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We have now made an appointment for the Spray Operators Job. Interviews were held in early November. We had a fantastic response to the adverts that were placed, and we interviewed 5 extremely strong candidates all of whom were ideal for the Job with excellent qualifications, and experience. I was delighted to interview all these people, and it showed me just how good the industry looks for the future with people like this involved. I was disappointed to have to call back the people who we didn't appoint but feel sure that they will go on to progress in the industry in the near future.
Harvest
This years harvest was completed well on-time, we had record breaking yields, and good quality to go with it. To balance this out we were graced with the presence of rain for the duration of harvest which called for us to dry all of this extra produce. We weren't alone in this extra produce which caused the overall price to drop. Still at the end of the harvest we are very happy with the end result.
We got on with planting next years crops and they all went into perfect conditions and look very well now after a warm damp Autumn.
As usual we celebrated the end of Harvest with the Harvest supper along with the other farms. This year we had 120 people which was fantastic to see. Sam Drumond was presented with the Golden Tyre for his efforts at burning his combine. The Tyre was delivered to the Supper by Fire engine which made everyone laugh.
We were also proud to host the Basingstoke Agricultural Societies Anual Dinner at Pitt Hall Barn Secretary for agriculture Jim Pace MP was the speaker for the event and he gave us a good review of the current agricultural topics.
Nuffield Scholarship
I have made one trip to the US for 3 weeks,and I am Currently in Kenya and will move to Tanzania in the next few days.
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Self propelled
Sprayer operator. PA1,2&4
An opportunity has arisen for an experienced operator
wanting to take on more responsibility. The right person will be able to manage
their own work schedule, carrying out fertiliser and chemical applications for both
the estate and contract work dealing with agronomists and customers in a
professional manner. They will also have a good level of mechanical confidence
and skill. Computer skills for record keeping would be a benefit, but not
essential, along with chainsaw, and shotgun certificates.
Other jobs will include slug pellet application, pigeon
management, and some grain management.
You will be working in a two man arable team as part of a friendly
family business with a total of 10 employee's on site housing is available.
There are opportunities for personal development within this role with the
retirement of our remaining operator at the end of the 2012 autumn drilling
campaign.
It is anticipated that the role would begin at the end of
January, however housing could be available before hand if circumstances
demand.
For further information contact Tim May; 012565 850 221 or
email:
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
and look at the our website
www.kingsclere-estates.co.uk.
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I have now arrived back home after flying from Brazil to
America for 3 days before coming home. The reason that I went to America was to
visit a farm called Polyface farms www.polyfacefarms.com
The visit was suggested to me by my agronomist
Mike Harrington who is extremely interested in managing soils particularly
looking at the biology within soils. After his suggestion I looked up the farms
website and saw that they had an open day on the weekend that I was planning to
return from Brazil, so I booked myself a place to see what it was all about. A
quick skim through the website reviled that this was a bit of an extraordinary
farm using organic principals to grow cattle, chickens and rabbits (although
the chickens where not fed organic feed but brought in corn).
I arrived in Washington on Thursday afternoon, hired a car and
headed west towards the farm. The visit was on the Saturday so I had some time
on Friday to explore the area. It wasn't long before I found myself walking
into an agricultural looking processing plant to find out what they did (It is
a strange confidence that I have acquired since receiving my scholarship that
allows me to walk up to strangers, and ask "what's all this then") I found out that it was an apple
processing plant and I was given the contact details of someone who would be
able to help explain more. In no time I was at the office of Turkey Knob apples
http://turkeyknobapples.com/ discovering all there was to know about fresh
produce apple growing and picking, and I was working out how the orchards and
packing house fitted into my picture of understanding land values. The biggest
thing that I learnt here was about staff, the industry was suffering from a
lack of young people that wanted to be involved in agriculture what a contrast
from Brazil. I spent the afternoon with Paul the business manager he came over
from South Africa to work as there was a great opportunity to use the skills he
had learnt there to get good progression in the US where there was a shortage
of skilled managers. I went back to their house after my Polyface visit to test
my theory of having a drink and discovering more about my host, it works! It is
an international theory!
The Poly face farm visit was very moving, it was a clear
example of another way of doing things. The farm has featured in many food
political books including Michal Palin's Food Inc. I can see why this was an
excellent example of the sustainable intensification program that we have been encouraged
to pursue (only this was started 30+ years ago and the phrase was only born
this year). The Farmer Joel and his family had been working on two goals, one
was to repair the damaged soils, and the other was to convert as much sunlight
into calories as possible. He was winning on both counts, and in the mean time
he had provided an access to the industry for new entrants, in fact his brand
was so strong that he had a waiting list of applicants to join his internship
program. I believe that Joel has read the book The 7 habits of Highly effective
people, (Stephen Covey) and is living by these habits, as he mentioned it once
or twice during the day. This was interesting to me as I have also read this
book and found it great to see the habits being used in real life. There was
also another key to his success which was his use of mobile infrastructure,
this was a new idea to me but one that made lots of sense and was extremely
simple. The idea is that nothing is tied to the ground, so if the business
changes direction it can all be moved, also if the process created lots of muck
this can be spread across the pasture by the animals within the infrastructure
instead of building up in one place and having to be moved, and spread. Along
with this he stacked his system so that one operation benefitted from another
using the same space without competition. For example Chickens followed the
cattle around the rotation, eating little of the cows food, but eating the bugs
and grubs that were under the cow pats (spreading the dung in the process) because
they ate brought in food their dung then became fertiliser for the pasture
feeding the cows. This kind of stacking made it very easy for a new entrant to
start an enterprise because the rent for this land would be small due to the
benefits produced.
This was my last trip of this round of visits I have my next
trip coming up in October. However this tour has already left me with some
lasting impressions which I will endeavour to summarise in the coming weeks.
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My final visit in Brazil was to a citrus oil processing factory. As with all of my visits in Brazil the first bit has been the most adventurous, not knowing what to expect when I get off the bus, will I be waiting for someone to collect me, will someone be there already, have they remembered to collect me, how do I tell the taxi driver where to go, how do I know if he is going the right way, how will I recognise them, will they speak English, are the typical things that I wander about when I get close to the drop off point. It is always fine when the time comes for these situations to play themselves out, and the situation is always different. This time I was met by a chap with no English who managed to ask me if I was hungry, and take me for some breakfast all with sign language and some head shaking, It’s amazing how effective this can be.At the factory I was taken to the office while they decided what to do with me, a tour of the mandarin and tangerine plantations was the final plan. I was taken for a drive around the local plantations, The factory takes produce from 12000 ha of plantations with a typical size of 3 ha that’s a lot of people (about 4000 growers). It has provided a market for the fruit that doesn’t make the supermarket requirements of regular shape and blemish freeness as well as a new market for fruit that is picked before it is ripe. This is another example of the importance of having a local market place for the products of the land increasing the land value. Similar to the case of the sugar factories however Enzo (the boss) pointed out one significant difference in that with the essential oils situation it is harder for the producers to relate to the market (perfume and flavourings) than for the other situations I have seen where they were producing a main stream product. The other big difference is that there is a strong alternative land use in the form of a plant used to make the Dye for shoe polish (I forget the name and will update on this) the plant is a direct replacement in that like citrus it is a perennial crop that can be planted on the less good ground or the ground further away from the living unit were the livestock are kept. This means that in order for the citrus factory to survive it must price its self competitively against the dye crop thus increasing the value of both crops, and the productive value of the land. “Diversity of market options” is the phase I will use for this. After the tour of the plantations I met with Enzo who talked me about the process’s he uses to extract essential oils from citrus fruits, there were two main processes, cold pressing and Vacuum distillation, each process used different products for example there was pure juice, juice and the oil from the skins mixed, and just the scrapings of the skins. These were processed in a number of different ways including several types of centrifugal separation. The result was a vast array of final products with their own special characteristics. These characteristics were assessed in the lab where a fulltime scientist was hard at work testing samples and discovering more about the products by mapping the essential oils. The Lab also allowed them to produce a consistent product by blending the different samples throughout the year a very important part of the business. When I talked about marketing with Enzo it was clear that this is a very important area of work for him as he is dealing with such a high value product, but the concepts were similar to other products, a reliable source of a consistent quality product for many years with a good sustainable story attached was needed, along with a clear and transparent buyer – seller relationship.It is therefore important to this situation that the supply is large enough and from a big enough geographical spread that through blending a consistent product can be delivered. This is so important when dealing with a flavour/fragrance because that’s what sells the final product, and the consumer isn’t wants their favourite brand of perfume to smell the same all the time despite the fact there has been a particularly dry season (for example) and the fragrance map is different from the previous year that just can not stand. I spent the evening with Enzo and his family and after a glass or two of wine we got into a more Philosophical debate. These conversations are great for getting a good picture of the situation the company, and the area that it operates with in. I’m now off to America to see if this approach is an international one!
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I was right it was the last of the big farms but I have spent the last few days with Ademir Wending and his Family. He offered to drive me from Ourinhous in Sao Paulo down to Santa Maria at the bottom of the country. We did this, but on the way we stopped at the Iguacu Falls on the way to his Parents 20 ha farm on the first day. Ademir's Mother and Farther are some really kind people and interesting people. Their lives tell the story of the early settlers of the south of Brazil. They live in a German community with German as a first language. They both left school by the age of 11 because there was no secondary school in the area, and they managed to put all of their children through school and university. I think that that is pretty amazing from 20 ha of land, but then I have grown up in a different environment with different values. The next day (Sunday) we spent all day with His Mum and Dad, first thing we walked around the farm Ademir's Dad is now a Eucalyptus grower so it was a good opportunity for me to see another crop growing operation these tree's go from planting to harvest (12 inch diameter) in 7 years the climate is perfect for their rapid growth and they provide the opportunity for a good stable income the timber is sold for construction, fence posts and fuel (charcoal is made and used in the steel smelting industry). What was as interesting for me was when we went back to the buildings to look at them. Here there were two Tabaco drying sheds that Ademir can remember working in during his school holidays the sheds were used to hang the leafs to dry. In the sheds there were various implements that were pulled by cows when Ademir was young. These included a Plough, Wagon and a Harrow, they are not used now Partly because of mechanization, but more importantly because of the instigation of the Zero Till practices that John Landers advocated in the early days. This was a good opportunity to see how the work of John had affected the lives of others. Ademir and His sister recalled how their farther had ploughed a field with a bull to find that the heavy rain (100 mm in an hour is normal) washed all the soil away. They can remember when the practice stopped; Ademir told me latter that it was when his farther joined a group of local farmers who went visiting other areas to learn new techniques that things started to change. One further thing that I will write about in the future will be education and the importance that has played on the lives of these communities.All of this was before lunch which was a traditional Bbq, I love these you get the meat feed it onto a long metal rod and place it over the fire and turn it, the meat is amazing really juicy. This Bbq was even better because the meet was turned atumatically and I love gadgets like this! This is a traditional meal in these parts, and a great way to bring the family together, sticking with tradition I will endeavor to search this food out some more before I go just to compare. After lunch we went for a quick tour of the local community Sunday afternoon is a popular time for the men to meet up and play games Bowling, and a game called 48 where the players through a wooden ball at some other wooden balls a long way away, and scores are given as to how many balls are knocked of their spot with extra points given for hitting the smaller ball (total possible points 48). It was good to see all the men meeting up, but I felt that there was a lack of younger guys. "They all go to the city for less money but more friends" Ademir told me. (Sounds familiar).We left early on Monday morning so that we could get to see some of Ademirs customers, he runs a precision farming business www.baseap.com.br which specializes in soil sampling and giving advice to farmers. The growers that we visited were using Precision farming to varying degrees which was interesting to see. More interesting though was that the farms the Ademir pointed out as his customers where the ones that looked the tidiest the fences were painted and the yards were tidy. To me this showed the businesses with pride and attention to detail I'm not sure if they were any better than the next farm or not but the perception that I got from driving down the road was that they were good farmers and that the land was probably well looked after and worth more, Its surprising what a can of paint can do! I was also pleased to see the conditions of the soils on these farms where they have been in zero tilkl for so long it was possible to move 3-4 inches of soil with my hand a sign of a good soil structure that I have not witnessed before, but heard about lots.
The end of my time with Ademir and his family came on Monday night when he dropped me off at the bus station for another night bus experience and a visit to a citrus oil producing factory.
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From the Bus station I was taken to one of the farms owned by Fazendas Bartira http://www.fazendasbartira.com.br/ this company is the agricultural division of Brookfield Asset management and farms 150000 ha in Brazil http://www.brookfieldbr.com/eng_content/about_brookfield_brazil-387.html . This was a very interesting opportunity to discuss farmland in the context of asset management with a company who was involved in all sorts of asset classes. I was lucky to meet with Luis the CEO of Fazendas Bartira and Daniel the Head Agronomist. We spent some time on the first farm together before Luis had to head off to the main office (Brazilians pronounce this off sea!). The main approach of the company is to add value to farmland within its farmland growth fund; the company makes land purchases in strategic locations where infrastructure is expected to be established, capitalizing on the increase in value delivered by the installation of tarmac roads, factories, and eventually railways. In Saul Paulo state sugar cane factories give the main rise in value increase. The approach is to help the sugar cane factories establish themselves close to (or preferably on) the company land. This has been achieved with one of the biggest sugar and ethanol factories in the world being built on their land. With sugar cane it is vital to have production close to the factory as cane loses its sugar rapidly after being cut, making it vital to get from field to factory as quick as possible, Ideally within an hour.Most of the production of the 4 farms that I visited was sugar cane, however there were still cattle being farmed as well; this was used as a benchmark to assess the performance of the other systems. 1000ha of Rubber was also produced Rubber has an interesting advantage in that it can fore fill the Brazilian requirement of having 20% of the land down to native reserve (this varies according to area, but the minimum is 20% it is similar to permanent set aside) because rubber is a native tree. I like this as it means that private money can be made from an environmental activity with no need for subsidies. Another crop that I saw was Pine apples now we all know that pineapples grow on trees right?...... Wrong they grow on the ground and the pine apple is the heart of the plant similar to a cabbage. These were grown as part of the company social environmental projects land was rented to local people at the cost of preparing the land for planting. They had 2 ha each, received funding from the local central bank and training was received from the local council as well. This area accounted for 3% of the land holding (400 ha) and is a good example of delivering the social aspect of sustainable development. I think that the main thing I have learnt from this visit is the importance of having a market place for your products. In this situation it made a big difference if it was close to the land, with the value of land reducing the further away from the factory the land was. Although the sugar cane situation was extreme it is the same with the other products I have seen produced in Brazil. The Sugar cane industry is very interesting and it will be worth me spending some more time discussing this in the future. For now I am preparing for my next adventure a road trip to the south of Brazil (1200 kms). I think that this will be the last of the large land owning situations I will see in Brazil as the south has more family farm units around 1000 ha I believe.
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Letter from Brazil 4 I have just spent the weekend with a chap called John Landers. John is a remarkable man who originated in England. He studied agricultural engineering at reading university before moveing on to do a masters in irrigation in the US. His uncle was farming in Brazil at the time and told John how great it was here, John said You’d better find me a job then, And that’s how it started. Johns first work in Brazil was in the north where he helped to set up a rice growing project, this was for the brazillian government and some Dutch investors. John spent many years working for the government on various projects as well as working for other governments in other countries, always setting up new systems and research. Eventually John was managing a farm in Brazil and looked at how he should establish his crops he discovered No Till (direct drilling) and from that moment he worked continuously on this system telling everyone about its benefits and lobbying the government for support. He established the No till alliance which was to carry out education and research into the application and benefits of the system. John has received many awards for his work in this field including and OBE. John is a great fan of using models to show the benefits of one system over another, and this work has led him into other areas of agricultural production, using zero tillage. Two examples of this are the introduction of cattle into the cropping system, giving the advantage of high output grass leys and good cultural control of crop pests (Nematodes being the main one, but scleritinia was also controlled in this process.) The second was agro forestry, the process of growing eucalyptus trees on a 7 year cycle with crops then later grazing (as the trees got bigger) in between the rows of trees. Both of these systems significantly increased the output of the land allowing for him to argue about the reduced need for deforestation of the amazon, and the greater carbon capture and reduced methane emissions from the systems. It wasn’t all work with in my stay with John we also managed to take some trips out in the evenings, the first evening I went with his family (John 70 ish got married five years ago to Julia 50 ish for the first time in his life) to a st John celebration party. They celebrate st John for the whole of June so this was just one of many parties they have been to this month. There were some traditional dancers who performed a Quadrilha for us all and then invited me and some others to join in at the end, It was a good night, and also my first introduction to Kena~to a hot punch made with sugarcane sprit.The second night John took me to meet some farmer friend that he has known for some time, These where the first farm owners that I (through johns translation) have had the opportunity to chat to so we had a good chat about their situation before getting a lot more philosophical the genral opinion is that population control is needed to sort out the climate change issue along with and economic system that doesn’t promote growth but promotes other things instead. Suggestions anyone… … any way I left John last night and got on the night bus to Ituiaba it left at 8 and arrived at 5 this morning I was picked up at 7 after a couple of hours in the cold. Did me good!
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