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.