Archived News

16th July 2013

The crops looked pretty good throughout June but are now beginning to suffer as they run out of water. 

The wheat is in its third growth stage; the production phase which lasts for two months and is the culmination of ten months growth.

After flowering and self pollination it’s now the crucial time for grain fill and it's critical for the plant to take up nitrogen and water to result in a healthy yield. The crop should still be green rather than turning brown as it’s currently doing from lack of water. 

Arable farming has a long period of investment in each crop with any potential income reaching us on average about 18 months after the ground is cultivated and sown.

Looking at the crops now, we might expect harvest to begin with Barley at Shalford and Raikes, plus the few acres of winter rape (that survived the pigeon damage last autumn) to be in early August but nothing is certain

These are likely to be followed either by wheat at Manor, or the oats at Crossways and Churchfield where the crop is variable in growth because it was drilled into very wet soil; in the early stage of plant growth this barley didn’t need to establish deep roots to obtain water because it was plentiful near the surface and the resultant shorter roots cannot now reach moisture deeper within the soil.

Work continues to complete the conversion of the remaining six grain bins before the start of harvest.

50 tonnes of grain is stored in each bin, but the final 5-6 tonnes must be shovelled out by hand from the original level floor onto the conveyor; this takes two men, two hours per bin.  When all twelve bins had flat floors and were being filled and emptied more than once, this entailed hours of exhausting shovelling.

Ian is now lining the funnel-shape framework which David and Ed have been constructing in recent months. This should bring these particular storage bins into the 20^th Century, but probably not quite into the 21^st !

The BVD ear tag samples were sent off for analysis in June and I’m pleased to have received the results which show our Belted Galloways negative to BVD.

With three consecutive groups of Belties calving this year, they began calving in snow and driving rain at Raikes, reasonable weather at Churchfield and the final group currently calving at Hackhurst have warm sunshine welcoming them into the world.

The grass has been grazed well in the Clockhouse field and it’s time to move these cows and calves to the Cressbeds. 

About a week ago, Jeff caught a Doberman-type dog chasing the calves around the Clockhouse and distressing both the cows and calves, there was no sign of the owner. 

We’ve had Friesian young-stock chased and their necks shredded by dogs in the past and are fully aware of the severe injury or death they can cause.

Unfortunately we don’t know where this Doberman came from and there’s no knowing if he will return, which is not good news because the calving group at Hackhurst have eaten down their grass and are due to move to the field around the buildings at Churchfield.  

Although this is just the other side of the footpath from the Clockhouse, it is visible from the farmstead and the road which is some comfort, however if the dog returns to the area it could still cause untold injury and stress before we arrive on site.