Birds and worms

Bird fans will be pleased I'm feeding them. The land won't be as its losing its little army of helpers. CTF promotes healthier soils with the worm numbers increasing. 

Dundee, Scotland

Popped to Scotland to see James Black and give a talk last night. Great meal and company. 

James and Ruth have been wonderful hosts showing me around local businesses near Dundee. 

I saw vegcraft manufacturing, scan stone, potato, broccoli and brussel sprout farming and wood chip boilers. 

Agritechnica Horsch maestro 12 row.

I've ordered the Horsch maestro 12 row beet and maize drill for this coming season. Drilling 1200 acres of beet this coming year so want the control of our beet seeding. 

Choose the drill as it can drill over crops and you never know what the future offers. Saw this drill at Agritechnica in Germany. 

Heavy land beet delivered

Norman and Andy have worked hard to get the heavy land sugar beet loaded and delivered. It's not been easy with the wet weather but they worked as a team and there off to the fen tomorrow. 

Fathers 65th on Friday

Father will be 65 years old on Friday which means he can hang on the boardroom wall. 

Heavy land beet lifted.

Freddy and Raymond have lifted the heavy land beet at Scotland Farm. Off to the fens next after a full clean down. 

Sheep drive in London

Today as a liveryman of the Worshipful company of Farmers I was part of a team in London to shepherd sheep across London Bridge. 

Matilda and Emilia helped their daddy. 

Beet 2015 started

Andy and Norman have loaded up the first of 2015 beet season from virgin land at Scotland Farm. First loads went to Bury St Edmunds British sugar factory. 

Drilling started

Sammy started drilling today putting in some skyfall after beans. 

Combining has finished

We had to wait 2 weeks for a 9 ha field to come ripe to harvest. We finished it today. Combined can go to bed until next year. 

Quadtrac 620 demo

Peck's have bought a quadtrac for demostraction. We have put on the joker, subsoiler and will be trying on the topdown after sugar beet which is always differcult as the leaves are green and slippery with the ground hard and compacted. Set to rain tomorrow so it will be interesting to see the results in those conditions. 

Sugar beet harvest

We started the sugar beet harvest yesterday. The Agrifac machine was delivered and we had some training. Started lifting Virgin beet land at Scotland farm. 

End of harvest supper

We went for a steak dinner to celebrate the end of harvest. The George and dragon at elsworth did us proud. 

Wheat finished

The boys have finished the wheat today. 

Andys looking pretty pleased with himself for bringing the last load in. 

Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

Need some sun to get the combining finished. It keeps raining! 

Spring barley is dusty stuff

The boys are busy cutting the spring barley at coton. It's dusty as anything after the rain. Mrs B who owns the farm has come to watch us for the 26th time on her farm. I'm the third generation to work on her farm. 

OSR drilling

Started OSR drilling today. 2.7 kg ha of popular hybrid. 

Sprinter 12 OSR conversion

Horsch UK, team Will and Lawrence have kindly helped us convert the sprinter 12 for drilling OSR on 30 cm spacings. The front tine will work the ground at 6" deep and the flexi pipe will drill at 1/2". 

This enables us to band spray In between to control blackgrass. 

14.5% mc

Still have green leaves but it's 14.5% mc. Combines are going at 3.8 km as the straw is little chewy. We have completed the skyfall milling wheat which on the fen did 14% protein but on the highland it averaged 11.9 which is costly in clawbacks on protein. 

Chicken manure spreading

I forgot how Agricultural the smell of chicken manure was. We are busy applying manure in front of the cultivator. 

Norman Woodhouse

Norman was the first lorry driver I employed when we started the transport. He has had 5 lorries and has completed 10 years on the 1st August. 

Mother cooked him a lovely cake. 

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.