At last I think I can safely say that spring is here it had a bit of a false start last month when we did all of our spring crop planting then the heavens opened for a few weeks. I thought it would never end for a while. But it did. I planted the spring linseed before the rain which was a bit of as gamble because the soil temperature had only just started to get warm enough, and the seed could have rotted with all the rain if the plant didn't get away. Luckily it has survived and it is now 3 weeks ahead of our neighbours who waited for the rain to pass by before they planted their crop. We'll have to wait and see who was right. With no serious rain forecast for a while it could be the the stuff just planted will dry out too much!

Working the woods has finally started we have one harvesting machine working keeping two other machines called forwarders busy moving the cut timber out of the woods to the road sides ready for collection. It is quite an impressive sight when its all going right! I can see the benefits to the woodlands already the trees have now got enough room to grow again, and the operator of the harvesting machine has carefully selected which trees to leave standing so that we will have a healthy crop in a few years time. It is a real shame that there is little money in  the timber business because the woods are really benefiting from this work which we are carrying out at around break-even. 

I have been busy working out a tender for farming a piece of ground near to us. This has been really interesting as I have had to have a good look through all of my operating costs and work out which equipment is working at full capacity and which has the ability to do more work. I will submit the tender on Wednesday, and find out how well I have fared against the other bidders. When we went for a look around the estate there were loads of farmers all having a look seeing how well the opportunity would complement their business. The biggest lesson I learned was about the cost of grain-storage, and how it affects the cost of crop production. It sounds obvious now but I was interested to see how much difference there is between lower yielding but higher value crops, and higher yielding lower value crops on the bottom line, when a price per tonne is charged for storage. I was also interested when I worked out the opportunity costs of grain storage. These big buildings also have a potential rental value, when that is figured in it really does raise some questions!

Toby is getting more fun all the time he now looks around to see where the noise is coming from when I walk in the door And he greats me with a massive smile. He hasn't quite perfected the art of rolling over but I don't think its far off. He goes swimming at least once a week and he's starting to be a lot of fun in the pool. Before he would be a bit bewildered by all the noise of the other kids laughing and screaming about, but now he's started to relax and play with the toys.

	Add Comments

Happy new year one and all, I hoping its going to be a year full of opportunity for us all. The has made all the crops look really even so far this year which is a good sign! We have some sheep on the farm which we are grassing for a local shepherd they are now requiring some supplementary food They have done a good job up-till now rummaging inn the snow for their grub but now is the time to start to feed them a little silage from the clamp.

The snow has brought out the best in most people doing what they can to help out. There has been some opportunists out thieving though we have had our fuel tank broken into, my shepherd friend has had a break in last night, and another one of his farms had a quad bike stolen last week, as if they didn't have enough to deal with!

Toby didn't have much to say about his white Christmas, he hasn't been out building snowmen, having snowball fights or sledging so I have had to do all of this for him like a dutiful father!

This is the time of year that arable farmers either go on Holiday or hibernate in the office! I'm doing the latter my main job in the office is to write a document for the local planning authority. We are about to write a whole estate plan which we will include with planning applications to show how that application fits in with the whole plan for the estate, how the income generated will contribute to the overall improvement of the estate, including environmental work. 

We are also about to embark on a woodland regeneration scheme. this will involve a lot of work in the woodlands taking out a lot of wood that will not produce a decent crop to allow the surrounding trees to grow bigger we will also open out some areas to allow the hazel coppice's to regenerate, as well as working on the woodland edges to warm the base of the woodland up. All of this work will provide a better habitat for wild life in the longer term, but it will appear destructive while the work is being carried out, so I'm ready for the phone calls telling me what a terrible thing I'm doing! I'll keep you posted.

Id better go and feed those sheep now!

	Add Comments

Last Wednesday saw the birth of our first child Toby. He was born at six am and weighed 8lb 1. Mother and son are doing well. Sharon and I would like to say a massive thank you to all the well wishers we are really overwellmed by all the lovely things that people had said and done, espesially all the food and cakes that we have been sent. I'm doing a great job of making up new songs to entertain them with. The one trouble is that I haven't got much skill in this department. I have started to tell Toby storiues about all sorts of things that he doesnt understand, and I have a theme song that I use it goes a little like this...

Toby and Tim, Toby and Tim, tra la la la lala la la,

Toby and tim, Toby and tim, tra la la la lala la la,

I think there's a bit more work to be done to the tune before its ready for public release. I'll Keep you posted.

 On the farm all is going as it should be. Its too wet to be doing much in the fields at the moment which is just as well because the sprayer has had a small accident, ask Mr T for more on that! Henry has been busy putting posts in the ground along the farm roads. This is to mark where we are going to plant some tree's to make the roads tree lined. The idea is to plant trees every so often along the roads. we are going to stager them so that if we need to get large machinery through we can still do this. I had planed to put the tree's every 50 meters on each side so that if youi looked at the road from the side you would see a tree every 25 meters. Henry went out and did this, and dad and I decicided that it was too close so we got him to move them to 75 meters apart. Poor Henry he gets all the good jobs!

We had the Harvest supper again this year and it was another great success we had 90 people in the end, and like before we had the skittle's which I think I my team won, the only thing was I din't actually thow any balls along the ally. Henry took my place, and I think it was down to his double strikes that the team won, but he was playing on my nbehalf so I think I can clam that one. I also finally managed to pass on the curse of the golden tyre. 

I have to go now Its Toby's bath time and I love this time of the day. 

	Comment (2)

As promised its now time for me to introduce Henry to you. Henry joined us this summer, he came straight from the agricultural college, Harper Adams university college, This is the same place that I went, as well as my two cousins, my soon to be brother in law and my uncle Nick Brown who does our agronomy. This means that I can relate to some of the things he got up to in his time there. 

	Add Comments