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Hi I'm back! Been a bit busy over the last month so I must apologize for not keeping up to date as well as I could have done. The biggest new thing that has happened since the last Blog was our day out with the golden eagles. A couple of weekends ago we had 5 massive golden eagle flying on the estate. We opened the day up to members of the public, and offered them a fantastic memorable experience. It proved such a success that we are going to do more days next season starting in October.
We have also had the chance to get back onto the ground with the machinery which made a happy change. We have cultivated the ground that we are going to plant this spring so it is now ready to plant. We are mostly growing spring barley which goes to become malt for the brewing industry. We are also trying two other crops: Spring oats typically grown for the porridge industry, but I'm growing the crop as a seed crop so that other people can use the grain I harvest to grow oats for porridge. I'm also growing a field of millet which goes to the bird seed industry and will get used on the bird feeders which are sold at garden centers.
At home Sharon and I have become a bit old all of a sudden! Yesterday we left home went down to kingsclere, our local village, and paid a trip to the bottle bank. Then moved on to the village butchers, had a bit of a chat and brought some breakfast for today. Then next door to the village shop to get some herbs and spices and vegetables for dinner. I don't know why but it felt proper old going to the shops together like this, but the next bit really did it. We trundled off to the garden center to spend some vouchers we'd been given and brought 8 fruit tree's and some butterfly tree's (budlia's) which we spent the afternoon planting before I did a little bit of time digging the vegetable patch. Then last night we set about making some venison stew, which included us making proper stock, from a deer I shot on Friday night. Sharon said yesterday afternoon after we'd had a cup of tea and some cake on the decking "If you'd told me just over a year ago that I'd be married and planting trees in our garden I'd never have believed you". What can I say I'll be moaning about those young people next!
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Look for the gap between the trees |
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I hope that everyone has had a good Christmas and is looking forward to the roller coaster of 2009 Its already starting to feel exciting. I came back to the office today after a few days off and I'm trying to workout where we are heading for in 2009 I have to admit its quite a hard one to call. Some of our crops look good, most of them are average and we have some well below that. The wheat price is showing signs of picking up but it needs to go higher.
2008 was a really busy year for me both personally and at work. Today is 6 months from my wedding day. but this time last year I wasn't even engaged. In fact I was in New Zealand visiting the Johnson family's this time last year enjoying the sunshine. On the farm we cropped and harvested the biggest area we have ever harvested and consequently dealt with the most wet grain that we have ever dealt with.
This year I'm hoping to develop more business for the estate however I can. I don't plan on being scared by this big recession job. I hope that it will bring in more opportunities; with companies looking for alternative's for their events on the corporate side, People looking to move location as a result of restructuring on the property side. and a weaker pound giving our products more value on the agriculture side. I was listening on the radio today to a lady talking about how to cope with today's financial environment and she said "look for the gap between the trees" she went on to explain that if you where in a car coming of the road heading towards a load of big trees the best place to look is the gap between them so long as the gap is big enough for you and your car it doesn't matter how big and scary the trees are.
That's it from me now I hope that I'll be updating this blog page more this year as well as keeping the photo of the day up to date, I told myself i should.
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all ready for harvest 2009 |
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At last we have finished the winter drilling and most of the autumn chemical applications have been carried out. We have been mostly aiming our spraying at controlling weeds, although there have been some cases where we have had to control pests as well. Slugs have been our biggest bug bare partly because the wet conditions in harvest made the ideal breading conditions for slugs, and also because we were unable to consolidate the ground enough after planting the seeds. We are now getting to the stage where the weather is helping us by driving the slugs deeper into the soil and away from the leaves of my crops.
I am now spending more of my time in the office catching up on paperwork, and trying to figure out a way forward. We still have crops to plant in the spring but we have options about which crops we grow. Today I have spent my time revisiting the Budget for next year which has proved to be a frightening experience it is amazing how a few pennies here and a spot of yield there can make a massive difference to the bottom line. Our biggest worry is fertiliser where we have seen the price double in one growing season while the suppliers of the product have reduced to 1 main player with a couple of other companies trying to get a look in.
Since my last blog we have had the harvest supper which was a great night for us all. In the end we had 90 people turn up from the local farming community. My sister (Vicky May cooking) cooked us a great meal, and we arranged three skittles alleys for an inter-farm skittles competition the winners were sydminton court farm. And we also had a winner for the golden tyre which sadly stayed on the estate again. I recon its because we’re too honest. I hope that everybody has a great Christmas and that the New Year can bring us some certainty for the future.
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A lovely thankyou letter after a surprise birthday party |
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Hi Tim
I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your help in making Saturday such a success. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and thought the venue was supberb - a hidden gem. My mum still hasn't got over the shock of it all!
Please also pass on my thanks to Vicki as the food was wonderful and we have had lots of comments back from our guests to say how much they enjoyed it.
I will certainly spread the word about the barn to my friends and colleagues and hope to be able to work with you in the near future.
Thank you once again.
Kind regards
Lynne
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At last we have the 2008 harvesting campaign yesterday at 5 o’clock we pulled out of the last bit of spring rape we had sitting in the field and turned of the combine for the last time this year. It has been a long and drawn out process and at times the stress of seeing the crops standing out in the fields has been maddening. The older folks on the farm kept saying that it would get done eventually as it always has in the past and they were right. We finished harvest with just about every spare bit of floor being used to store grain this was because the wet grain swells up so much that it takes up more space per dry ton than if it was dry. We also had some good yields which also meant that we needed more space. It has been a huge effort and it has been so good to see all of our team pulling together to make it happen. Dad often recalls to people who ask the night when he was the first one of all of us to go home and that was at 1 30 in the morning the rest of us kept going till 4am, as this wasn’t enough the next day at 9 o’clock the yard was full of people again. It makes you realise how lucky we are to have these people around us. It has also been great to see all the neighbours pitching in to help each other out they all seem to have done this not to make a quick buck but because they knew that we were all in the same boat and if they could help they would. I think that will be the thing I’ll remember most about this harvest. We are now getting on madly with the planting of next years crops I’m going about in the sprayer getting ground ready for the drill to come in, and then following behind with some other sprays and fertiliser. At the same time I’m keeping an eye on the levels of slugs about the fields there hasn’t been too much activity in the past few days however with today’s rain I’m sure I’m going to find a load when I go and have a look this afternoon.
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