Me.......Speechless for once!

 

Wow what a busy few weeks we have had and sorry that the blog has been put on the back burner! The farm is wet and the farm needs to be planted with crops ready for another year’s work. The weather has not been kind and so it has been all hands to the pump when it clears up, which has meant that my office has been run from my iPhone recently, inside four glass panels, bouncing along a field.

About a year ago, I was invited to speak at the Rotary International District 1240 conference in Northamptonshire. This came about after I had done a couple of talks for different Rotary clubs and hosted Colchester Rotary club for a farm tour about 18 months ago. Even being booked 12 months in advance, the weekend soon came round and I quickly found myself tweaking my PowerPoint presentation so that it would flow for the full half an hour that I had been allocated. Now, thirty minutes to sum up what we do on the farm with food production and wildlife management is rather difficult and I find myself talking very quickly. However, I got it all sent off to the Conference organiser in advance and everything seemed ok.

My girlfriend, Aimee, and I headed up to the hotel as we had been invited to attend the dinner dance on the Saturday night. We did have a minor ‘D’ tour due to our TomTom not knowing that the M1 at Milton Keynes had been altered but we got there in good time.

We were greeted and made to feel so welcome by all the Colchester Club members who were attending the Conference and supporting The District Governor, Ian McMeekan, who is a Colchester member.

The dinner dance was a lovely occasion with the great company and the added element of an after dinner game I brought along called ‘Corx’.  There was a bit of table envy as people were interested in what all the noise and commotion was about and I think a few ‘Corx’ sets have been added to Christmas present lists.

My conference slot was Sunday morning and, after a good hotel breakfast, I was ready to get going. I was announced on to the stage and, as I started, hit the button and the film that introduces the farm failed! The tech guy got busy sorting it, leaving me with a ‘rabbit in headlight moment’ but we were soon under way again and the talk flowed like I had hoped. I closed my talk bang on time and I was really happy how it went.

Ian came on stage, to do what I thought was going to be just a vote of thanks, but he asked me to stay up on stage. As I did, Ian produced a piece of paper from his folder and started to read it. It was a letter that Colchester Rotary had written to the International Rotary Committee. The letter read as follows;

Early last year we had a talk at Rotary by Brian Barker. He spoke about how he and his cousin, Patrick, ran the Lodge Farm at Westhorpe, Stowmarket.

Brian explained how he and his cousin worked together on their family farm with the aim of running a modern commercial farm producing high yielding, high standard crops while maximising wildlife diversity.

Brian is said to be the farmer and conservationist whereas Patrick is a conservationist and farmer.

The mix has given a new direction for the farm, building upon the work that their fathers and grandfather did to improve the overall success of the farm business. The farm has gone from strength to strength, being recognised at a national level. It won the coveted National Silver Lapwing Award for farming and conservation in 2009. Brian and Patrick were named Countryside Farmers of the Year by the Farmers Weekly in 2010.

 Following the talk by Brian, a number of Rotarians were invited to visit the farm at Westhorpe and were very impressed to see at first hand the magnificent work that was taking place, not only in farming but in conservation. Following the visit I suggested to Rtn. Pat Driver (President at the time), that we should consider both for a PHF. As you know Brian will be speaking at the District Conference this year.

 Honours Committee will you kindly consider my proposal that Brian and Patrick be presented with PHFs at the District Conference.

Ian then produced two leather bound certificates and lapel pins from behind the stage and presented me with a ‘Paul Harris Fellows’ Award and one for Patrick as well. At this point I was totally stunned and speechless. I did not know much about the Rotary Club and Ian explained that a ‘Paul Harris Fellow’ Award was given to Rotary Club members for (quote from the certificate) ‘appreciation of tangible and significant assistance for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world.’

Ian then explained that these awards can be requested and given to non-Rotarians if the club members feel that a person or persons deserve recognition for whatever service they offer the wider world.  I was truly honoured to receive mine and Patrick’s, on behalf of him.

We have been lucky enough to be recognised within the farming world for our approach to farming but this award is I think rather more special as it comes from outside of farming.  People who have done and seen so much of different industries felt that our approach to our business of farming and conservation, functioning hand in hand, was working so well. I am truly grateful to Colchester Rotary Club for nominating and presenting us with this very unexpected award. The more and more I research and learn about the award, I feel even more honoured.   



The Colchester Crew

 

So a huge thanks from Patrick and me to the Colchester Rotary Club and a special thank you to all ‘Colchester Crew’ who made Aimee and me so welcome over the weekend in Daventry. We look forward for the return farm tour next June when the lapel pin will be polished and worn with pride. BWB

 

 

Farm Weather Station

Back in September 2011 I bought a weather station for the farm, weather has always intested me and I wanted to have up to date information about the climate right over the farm. I also bought the data logger so I could record it all on my computer, this would make farm spray day predictions easier and allow traceability about what the weather was when chemical were applied on the farm if there was ever a problem!

What a year to start it on, this shows the strange weather we have had and how it affected the growing seasons. Sept, Oct and Nov warm and dry causing the herbicides to be less effective leading to weed problems in Spring. The Winter was realitively mild with only a few hard frost which allowed aphids to live and move all winter carrying plant and animal viruses. The Spring was VERY wet and warm which created the perfect conditions for disease growth on the crops and the Summer was short lived with little sun and high rain levels.

All in all a facinating piece of equipment and well worth the money if cost. Our weather interest has been increased and now we learn about the full chart predictions from Simon Keelings web casts posted by him each day. http://www.weatherweb.net/wxwebtv2.php A very detailed weather prediction that was pretty much right all through harvest.

BWB

Harvest 2012 Done!

 

Harvest 2012 promised so much.......

Loomed with anticipation, lingered with intent and disappeared with the saying ‘if only’! That is how I would describe harvest 2012.

Looking back at the start we were worried that the fields would be too wet to travel after our wet spring and the crops looked full of potential until the late surge of disease knocked that on the head.

Once the combine started to rumble, the oil seed rape crop was first to feel its force of knives, rotors and sieves. It had died quickly with the help of the ‘Round up’ and it made for easy combining as the crop had a strong structure and was standing tall. Yield was a down on what we had hoped for but this could have been due to the wet drawn-out period around flowering, this didn’t help pod production with limited pollination by insects and then after that, when we didn’t want insects, we got the wrong one called ‘Pod Midge’ that bites into the pod, lays an egg and dies which then means that pod is destined to be a lunch for a grub not put in my combine tank!

Grass harvest made easy by late July Sunshine

Next crop ready was the herbage grass seed. All I can say is, “Wow, what a year to grow grass!”  Rain, rain, rain and sun at the end! I’m sure you got fed up of cutting your lawns as the conditions just promoted grass growth and this was reflected in our yields. Although half had grown through and proved to be tricky to combine, the stripper header records hovered up close to a hundred tons in total which is a cracking yield.

Our neighbours by this time were starting into the wet wheat crop on their farms and we started to hear reports of up and down yields. No rhyme or reason but the yields were jumping about and the quality was shot to pieces due to the late disease.  We had a couple of false starts, eager to get on, but the moisture was not near the magic 15.5% I wanted. We got it eventually and the elastic band holding the combine in the shed broke and we were off.  As expected, the yields were all over the shop.  Variety and drilling date caused the biggest differences but it was very strange. The crops combined like bumper crops but the ears of wheat were full of empty grain sites or very small shrivelled grains. It was certainly not going to be the bumper harvest we thought back in the early spring before the wet weather. The straw was green and did not want to die after all the fungicides we had used to keep the plant green and free from disease. It made for a very slow harvest. Most evening air was damp and this caused the combine to stop thrashing at around 9pm each night. Normally we can keep moving well up to 11pm and sometimes after. The weather did change for the middle of August and we started our marathon. We harvested wheat for 11 days straight, starting around 10am and finishing at 9.30pm. It was probably the longest combining stretch I can remember but it was at crawling pace. We got over it at last and the wheat is in the barn ready to be sold. The yields look to be just above our 10 year average but below our 5 year average. The market is reflecting what everyone has found around the country:  quality down, yields unknown and this has driven the price up, so now we just need to market it correctly to smooth out the reduced yield short falls. The marketing is really important because it was the most expensive wheat crop the farm has ever grown! The money we spent on disease control pushed the variable costs through the roof. Was it worth it? Time will tell, when the account crunches the numbers!

The later crops were a mixed bag, Spring Linseed went really well. First year of growing it and we like it when the instructions while combining say, ‘maintain a high forward speed!’. We are looking at growing this again next year.  However, this wet spring and harvest conditions were the final nails in the coffin of our growing Naked Oats. It’s the crop we under-sow our grass into. The wet weather caused them all to ‘lodge’ which is when the crop buckles and falls over, this left us very concerned for the small grass underneath and we can’t take that risk again, so we are going back to the safer growing option of Spring Barley but with a possible yield and financial hit. The spring beans were again consistent with the previous years and were wrapped up in a day’s combining, so a nice easy finished to a slow and drawn-out harvest. 

What now?  Well, the fields have turned brown very quickly, the new rape crop is in the ground and coming up and, fingers crossed, this weekend we will start the wheat planting. The new crop year has started and we will see what comes to test, push and surprise us in the next twelve months. I’m sure there will be surprises along the way but nothing too serious I hope! My first surprise after the harvest dust was settling was to hear that my almost 92 year old Nana has learnt to write text messages! Certainly no reason for anyone to be a technophobe!  BWB

A treat of a hobby.

Young Hobby in Westhorpe in 2011 taken by Mike Rae (www.mikerae.com)

The opportunities for watching wildlife at this time of year can be somewhat limited from the tractor cab. As the combine works it's way up and down the fields I am always pleased to see how many different species are taking cover in the oil seed rape and wheat crops and it reminds us that we still needs to leave cover once the fields are completely clear of crops to give them somewhere to hide from predators. The numbers of young pheasants and partridges we have seen this year have been especially pleasing given the difficulties they had with the wet weather earlier in the summer.

The highlight of the harvest so far though has come in front of the mower rather than the combine. Nick was mowing the grass seed stubble to remove the long dead grass and as he was driving up and down the field he was disturbing the skylarks taking refuge in the long(ish) grass. A hobby had realised this and was sitting on the ground waiting for Nick to drive past before making its move after the skylarks. The skylarks knowing the hobby was gunning for them were waiting until the tractor was almost upon them before they flew as short a distance as possible before dropping back in the grass. Because of how close the skylarks were to the tractor, trying to evade the Hobby, Nick and I (who by now had rushed up to see the show) were treated to the spectacle of the agile Hobby flying around the tractor cab in an attempt to catch the skylarks. At times the Hobby was no more than 5 metres from the cab and provided a tremendous display. This went on for over half an hour before the Hobby gave up and left to hunt somewhere else empty talloned It will not be long until the Hobbys are making their way back to Sub Saharan Africa so it was a real treat to witness one at such close quarters. PB

Barn Owl Success in Westhorpe

In May I wrote about the increased Barn Owl activity around one of our Barn Owl boxes ( Click Here to View) and here is the update...



Barn Owl hunting in Westhorpe - Mike Rae (www.mikerae.com)

Barn Owl breeding has been more a tale of heartache than success in recent years with only one chick fledging from a brood of 3 that hatched last year from 5 eggs. The two chicks that died were both good sizes and the only explanation I can think of for it is that one of the adults vanished and the two chicks starved to death. The most common cause of death for Barn Owls is being hit on the road and the female (I know this as I had the opportunity to ring her in the winter) was left to do all of the hunting on her own. The single chick did fledge which was our first successful breeding since I have been on the farm. Also at our Great Ashfield farm a pair of Barn Owls abandoned a single egg in 2011.

I was quietly optimistic when I saw two birds together on film around the box, one with a ring on which I am hoping is last winter's female and a new male which is unringed.  On 17th April I checked the box for the first time and there was a Barn Owl sitting on 5 eggs that I could see. I was very careful not to scare the Owl out of the box and made sure that she was not disturbed off the eggs. By blocking the entrance hole and using the inspection hatch and a torch I was able to have a good look in the box and then quietly left the area. I should add that Barn Owls are a schedule 1 species, I am an accredited agent of a schedule 1 license holder and it is a criminal offence to disturb a schedule 1 species without a license.

Knowing that the incubation period of Barn Owls is 32 days and they are 53 days from hatching to fledging I had a nervous wait for seven weeks not knowing whether there would be healthy chicks or cold eggs in the box. I was able to see Barn Owls hunting on our grassland and over our neighbours paddocks most evenings so I was fairly optimistic that the news would be good.

I revisited the box on the 9th June to find...

 

..three good sized, healthy chicks were huddled up in the corner of the box. On the 11h June I ringed the 3 chicks so they are now individuals. I was also able to determine their ages by measuring the 7th primary feather, which is a technique devised by Colin Shawyer and was demonstrated on Springwatch this year. The chicks were as follows - Chick 1 -Ring number -  GC92390, 7th primary feather - 42mm = 36 days old, Chick 2 - GC92391, P7=70mm = 42 days old and Chick 3, P7= 85mm = 45 days old. At the time I was ringing the chicks, the adults were both waiting to bring food into the box so we got them back in as soon as possible and got out of the way so they could be fed whilst the weather was good. I had my worries about the chicks not getting enough food as we had a great deal of heavy rain through June and July as Barn Owls will not hunt in the rain.

At this time I put up the remote camera and left it looking at the box to see if I could capture any good footage of the young owls and they got older, braver and eventually fledging.

After 3 weeks the batteries had run out out on the camera but I had over 300 15 second videos and this is my favourite one showing exactly how a short-tailed vole is eaten by an owlet.

 

 

One of the adults bringing food back to the young.

 



Since the videos were made I have watched the young owls flying around, gradually getting further away from the box but reassuringly the adults always seem to be on hand with food and teaching them how to hunt. Now that four out of five of the birds are ringed we will know if any are found at a later date and be able to trace them back to Westhorpe. PB

The Dust Monster

Wheat harvest has started and we are covering about 25ha a day. The combine is working hard due to the oil conditions being soft as well as the straw being a little green. This is due to the wet weather in the build up to harvest. We are also chopping all the straw to incorporate it back into the soil to aid its structure and improve organic matter levels which causes more fuel to be burnt. We are filling up with about 800L of fuel a day @ 70p/L so the fuel bill will be massive, however in a hour we can combine 35-40t of Wheat so in a ten hour day we will bring back to the shed about 400t of Wheat which is worth about £70,000. So the most important thing while the Wheat is dry is to keep the combine moving and in top working order. It gets a full grease, oil and check each morning by Nick and then he makes sure all yesterdays dust is removed as this can cause a fire if it builds up on the engine. Long day, long hours but a good time of year. Hope to see you all out and about over the weekend while the sunshine continues! BWB

More than One Kind of Mole

We all hate moles in our nicely manicured lawn, lifting great mounds of earth up into mole hills and digging tunnels along the surface so they can move about under the cover of soil and darkness. They can be a pain but down on the farm, we have a very large and loud ‘mole’ that is currently ripping through the grass crop land that will shortly be cultivated and put into winter wheat.

It’s a mole drainer out doing its job. So what is a mole drainer? This is a special piece of equipment that is used on heavy land farms to help drainage. You have to have a certain type of soil to use it correctly and you also need the right soil conditions to benefit from it.  It is the deepest-working, pulled cultivator found on the farm and it takes the most amount of power to pull it. Remember the general rule: the deeper you move the soil, the more horsepower is required; well, this is a prime example.

It looks small but it does stick it's heels in to make it hard to pull

The implement is relatively small and is dwarfed by the large ‘New’ Caterpillar tractor boasting 320hp but the mole’s unique design and depth it makes it the hardest implement to pull in our clay soils. The machine has wheels to turn and move it on the road but in the working position, the wheels are not in contact with the ground so the whole machine slides on the surface. Mounted on the back is a blade which is a long, thick, very strong piece of metal that is held low, below the frame. At the end of the blade, you have a bullet which pulls a ceramic expander. Those are the correct terms but I describe them as a leg and foot pulling a ball and chain!

The idea is to create a mole: a round tunnel formed in the clay subsoil just above the field drains. The field drains are permanently placed pipes and gravel that remove water from the field, working with the slope. The temporary mole is formed just above these, so not to break or damage the pipes and they are formed at ninety degrees to them. Therefore, over all our fields we have a lattice work of pipes to allow the water free movement out of the topsoil, making our fields easier to work and better for the plants to grow in. 

The leg sets the depth and then the foot starts to move the tightly compacted clay ready for the clay to be pushed back by the hard ceramic expander that creates a smeared clay channel. This smeared clay channel then hopefully dries out to create a natural clay pipe. This is repeated every four metres over the whole field and they normally last about 6-7 years before they collapse or fill with sediment, so it is a on-going rotation around the fields with clay soils. The conditions are very favourable this year to make the moles as the wet spring (and summer) means the clay is very receptive to being formed into the mole, as deep down it is very moist. It also means that the blade does not wear away very quickly as the top soil is not baked solid. The pressure on the foot, expander and blade is huge. The friction is massive and you can see flakes of metal peeling off them and they become very hot. The ceramic expander can get so hot that if you hold it with your bare hand your skin will burn!

The foot and expander hang under the frame.

The new tractor has had its first run out and the noise it makes sends goose bumps up my neck, that really deep throaty roar of the exhaust belting out power! We are looking forward to working it hard this autumn but first we need to clear the harvest, which is proving challenging with these showers and thunderstorms. I hope I am not making a mountain out of a mole hill! But if the sun does not come out soon we will be in a right muddle with crops being spoilt and ruined wheat sitting ripe on ear!

Sun would be most welcome to help with harvest and bake the newly formed moles deep in my clay! BWB