Yet again we have been blessed with a wet harvest time. This is a frustrating time for me because every day that it rains means that the quality of our crop is falling. The reason for this is that once the grain reaches maturity and then gets damp the seeds think that they should start to grow into plants. The shoots in the seeds start to form and this changes the make up of the grain. This is a particular problem in malt barley and milling wheat. To make malt they get the grains to germinate and then stop the process at a critical stage. this is a very specific process and if the grains have already gone past the dormant stage by getting wet in the field they have already germinated making the crop useless for the malting process and only fit for animal feed.
The wet weather has kept me in the office sat at my desk, I it is probably the most profitable place for me to be, but I don't really like it too much I'd rather be out getting dirty somewhere! I have been working on a whole estate plan since Christmas and we are now at a consultation stage. We have gone through and carried out an audit of what we have and what we do with the estate, now we are trying to find out what we need to have to go forward over the next 30 - 40 years. We are finding this out by asking people what they think. I have done some work with our directors to get their thoughts. Carter Jonas our agents helped me carry out a feedback session with some of the industry stake holders like natural England, and the AONB board, and we are currently running a survey in the local community. The aim of this survey is to find out what the people who use the rights of way the views on the estate as part of their lives feel about the estate and its management.
Once the consultation period is over we will then be able to make some plans that reflect a greater proportion of the wants and desires of those who use the estate rather than just what a small group of directors think we should have. From the feedback that has been done so far I can see that there is quite a lot of overlap between all the different view points I'm hopeful that we can find the right balance that will allow the estate to go forward in synergy with the of the community so that we can all get what we want from this great and beautiful piece of land. The wonderful thing about synergy is that it is much more than a compromise, and it can be much much more beneficial to the community than that.
It is now the time of year when we can really get a chance
to have a look at our crops to see how we have faired. This year I have entered
the Hampshire farmers club best, farmed farm competition. I have been entering
this competition for about five years now and although I have never been placed
I think I will carry on entering for a long time to come. It is a very high
calibre competition with some excellent judges asking some really searching
questions. Today I have been a steward taking some judges from another class
around three farms. Tomorrow is my turn. I am looking forward to showing them
my linseed because the gamble has paid off big time and I’m really pleased with
it.
The other crops are looking pretty good too, but the same
could be said for much of Hampshire really. I have seen some really good crops
of wheat today, and it has made me see how much more work I still have to do on
the farm. The other thing that I have seen today is a huge array of different
enterprises which the farms are doing. This is always a really thought
provoking and motivating time for me as I see so many wonderful things going on
in our countryside. I really want to keep the ball rolling at home so that I
can match what these guys are up to.
So far we have taken out 2000 tonnes of thinking’s from our
woodlands I think that we are pretty close to half way if not a little over
that. I can already see a massive improvement in the potential of the woodland
and I can’t wait to see what is going to happen in the years to come. The new
wood that we have planted is also doing well. I am thinking of calling it
Toby’s as it was planted the year he was born.
Toby is still doing really well his is now the proud owner
of two tiny teeth. He is still yet to master the art of motion but can
successfully roll over, and over and over and over until he gets tangled up
into something, normally a leg of the coffee table or a sofa. Sharon and I are
going to take him to Ireland
for our summer holiday which we are all looking forward to. Our first holiday
since Toby joined us!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Henry is very keen on shooting and was the captain of the shooting club at college. This has already proved useful to me as during the summer one of the wedding parties arrived early so we had to find something for them to do I called on Henry to take them off clay shooting on the clay ground for half an hour. I’m not sure he was expecting that when he came here but he enjoyed the opportunity. I also took him out rabbit shooting with my .22 rifle I’ve never really got on with it with much success, and thought that the rifle was to blame, but unfortunately he proved me otherwise.Henry’s role is farm managers assistant, which means that he needs to be able to do all of the tasks on the farm to a decent level this will obviously take some time, but his experience from working on his family farm since he was a boy certainly shines through. His main role at the moment is in the grain stores where he is conditioning the grain ready for selling, as well as loading the lorries when they come to collect it. This is really good because with Dad not quite up to scratch we need some one to operate the system, as this is normally his job. Dad can still load lorries at the moment but he has to go for an operation on his arm which will restrict him for a couple of months. One of the things that I’m really keen for Henry to do is to go out and help promote the brand of kingsclere Estates farming in the agricultural community so if all goes to plan any one in the local farming community should soon get to know him, can’t miss him really he’s tall with a tuft of red hair coming from his head!
Harvest is now all but finished and I have a little time for reflection before we get busy planting the cereals again. We have already planted quarter of the farm down to oil seed rape, and need to wait a short while before we start on the cereals.
A lot has happened since my last update. Mark, and Sarah Davis have had a new baby boy called George, he was a massive baby of over 8 pounds and be brings the family up to 7 which is pretty impressive. We have also taken on a new man called Henry he applied for the position I posted earlier in the year and he started in July. I’ll do a little blog about him next, now that we have got to know him.
We had our first woodland wedding blessing this August which was really exciting! Dad had done a lot of work to make a clearing in one of the woods and sowed grass seed in it to make a woodland glade. It was great seeing all the guests entering the wood and winding their way through the path not really knowing what to expect. Then seeing their faces as the came out into the clearing, which had bales laid out for seats and staff serving Champagne. We also had our first legal wedding ceremony at the beginning of August. This was a great wedding, half the guests were Indian ( the Bride’s side of the family) and I got dragged up to do a spot of Bangradancing which is so much fun I think it should be promoted - even a fool like me can do it!
Dad managed to break his arm near the beginning of harvest so he has been out of action but only a bit - he has still been helping out as much as a one arm bandit can. Luckily we had a chap called Guillaume from France over to learn a bit of English. He was a lot of fun and found life in the country side to be very action packed. Once dad did his arm in Guillaume became dads arms, Dad would get him to drive him around the farm or to the grain store and stand where he could get to and then Guillaume had to run around doing what Dad asked him to do.
Our new combine has been a great success we have had quite an easy harvest we have worked less hours, but cut loads more in the time that we have been cutting. It has been really good and we have been able to cut most of our wheat when it has been dry which means that we’ll save money on drying costs, and that the crop should have a better quality about it. We have about forty hectares of wheat left to cut and another 46 ha of Beans the great thing is that we can do the area of wheat in an afternoon, so it really isn’t that stressful, and I’m all in favour of that!
That’s about all the news for now, but I’ll try to return to the blog sooner next time. See you for now!
