Archived News

23rd August 2018

As you will see, it has been a very busy few weeks since I last wrote.

One very hot summer evening in August I was interviewed by Will Evans for his Rock and Roll Farming Podcast.  You can listen to my interview if you copy and paste this link into your search bar: 

www.rockandrollfarming.libsyn.com/episode-078

Will says he interviews farmers and people in the agricultural industry with the idea of showing off some of the incredible characters involved. They are people with work ethic, drive, entrepreneurship, and communication skills, and he loves talking to them to learn more about their lives and stories.

You may have seen Adam Henson on BBC Countryfile meeting Will on his farm in Wales,  to talk about the farming podcast and for Will to interview Adam.  This was just a few days before my episode went out on 8th August 2018

Will says 'Paula and her family provide a fantastic example of a diverse, modern and dynamic farming business, and it was a genuine pleasure to talk to her tonight. Check it out folks'
www.rockandrollfarming.libsyn.com/episode-078

So I hope you do take a listen to the podcast and learn a little more about what we do here in Surrey; farming to produce British food, maintain this beautiful landscape for all to enjoy; environmental work across 25 miles of farmland; educational visits to help others see how we farm and the food we produce.

The following day our wheat harvest 2018 came to a close, with yields just above average and I was at the butchers packing up our lovely bags with our delicious grass fed Belted Galloway beef.

I transported the beef back to the farm in the fridge van and it was all collected direct from Manor Farm within the day.  The next beef will be available in October and I am taking orders now!

 

Laurence and Christopher set up the combine harvester this week and fitted the side knife in readiness to begin harvesting 150 acres of spring planted oilseed rape (OSR). The side knife is attached in order to slice vertically through the intertwined plants on the end of the header.

However when it came to 'opening up' which is the initial cutting of the field, the crop stems were still too green and caused a couple of blockages, so it will be left for a  couple more weeks of drying in the sunshine before the crop is fit to harvest.

All our straw has been baled and stored in barns where possible but 720 Heston bales have been stacked outside in the shape of a barn and covered with strong purpose made sheeting.

The heavy sheeting was lifted to the highest point at the side of the stack with two tele-handlers and then had to be unravelled and pulled over the top section and dropped down the other side.

Spikes were driven into the base of the stack and ratchet straps tightened the sheeting into place, hopefully this will withstand whatever winter weather is ahead of us!

These round bales of straw have been collected from Lemons and this trailer is loaded with rectangular bales of hay from the Rookery.

We currently use a minimum tillage or min-till system on the farm and have an Amazon drill which is drilling OSR at the moment. This is a chalky arable field at the foot of the North Downs where the Belties have been grazing this summer.

We are considering the possibility of buying a zero tillage drill and will have some demonstrations this week. 

One of our neighbours, who farms fairly similar soil types, kindly brought his Sky drill  over to our farm to demonstrate what it can do. 

It is 6m wide and has the ability to direct drill the main crop as well as fertiliser and a cover crop at the same time.

A few acres of ground were drilled with OSR so we can see how well that comes up.  The drill is returning at the end of September to drill an area of wheat.

Some advantages of a zero till /no-till: the soil is left uncultivated, undisturbed leaving a high level of the previous crop debris in the topsoil which aids water retention in the soil whilst soil erosion is almost eliminated; reduced soil compaction because less machinery needs to drive over; less agitation of the soil can lead to more biodiversity; the machinery can undertake its work in one field pass, therefore using less fuel; reduced emissions.

Some possible disadvantages: purchase of the new machinery; no mechanical control of the weeds by cultivations which can then lead to the need for chemical control of weeds; the previous crop's debris could harbour disease for the next crop, improved soil structure will take a number of years.

Two groups of cows and calves were walked back to barns where we had set up the cattle handling system/ 'crush'. The cows in Abinger Hall walked back to Paddington Farm and the group at Elex Wood were walked back to Raikes Farm.

These girls stopped for a bite of breakfast en-route to Raikes farm

The Belted Galloways were pregnancy diagnosed (PD) and 23 cows are due to calve from March 2019.

The vet has a scanner with a view finder attached to his head via which he estimates the number of days pregnant.

We will have 10 home- bred heifers due to be served next May, but they cannot be put to Ethelred or Mister M because these bulls are either their sire or grandsire,  so I'm giving thought to hiring a bull in for them or possibly having them artificially inseminated.

We are having two new barns constructed at the same time so that a crane can be used at the two sites within the same week. I will post more pictures as the work progresses.

For the past few weeks we have hosted a German Scout summer camp with about 100 people camping at Coast Hill Farm. The Scouts have visited various parts of Surrey and the Sussex coast and made a few trips to to London.

It was a pleasure to host the Scout camp and Laurence was surprised to be presented with some Scouting gifts before they struck camp.

Back