Finished the winter barley

The boys got the winter barley finished today which has been great and given us a window to get the oilseed drilled. 

Spreading fibrophos fertiliser

As the fields get cleared the fertiliser gets spread as a base fertiliser 0:12:12. 

We use the digger to load and the bredal to spread and move in one go so the system is for a one man band. Spreads about 100 tonne a day at 1 tonne per ha. 

Pete's back for harvest

Pete is back for harvest, I think it's his 11th. I'm sure he will correct me tomorrow. 

WCF summer ball

Last night we had a wonderful evening at Girton College Cambridge. 

£19500 was raised for the Worshipful Company of Farmers with people's generous contributions for the Auction and bidding. 

Barley in the fens

Look at the right hand side spot yield 17.1 t/ha in barley. 

Peter Notman and crew

Peter Notman Nuffield scholar and crew have come over from Australia to tour around Dairy and farm businesses. They bought a flying camera which was brilliant and I'll post on you tube. We have moved from the Hybrid Volume on barley which averaged 9.34 t/ha so far and the glacier barley is not in the same competition. We have started spreading Fibrophos to boast the nutrients pre drilling the Oilseed Rape. 

Harvest morning service

The early morning service for the day. 

Epic training 15th

The boys on the lorries did epic cpc training today. 

Sheltering from the rain. 

We have started

Lorry inspection and tight driving skills

We started the annual lorry inspection today and finish tomorrow. The boys have them looking smart. 

You can tell good drivers when they can reverse lorries down drives and through stable yards which cars could hardly fit.  Barley moisture  tonight was 13.5%. Tomorrow will be the first day of harvest. Yippee! 

Weighbridges are both open

Concrete has dried and the bridges are open. 

Weed wiper

We had a demonstration of a Micron weed wiper today to control blackgrass in sugar beet. The idea is to achieve a secondary control when chemicals are losing the battle. We will wait 3 weeks to see if it works. The banded sprayer worked well between the rows and the control between the beet plants did not. The controlled traffic beet is dead straight with no resistance. The blackgrass tillers is extraordinarily. 

Extension nearly finished

Sammy and Jason are getting the extension finished in between spraying. Concreting next. 

Party in the park

What a party to mark the Pecks being 65 years at Scotland farm, 10 years in haulage, Norman working 10 years at Px and Cherry 30 years for Dry Drayton Estate. 

Andrew and Nick organised the whole day it's a credit to them both. With the Ouse valley singles club and Elvis tribute giving entertainment and for the children bouncy castle, tea cup ride, bucking bronco and welly throwing contest. 

Little Katie won the bucking bronco and Warren won the Wellington throwing contest. 

Pétanque at Triplow.

David Walston had a party at Triplow today for his suppliers and the game pétanque was played. Team v which I was in made it to the final but lost and I came third place in the singles. Triplow team came first with team claas being awarded the wooden spoon. 

Extending the bridge

Sammy and Jason are busy constructing the extension of the bridge into the grainstore yard. 

Doing a great job laying pipes and extending the drainage pipes. 

4 days until the PX bbq

Andrew is busy mowing the field for 'party in the park'. Andrew and Nick have organised a bbq with a live band, bouncy castle and teacups ride for everyone at Px and their families. Going to be wonderful.