Winter time has arrived

A mild frost with the sun shining, a lovely day to dig out the ditches over Christmas. Julian's working off his Turkey. 

Ctf soil

Tim Chamen came to the farm today to inspect the soil changing with ctf on the hanslope series clay. Worms are working there magic with the decrease in compaction. 

PX Christmas dinner

Last night we got together for the Christmas dinner. Happy Christmas. 

Colmans 200 years

Celebrating 200 years of Colmans mustard as a grower and the English mustard growers haulier. 

Flint

My loyal dog after 16 years sadly goes to heaven. 

Nuffield UK 2014 conference

This year the conference is in Ashford kent. Meeting the new scholars and listening to the presenting scholars after there travels. 

Rabobank global farmers master class

Landed in Melbourne Australia for the Rabobank global farmers master class. 

Just caught up with some Nuffield farming pals. 

Winter barley drilling

Frenchie has started the drilling the winter barley volume variety. 

Sugar beet loading PX farms ltd

Sugar beet loading first day

First day loading sugar beet. White fen Benwick. John Francis takes the first load into Wissington. 

CTM training day

Nigel Mountain came to train us on the operation of the CTM sugar beet cleaner. Getting ready for the sugar beet campaign which starts next week. Fantastic machine loading 30 tonnes of sugar beet in under 6 minutes. 

New buckets

The beet basket and grain bucket have arrived for the JCB 434s. 

Geraint is showing the scale of the bucket by fitting inside. 

Beet basket has a fold down lid for safe road transport and cleaning mud from under the beet cleaner. 

Sugar beet cleaner arrives

We have purchased a CTM 9003XL sugar beet cleaner for our own sugar beet and work for British sugar. 

12 runs left for 2014 harvest

We have only 12 runs left until the combinable crop harvest has been completed. We have built a track 2000 metre long to get to this field. I feel a Bloody Mary coming on. Well done everyone. Thank you very much for your hard work. 

Flooding at Dry Drayton

The A428 was pushing water into the farm which resulted in houses,offices and yards flooded. Main electrics went at 16.15 yesterday. 

Electric still down, running off generators to use pumping equipment. 

Fertiliser screening

We have hired a screener at 140 tonnes per hour. We will screen the Fibrophos ready to apply to farm land to improve the nutrients in the soil. Screener works to 20mm. 

JCB loading shovel

Our loading shovel has arrived for loading fertiliser, sugar beet and grain. 

Bucket supplied for fertiliser from BAC. 

Farmers view

The view from my mobile office for the day. 

3.996 tonne to the ha average so far. Mixed results on oils. The price is shocking. 

Expansion of the fleet arrives

Six new lorries and seven new trailers have arrived to join our existing fleet. Happy days. Looking forward to a large harvest. 

Laboratory quality training day

Nicky Lockey from Frontier very kindly came to train us for grain analysis and operating the laboratory machinery. 

Constant training and reviewing our procedures. 

Harvest 2014 has started

Started at Scotland farm on the oil seed rape in cherrytree field. 

Footpaths

Cambridgeshire county council has cut the funding for cutting the grass on the footpaths. We hired a tractor and flail to cut the public footpaths and permissive paths across our land so the local public can enjoy the countryside. 

Annual inspection

We had the annual lorry inspection yesterday. Geraint and I went around the lorries and marked them out of 240. Full inspection from inside and out and under the body. A fantastic turn out by all off the drivers. Congratulation to Rob Dearman who drives J5 PXF. He won a day for 4 watching the British lorry racing championship at Donington Park. We all had a hog roast to celebrate the day and pre harvest event. Sadly the weather was a shocker but 52 of us managed to squeeze into the kitchen. 

Brazilian farmers visit

7 Brazilian farmers came to visit a UK farm practicing CTF. They farmed over 80,000 acres, mustly cropping maize and soya bean. 

I took them around the two blocks looking at soil conditions and rotational cropping and caught up with the Rogueing team who are pulling weed beet. 

Wayne, Alexandre and Michael where completing there training for spraying certificates.

Irrigator which is watering the potatoes for Bartletts was vandalised last night and a battery taken. 

Rogueing Wheat

We have a team of ten to help rogue blackgrass from the wheat fields where Rogueing is still financially feasible. Blackgrass is threatening to take away wheat from the rotation unless we get blackgrass removed and under control across the Eastern counties. 

Chicken manure

Sammy and Wayne are busy moving the chicken Manure to field locations ready for spreading in front of the Oilseed Rape. 

Grainstorage granted for a third store

Exciting times, the third grainstore is on the way. Three bays. Just in time for the new minimum three crop rule per farm. 

Wcf 14 annual event

Our 1st trip since the course. A trip to Revesby Estate hosted by Peter Wiggins Davies. 

Hot topics, grain storage and properties renovation. 

Fertiliser season

Fertiliser bags being collected ready for 2015 season. Andy Hampshire driving J4 PXF back from the docks. 

Sulphur fertiliser in transport. PX Farms are Fias registered for fertiliser haulage. 

Buckingham Palace

Lovely evening at Buckingham Palace. 

Lightening strike

7 am this morning we had a lightening strike at Waterbeach setting a blaze 15,000 bales. Fire engines and forklifts on site to try to save as many bales as possible and control the fire. Of all the things for lightening to strike it has to find the straw. 

Cambridgeshire Police training day

Cambridgeshire police had a training day at Scotland Farm looking at Agricultural Machines, Ceasar tags and security measures. 1 of 5 training days organised to develop agricultural knowledge of machinery and rural crime with the Police men and ladies. 

Excellent afternoon with the Police, NFU, and Cambridgeshire watch. 

Itv farmers three crop rule

http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2014-05-28/farmers-willing-to-risk-subsidy-cuts-to-avoid-three-crop-rule/

We made the television last week. 

Rave season

70 young students from Comberton village college found having an illegal rave on our spring barley. 

The police presence and action was fantastic. They stopped the party and took away the alcohol. Sammy was able to continue spraying the field.