant (for good crops) as described in the recent HGCA information sheet 12. The early drilled fields and most forward quickly began to flower and were soon past the critical stage. There were a few  fields that the pigeons would not leave alone. I was in fear of the safety of our gas banger as the field were next to a busy road and a discrete lay by, an ideal place to pick up a bottle of gas and a battery. The fields in question refused to come into flower and showed a brown/yellow haze. One of my colleagues had a look and said it was the worst case of pollen beetle that he had ever seen and I have since discovered that he said under his breath  it was a right off. 



The main stem

The 'embarrassment' had a dose of insecticide  and I did not drive past for a week, choosing to go to Wymondham the long way. To my amazement  the field is now bright yellow, even the bit that the pigeons and slugs ate. Whilst the main stem has a few developing pods the lower branches have many buds forming and new flowers day by day.

We have one field in particular that suffered from slugs, rabbits, deer and pigeons, water logging, shade, frost (not necessarily in that order) that was a brown field until the beginning of April. This field as it turns out had a well timed dose of insecticide and there has been virtually no pollen beetle damage. It is interesting to read in the farmers weekly that other people are having similar problems but putting it down to hot days, cold nights, strong winds, lack of rain and the variety DK Cabernet. Farmers weekly blog.

In my view this year a  few fields were at a particular growth stage when there was several days of perfect conditions for pollen beetle to thrive. Fields that were outside this window have fared very well.

It has been a worrying month for the OSR crop  and with price highs of £380/t we want every seed we can. Despite the challenging drilling period, the cold winter, the vermin, the pollen beetle a oilseed rape crop has a impressive ability to compensate. I am a bit more confidant about the crop than I was 2 weeks ago. Now if only it would rain.



I would be supprised if this field was a right off now



Their first time at the Spring Fling and My first Blog

I arrived home from work yesterday to be greeted from over the fence by tales of the children's day at the Spring Fling. The Norfolk Spring Fling is a day organised by the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association, at the Norfolk Show Ground for children to learn more about food and farming 
This is what they had to say;-

• We went to a farm and there were tractor and trailer rides.
• There was chickens and a really really big one.
• There was sheep and you could take the fluff of and take it home.
• There was goats sheep, cows horses (big horses) and pony's.
• We saw some dogs.
• We drew pictures of cows and horses
• There was a combine harvester and ICE CREAM

I had a look on the website and I think they must have had there eyes close because it look as though it was a very busy day.

I however spent the day at NIABTAG Cambridge learning about blog writing, how it can benefit the business and more to the point how to write a blog that people will be interested in. Maybe I had my eyes and ears closed but if I had chosen the Spring Fling then this would not be here.

Here a nice picture of a tractor