Farmer Jake

Lambs Final Journey

2012-01-20T11:39:00.009Z

On Monday 16th January Tod, Tia and myself set off heading North West into Wales, our destination was the abattoir in LLanidloes where are lambs are sent to be killed. The trip up took about 2.5 hours and there was lots of discussion about our sheep flock on the way. These are the same lambs that feature on YouTube here

After signing in and getting to reception we were warmly welcomed by Kevin Brown, who id the Procurement Manager and General Assistant manager for the plant who kitted us up in white coats and trousers, hard hats and hair nets. We started off our trip looking at the vast warren of fridge space where the sheep and beef carcases were being held whilst they came down to temperature, ready to be transported, for lamb this is maximum of 7 degrees C. Then we moved on through the lines to where the lambs are humanely stunned and killed which was a very swift and skilled job, expertly handled. Having been skinned and processed, taking away the intestines, hearts, lungs, livers and having some fat trimmed off, we watched our lambs go along the grading line. Here they are weighed and given their grades for fat and conformation. Most of that batch (of 123) that went through as R3L's and R3H's and averaged 20.91Kg. In total the group of lambs yielded just over 2.5 Tonnes of meat and bone!

The picture above was taken of our lambs the following day, showing he confirmation and fat coverage really well.

It was a time of mixed emotions really to see our own lambs being killed but I was reassured and happy to see how it was done; with a calm quiet humane approach, with skilled friendly staff in a very professional manner. We also had some time to look at the lairage, which was clean, airy and well set up to handle large numbers of sheep. During peak production the plant can cope with 5,000 lambs day. We looked at the skins that were being salted and packed on site, by a third party, many of these skins end up in China and return to the UK in the form of Ugg boots!

The dirty water produced on the whole site, from the washings of the processing lines, to floor washings and lorry washings is all collected, aerated and filtered through reed beds before ending up, after rigorous testing back in the local stream.

It really was a fantastic visit and one that I will repeat again with another batch of lambs. To see the end result of 10 months of shepherding, ultimately seeing the carcase that will be processed and delivered to Sainsbury's was very satisfying. I would recommend all farmers to go and see this with their own stock, work with the customer to get more efficient at producing what the customer needs.

First Trees Planted in the COCO

2012-01-15T21:11:00.000Z

Today was the first ever planting day for COCO (Conderton and Overbury Community Orchard) and what a great day it was. It started as a crisp sunny morning with brilliant blue sky and a light frost on the ground. Derek and Gordon gave everyone a quick demonstration of how to plant each of the trees then armed with a map everyone grabbed their spades and set off in different directions to make a start.

We started with 18" deep hole, filled it with a compost to act as a fertiliser, planted the tree, firming down the soil all of the time to ensure there are no air pockets. After that a small stake was banged in next to the tree and a small strap attached to hold it firm. More compost was applied, as a mulch to keep the weeds at bay and finally a plastic tree guard put around the tree to protect it from voles and mice. It was wrapped up with a 6' mesh guard to stop sheep and deer nibbling the growing points then it was 'job done'.

10 cider apple trees where planted (5 'Ten Commandments' and 5 Tom Putts) and 16 perry pear trees (5 Blanckney Reds, 5 Moorcrofts and 6 Judge Amphletts) all within an hour and a half. It was a great community effort, helped by the weather, but a great effort by everyone involved. A huge thank you to everyone who volunteered, it's great to know the community spirit is alive and well in Overbury and Conderton. After the planting some investigation of the new JCB was required by the engineers among us.

Time For An Unseasonal Haircut

2012-01-09T17:10:00.001Z

Now its time for something different! Last week we tried a new management practise with the early lambing ewes at Park Farm and that was to give them a very unseasonal haircut. Don't worry though, they have about 6 weeks before they lamb and then a further two weeks around the farm buildings which will give them plenty of time to grow a nice new woolly coat. There are many positive reasons to winter shear the ewes. Firstly they will be more comfortable and cooler as they are naturally an outdoor all year around species resulting in less stress on the sheep, shearing put to one side, but once a year they get that anyway. They should also eat less and be more efficient with what they eat, as they are no using energy to keep cool. Click YouTube - Farmer Jake to see the action!

From our point of view any ewes having difficulties during lambing should be easier to spot, although they might be harder to catch! We should, in theory, be able to put a few more ewes in each pen, as they require less space. It is much easier to assess the condition of the ewes and put the ewes in better condition groups, i.e. a thinner twin can be bumped up to the triplets to give her more feed. It's also a much easier time of year to do the job. We don't have to get the ewes in from the fields and spilt off their lambs, this will save us lots of time. The coats won't grow a tremendous amount until the later summer so we won't have to gather them in the spring to 'dag' (trim) the dirty back ends of the sheep (after eating the lush grass). It's just an experiment at this time but who knows, if it works we might be doing all of them next year!

Contracting Expanding

2012-01-03T13:23:00.000Z

This is the time of year that Gordon is out and about cutting many miles of our own and some of our neighbours hedges. In total we cut hedges on over 10,000 acres of farmland and many miles of roadside verges. Some of the insides of the hedges are cut during the autumn before the crops are planted so that damage to the field margins (grass) are limited as the soil is still nice and dry and can carry the tractor. The downside to this is that some of the berries on the hedges are cut off and therefore not eaten by the birds in the winter.

By leaving the roadside verges, spring cropping fields and many of the farm tracks until now to be trimmed, allows the hedgerow birds alot more time to feast on the hedgerow bounty. These roadside hedges are cut every year which aids roadside safety and also, if done carefully can still provide a good source of berries even after the hedge trimmer has tidied up the hedge. We even have a blower on the hedge trimmer to blow the chippings into the verges, off the roads, therefore reducing the risk of punctures to passing traffic. Birds such as Yellow Hammers love a neatly trimmed hedge that they can perch up on, and guard their territory.

Hedge cutting is one of many services that we can offer to our neighbours around Bredon Hill. Our farm machinery is also used at certain times of the year. Our sprayer is contracted out to spray tall crops such as beans and oilseed rape in the summer. With its taller wheels and high clearance the damage is far less that with a conventional tractor mounted sprayer. It also does liquid fertiliser applications. At this time of year our snow plough is also on standby incase it is needed around the hill. We have a specific route but can always detour to clear a driveway or farm-yard along the way.

Dog Worming Reminder

2011-12-22T16:17:00.002Z

Last week we sent a group of lambs to the abattoir in mid Wales as we always do at this time of the year and when the kill sheets came back I was shocked with some of the results. It turned out that of the 87 lambs delivered the Food Standards Agency condemned 17 (nearly 20%) livers for something called Cysticercus tenuicollis. In total the weight loss was 11.7Kg, at £4.50/Kg which equates to £52.65 of lost income, but that's not really my point.

The disease stems from the dog adult tapeworm Taenia hydatigena and is transmitted to sheep when infected dogs shed eggs via their faeces onto the pasture. These eggs can survive on the pasture for up to 6 months. Another problem with dog faeces is very similar and is called Cystericercus ovis or sheep measles and is ingested almost identically. (Here's a cyst on a liver)

Once in the sheep the larvae develop and penetrate the sheep's intestine, spreading to various tissues including the omentum, mesentry, peritoneum and liver. As-side from liver condemnations heavy infestation can cause haemorrhages and peritonitis. Once the sheep has been exposed to tapeworm eggs, it is impossible to prevent the cysts developing so it really is out of our hands.

In order to reduce the risks we ensure that all of our farm dogs are wormed regularly, this is also covered as part of our Farm Assurance. We must insure that all visiting dogs are also wormed appropriately, using the correct wormer and using the right dose for weight of the dog. (Please see your vets about specific products)

With over 40Km of footpaths, bridleways and permissive paths on the farm, many of which run through our grazing pastures it is so important for you, the dog walking public, to make sure your dog doesn't contribute to this potential threat to the welfare of our sheep flock.

These two problems in 2009 cost the English sheep industry £7.5 million (EBLEX Lamb briefing 10/07).

Taking the Right Path

2011-12-21T17:06:00.000Z

At the moment we feel slightly under siege from night-time mountain bikers. They come hurtling down the hill, with lights so bright, that they are illegal to use on the road, often not slowing down for anybody or any thing.

One of the routes they have been using is actually a footpath, which by the nature of its name (and the law) is for pedestrians (and mobility vehicles) only. We have had to go as far as putting in a chicane to try and slow down these cyclists before our sheep fencing, on a footpath that they're not even supposed to be on!

There is also the disturbance to wildlife and the farm livestock, which ever path they are on. Now I can see the attraction to this sport; speed, mud, danger, but please if you are going to take part, make the right choice and follow the legal pathway.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pears for your Heirs

2011-12-20T09:18:00.000Z

Last week we started our programme of fruit tree pruning in the Conderton Orchard under our Higher Level Stewardship Scheme Capital works programme. The orchard has had little attention for a number of years and the trees are very old and fragile, but really in need of some TLC to preserve their lives (and as a habitat) for as long as possible. As this orchard is being used by COCO (Conderton and Overbury Community Orchard) I though that we would target those trees that were potentially unsafe and those that were already dead.

After the dead trees had been re-modelled, the timber that was cut off, was left next to the trees. This meant that it would continue to provide a habitat for bugs, insects, beetles and fungi that were already present in the wood. This re-modelling was aimed at making the trees more stable in high winds so that they would remain upright as long as possible. Where wood was removed, say from a branch leaning right over, the stump was trimmed with a 'Coronete' cut to make it easier for insects to access the dead wood, as shown below.

After the most urgent trees were trimmed up Tim and Simon from Treeessence (who did our pollarding earlier in the year), moved on to some of the living trees. Again we were targeting those that had lots of top growth making them vulnerable to wind damage. We have done 50 trees this year and we have the same amount to do for the next 4 years, so we should re-invigorate the orchard over this time scale. It really is a great project to be involved with. In the New Year we will be helping COCO plant some Perry Pears to provide fruit and wildlife for all of our heirs.

Cultivating a 'Direct Approach'

2011-12-11T14:18:00.000Z

On Friday 10th December I was invited by UAP to go and listen to a talk all about Direct Drilling and Minimum Tillage. The talk was being give by Steve Townsend who runs a company called Soil First Farming. It was a really interesting and very though provoking, basically challenging us to rethink our philosophy on cultivation strategies across the different soil types on the farm.

The morning started in the classroom exploring soil and what it is made up of, sand, silt, clay with a few rocks thrown in on our hill and how these particles interact with each other and what we do to them when we cultivate. The best soils, and our best assets as farmers, contain 25% air, 25% water, 5 % organic matter and 45 % minerals (sand, clay and silt). Much of the morning was talking about carbon and how we can alter and increase the amount in the soil. Carbon is contained in crop residue and dead soil bacteria, fungi, worms etc and how do we increase those levels in the soil? We spoke about cover crops, between winter and spring crops, like beans, oats, mustard even peas. These crops would feed the soil organisms when they die and lock up nutrients, to be stored for later crops. This seems really logical to me as it will not only increase the soil organic matter but reduce the risks of soil washing off down the hill during periods of heavy rain through the winter. We'll be trying that next summer!

In the field we looked at soil structure, digging down to find the anaerobic layer (where last years crop residues remain uneaten by the soil microbes. We looked for evidence of worm activity, worm casts on the surface and worm tubes through the soil. These are very helpful to farmers as they allow water to seep through the soil profile but also provide routes for roots, heading down in search of water. We looked at cultivation depth, anything over 4" was too deep, (as long as there is no soil compaction that the roots of the crop can't deal with). A root can exhort the downward pressure of 200-300 psi when growing through the soil. Ideally cultivating at no more than 3" will increase the worm population, keep the trash on the surface and speed up cultivations. Again another point to experiment with next summer. We talked about weed control and reducing fertiliser applications, about straw incorporation and stale seedbeds, as I said earlier it was a very interesting day.

Finally we headed back to the farm workshop to have a look at Chris's new direct drill. We have been dipping our toes into different direct drilling techniques this summer so it was good to hear someone Eese's experiences. I went away with two main targets that I will be putting into practise, firstly, getting more organic matter into the soil and secondly making better use of cover crops where we are growing crops in the spring.

Grasshoppers Attack Christmas Tree

2011-12-02T18:03:00.000Z

On Tuesday this week we had a visit from Overbury Grasshoppers our local village nursery. We took them up on a tractor and trailer to our small patch of Christmas trees for them to select one for their nursery. They wanted a little 4 ft one that was nice and bushy! Derek wielded the saw and in a flash it was down. After the tree was loaded up into the trailer, along with the children, we headed off for a ride further up the hill to look at the Elm tree we planted a year ago.

This was the view form the back of the trailer on a rather squally showery day. The Elm tree was 3m tall and the trunk was 11cm wide at about 1m high. It still had lots of growing to do. The children learnt a little about every green trees and deciduous trees. Then it back to the nursery to warm up and dry out a little. They all had a great morning, although I think the highlight was the tractor and trailer ride.

Sainsbury's 'Farm For Life'

2011-11-29T22:50:00.002Z

Well, on the 23rd November, at the BBC Good Food Show, the stage was set for Salisbury's second Farming Conference. The event was to show case and demonstrate the commitment by the Salisbury's Supermarket to British Farming and they had asked me to talk about the carbon footprint of our sheep flock and how we are using, the information to make efficiencies. Well over 1,000 farmers from the dairy, cheese, pig, poultry, lamb, beef, egg, grain, fruit and vegetable supply sectors were invited and I have to admit to being just ever-so slightly nervous!

First up on stage was Justin King (CEO of Sainsbury's), who gave us a brief introduction and update on the performance of the supermarket, in difficult trading conditions. Judith Batchelar (head of Sainsbury's own brand) was next on stage introducing the 20 by 20 sustainability plan which will be a challenge, and one that will give British farmers opportunities in the future. Then the farmers took to the stage. First up was Chris Batchelar from Essex who introduced us to his fascinating Strawberry business. Up next was Vicky and Kate Morgan from Yorkshire who gave us an insight into the future with their concept pig farm, then after a long wait, it was my turn!

After a quick introduction to the farm business I recalled our reasons to work with a strong, sustainable, secure business like Sainsbury's. Our carbon footprint is made up of various measurements and performance indicators from the sheep enterprise. Things like numbers of lambs produced per ewe, how much purchased feed we use, our farm cropping, cultivations and soil management. It includes our fuel and electricity consumption. The calculation finally gives us a value, a line in the sand, which we can use to compare with other similar farms and then we can start reducing the value.

The main areas that impact our carbon footprint are, lambing percentage, grassland management, age of the lambs at slaughter and the lambs daily liveweight gains. With help through the Sainsbury's Lamb Development Group we've been targeting these areas to make our sheep flock more efficient, therefore producing less carbon.

In addition to the Carbon Footprint we're looking at the Environmental Scorecard, which looks at the impact of the business on the environment. Topics include, flock health plans, livestock breeding, performance and nutrition, fuel management and our handing facilities. Last year we scored 355 out of 500 and this year we were up to 395, so a good improvement but some way to go.

I really enjoyed the experience of talking to such a large group of farmers about what we are doing at Overbury, even though it was slightly daunting (until I got going). A big thank you to Purple Patch Events who organised the photographs (with Jonathan Banks ) and put the presentation together and to the Sainsbury's Agriculture team for their help and support.

LEAF Water Management Training

2011-11-28T23:25:00.002Z

Today we had a really interesting meeting with a select group of people for a follow up meeting on the LEAF Water Management tool.

From January 1st this year we have had about 55% of our annual rainfall on the farm and it is still very dry so the water training comes at a very poinient time. We know it is a very precious resource and we need to learn how to use it wisely.

Our training today was reviewing the LEAF Water Tool for each of our farms. This tool was launched at the LEAF Presidents Event earlier this month by Jim Paice MP (Agriculture and Food Minister), demonstrating the importance of water as an issue.

Then we moved onto how we use our water knowledge to pass onto other farmers to become a 'Water Champion'. This means using our skills in communication learnt through our LEAF 'Speak Out'

training to encourage other farmers to learn more about water use and it's protection. There is much to learn about how we use water on the farm, from reducing its use or increasing the quality of the water leaving our farmland. I will try and keep you updated on how our journey progressess, but to start off with here's a silt trap and bio bed that we have just created on the farm to do just that. bio bed

Testing Our Fertiliser Spreader

2011-11-03T22:47:00.000Z

Last week we had our annual testing session for the two fertiliser spreaders that we use on the farm. The main spreader that applies the Phosphate, Kieserite and Potash fertiliser is a KRM Bredal. We bought it in 2006 and it applies about 200 tonnes of fertiliser a year. This fertiliser has a value of about £66,000 per year so for a very small testing fee (£150) it means that our investment is being evenly and accurately applied to the field.

The first task is to set up the catching trays, these are placed every meter.

Then with each different type of fertiliser being tested, even same brand types vary in their granule size every year, the tractor drives across the field and the fertiliser being spread is caught and viewed in the test tubes as shown below.

Correct fertiliser application is so important, not just for the economics of not wanting to waste money but for environmental reasons. Using things called boarder discs on the headland (first time around the field) the spread pattern is cut in half to avoid spreading into the field margin or worse still into the ditch or stream.

The correct speed of the spinning disc's is also important, too fast and the granules could be thrown off the field, or even break up the granules with the impact, leading to uneven application. Too slow and the fertiliser won't spread far enough to cover the width of the machine again resulting in uneven application.

So we are now ready to go, weather permitting to start applying the Phosphate fertiliser, evenly and accurately. We will be applying the fertiliser again this year using variable rate GPS technology using the SOYL sampling technique. I will be updating the blog when we get going!

Pollarding Willows

2011-10-17T23:44:00.002Z

One of the important roles we have as land managers in the countryside is to look after the trees around the farm. Willow trees are part of the traditional landscape in this area and grow well in the wetter areas of the farm. From time to time they require a bit of a hair cut as you can see from the picture above. This tree is a bit overdue a trim. Allowing these trees to grow tall can make them unstable when it is very windy, which can cause them to split off and fall down. That in itself is dangerous, but the tree can then be exposed to disease entering the trunk through the split wood which may kill it. These trees provide a great habitat with holes in the trunks which make for very good nesting sites and providing very early pollen supplies for emerging insects after hibernating through the winter.

We would usually be able to pollard the smaller trees with our own staff but when they get this big we need to call in the experts. Here is Tim, suitably dressed with climbing gear bringing down the limbs of the tree one by one until just the two main trunks are left. Simon and Tim are very skilled and soon safely brought the tree down to it's desired height. The guys had a great day pollarding several of these massive trees.

Graham was on hand with our JCB loadall to help clear away the brash, ready for burning, and the cord wood (which we will dry out and use in our farm wood burners in a couple of years) . We have to move all of the material away from the stream as it can flood during heavy rain and these would very quickly dam up the stream further down. The majority of the cord wood will be stacked in the field, away from the stream, to rot down over time to provide food and homes for many insects, fungi and small mammals.

Hare's, Hairstreak's and Harebell's

2011-10-07T12:33:00.000Z

On the 21st September we organised a farm walk to look at how our Higher level Stewardship options can be used on a modern farming business to increase habitats for our farmland species. The walk was jointly organised by FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, the CLA (Country Land and Business Association) and GWCT (Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.

The title for the invitation was Hare's, Hairstreak's and Harebells, which basically meant, animals/birds, plants and insects.

The tour started with a brief introduction then it was off on the trailers around the farm. Our first stop was with Peter Thompson from the GWCT who was telling us about the benefits of pollen and nectar strips and wild bird food. This strip looked great with the pollen and nectar providing insect food which could then be fed on by young birds, especially grey partridge chicks. We haven't seen grey partridge on the farm for a few a years so I am hopeful that with these areas dotted around the farm we could see their return! Peter also demonstrated the wild bird mixture planted adjacent to the pollen mix. This he descibed as a 'bird table ready for winter'. He's quite correct with the quinoa, millet, triticale present it should really attract the small birds through the winter, when the hedgrows and woodlands have run out of food. The combination of these two mixes with the hedge and grass verge provide the three crital requirements of our farmland birds, nesting habitat (hedge/tussocky grasses), chick feed (Pollen and nectar) and adult winter food (bird table).

After this stop we headed out up the hill for some fresh air and a leg stretch to learn about beetle banks. Click HERE to listen to Peter again telling us of the vital role these habitats can play in conservation. They are also a good way to help friendly beneficials get further into our fields to help control aphids!

After this stop we loaded up again and headed to another area of the farm were we are maintaining species rich limestone grassland. The sheep are helping to graze this vital habitat where grass and wild flowers have regenerated the fields after being in arable production. On the way around we managed to spot a brown hare and also some harebells so as Meat Loaf would tell you , 2 out of 3 ain't bad. A huge thankyou to our speakers, Bob Slater from FWAG, Matt Willmott from Natural England and Peter Thompson from GWCT who made this a real enjoyable farm tour to be a part of and for teaching me something new!

Stewardship Update

2011-09-26T20:00:00.000Z

I thought that I would just take a quick moment to update you on how the various stewardship options have progressed over the dry summer. On the whole most seemed to have coped very well although some species have rather taken over! This first wild bird seed mixture is the Norlands field and was planted with feeding Tree Sparrows through the winter months. The plants include the wonderful Quinoa whose magnificent autumn colours look a real picture at this time of year. They will produce a vast amount of small seeds from Christmas onwards.

In this field we have planted a pollen and nectar strip next to a winter bird seed mixture aimed at providing nesting cover and food for corn buntings. The mustard that we planted seems to have overtaken the rest of the seed mix which includes, spring barley, triticale and white millet. Next year I think I will reduce the mixture from 10 to 5%, although who knows in a different spring 10% might have been the right amount.

This is one of my favourite stewardship margins and one that has already produced a real bounty of winter food. Both of these mixtures were planted before we entered the Higher Level Stewardship and last year the bird food mix fed lots of small birds, including yellow hammers, dunocks and linnets through the winter period. What I love about this combination of pollen and nectar and wild bird food is the way that it caters for our farmland wildlife completely. It provides winter food for adult bird survival, pollen and nectar for insects to live on which then become chick feed and there are nesting sites in the tussocky grass margins and hedge bottom on the right hand side. It will be fascinating to watch these sights develop over time and hopefully reap the benefits for our farmland wildlife.

Drilling on the Tarmac

2011-09-26T12:15:00.000Z

Last week we had a strange request and that was: "could we bring a tractor up to Overbury School as they are doing a farming topic?"

We after the rain over the weekend we were unable to go drilling so Gordon took the tractor and the drill (it happened to be attached) up to the school playground. We talked about the crops that we grow, from wheat being milled into flour and then baked, barley malted for beer and maltesers, and oilseed rape pressed to power our vehicles or cook our eggs.

We spent a very interesting half and hour looking at the tractor and drill. The children commented on the lights, the size of wheels and the cleats for getting up the hills. They were fascinated with the drill and how the seed actually made it from the hopper to the field, so we started the tractor and planted a few seeds on the tarmac to the cheers and delight of the children.

I have a feeling we might be invited back at some point when we are passing with another item of farm machinery to demonstrate.

A little Help From Big Sista!

2011-08-04T13:46:00.000Z

Our run of good weather has finally come to an end and so allows me to tell you a little about some exciting new machinery. We have actually cut something every day since the 20th July which in itself is quite a record for the past few summers. Where have the weeks of sunshine I seem to remember from my youth gone too or am I looking back through rose tinted glasses? Those 'combine connoisseur's' among you will notice that this is not our usual combine harvester cutting winter barley on Bredon Hill. John Deere are in the process of launching a new range of combines, built in Europe for the high output combines on larger farms and they wanted an area of crop to check the machine out and to make sure there were no teething problems. We happened to be cutting our malting barley for Carling, which was going very slowly with our combine so we jumped at the chance to try the new machine and give her a work out!

The output was amazing and showed how technology moves on very quickly. Our machine is only 4 years old and was easily out performed in a difficult crop to combine. The forward speed was 5-6kph instead of ours at 3kph. The header on the new combine was also bigger at a whopping 35 feet with belts presenting the crop to the combine very uniformally. There were very few losses and much less than our combine in the straw swath. These losses are grains that can't be shaken from the straw and so are lost back to field. These are called volunteers in the following crop that need to be sprayed/cultivated out later on. The grain tank held a full trailer load about 25% larger than ours. Fuel efficiency is roughly about the same as ours for the acreage cut.

This model also came with track's in place of the larger front wheels which will help reduce the transport width (3.5m) of the machine and also reduce the compaction of the heavy machine on the soft soil. Grip would also be helped climbing up and down our hill. But what is the cost and will that cost be justified? More harvest updates can be seen at No1FarmerJake where I am uploading a daily video tracking our harvest, as it happens!

Weather to Harvest? That IS The Question

2011-07-24T14:09:00.003Z

Well, I am a bit late in updating our harvest progress on the blog this year. We started cutting winter barley on the 12th July on some very light, ex sand and gravel land, according to Tim who drives the combine it was the earliest he can remember starting harvest. The yield held up well considering the very dry spring that we had. In the poorest areas of the field the straw was only at 30cm tall! In a normal year it could be at least 80cm. The good news is that the people we are growing it for like the sample, it has passed their germination and admixture standards and they are happy to take it away for seed. It will be cleaned, processed and sold to other farmers as Volume, a winter feed variety. After the start on barley we had a few days off and then moved into some winter oilseed rape. The first variety to be harvested was Excalibur and I am staggered with the yield we have been achieving.

The combine has had the yield monitor calibrated with a weighed load, over a local weighbridge, and I am very pleased, actually gobsmacked with the results! Some of the best fields seem to be averaging about 5T/Ha. There will obviously be some losses over the cleaner and then through the drier but considering the year and lack of rainfall it is a pleasing start to harvest.
The current problem we are facing is finding crops that are ready to combine. All of the crops have been dessicated i.e. sprayed off to kill the stems and the leaves. There is a very precise timing for this and it usually means that harvest can begin in about 18 days after spraying. I think the cooler weather (prior to now) has meant that the glyphoste has been slow to work on the crops. The weather is lovely here at the moment and so there is pressure to be cutting something, we still have a lot of crops ahead of us and you never know when the rain willl return.

After the grain has been separated, from the straw, leaves, pods and stems in the combine the MOG, (Material Other than Grain) is chopped up at the back of the combine. This organic matter is then spread over the width of the header (9m) before being incorporated.

Orchard Exploration

2011-07-19T13:35:00.000Z

On Monday the 18th July we held the first group meeting of the Overbury and Conderton Orchard Group. The idea is to bring together interesed members of the two villages to talk about the conservation of the old traditional orchard and to find out if there was any interest in helping with the restoration. The turnout was terrific, Denzil counted 50 people present and we had a least 2 families that could not make it! Penelope introduced the evening then John Clarke spoke about his experience with the Kemerton Orchard Group before I spoke about the wider Higher Level Stewardship options that we are embracing on the farm. Eventaully, it is hoped that the orchard group could become self sufficient in the management of the orchard (complying with the HLS scheme rules-obviously) interacting with the farm's requirements of the orchard, for grazing.

The group will then have the opportunity to develop the conservation within the orchard, looking at erecting bird boxes, bird, plant and moss identification and counting, maybe even having some community bee hives.

It is hoped to organise a follow up meeting, within two weeks to establish a name and committee structure to start leading the plans forward. I think we will be starting up with a fruit collecting day in September, ready for winter supplies of jiuce and cider, before tree prunning and planting weekend days following up in the winter. Keep up to date with the development of the group through this blog and the farm facebook page

Keeping H2O Low with LEAF

2011-06-27T13:34:00.000Z

Last thursday I had a brilliant day with other members of the Carling Wester Growers Group at a special training day organised by LEAF The training day was to bring to our attention the impact of water on our farms and how much we rely on this precious resource. The aim of the day was to raise awarness of water and how it impacts our business and what we can do to try and reduce its impact. In my farming career I have witnessed both ends of the scale when it comes to water impact. On the 20th July 2007 we had over 140mm of rain in 24 hours and this spring (Mar-May) we only had 53mm of rain. The discussion, lead by Caroline Drummond, from LEAF, Louise Manning (LJM Associates) and Andrew Galloway (Masstock Arable (UK) Ltd soon had us discussing in depth, the problems of too much or too little water and its effects on our livestock, crops and the environment. We discussed how to keep water in the fields, by using minimum tillage to keep trash on the surface to slow down the run-off and reduce risk. Correctly cultivating the fields allows water to slowly seep into the soil, hard compacted layers mean the water can't soak in and rushes off the surface taking fertiliser, soil particles and pesticides with it into the nearest watercourse. We spoke about ways to reduce these risks, buffer strips to intercept running water, tramline placement, gate placement, stock watering areas and a whole list of other options available. Some of these options can be put towards Stewardship Schemes or will count towards the Campaign for the Farmed Environment

We looked at weather data, demonstarting how our climate is changing, with reduced sunshine hours and increased volitility in rain fall events. We listened to Louise talking about her trips to California where they are running out of groundwater and what's left is becoming saline. Peru and other countries are going to run out of water (in some areas) in the next 30 years or so. Countries exporting salad crops, potatoes and vegetables are in effect exporting water and what impact will this have in the future?

After a great walk around the farm looking at sprayer technology, machinery, irrigation we ended up with a spade in a barley field. The idea was to dig down and try and find any problems with the soil structure that might hinder roots or water from getting into the soil, alais we found none. (Well done Ed).

The next stage of our training is to have a go at the LEAF Water Management Tool, an on-line assessment that looks at: water distrubution around the farm, irrigation, crop protection products, cleaning and transport of product, protecting water quality and domestic water facilities. Following on from this we will be meeting again, after harvest, to find out how we have all got on, and what changes we have made to our business' as a result of the training.

Orchid Identification

2011-06-22T12:54:00.001Z

Up on the western edge of Bredon Hill there is an area managed under Stewardship. Derek and Gordon have been changing the hunting gates and they spotted hundreds of orchids amongst the grassland. They look absolutely stunning but I don't know what they are called.

Can anybody enlighten me?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Our Countryside Comes to Life

2011-06-17T16:39:00.000Z

Yesterday the Estate held it's bi-annual Countryside Foundation For Education day. It is a great day out for our local schools getting their children out onto a real farm to see exactly what happens. The groups of about 20 children had 8 different 'stands' to look at. The groups rotated around the stands having about 20 minutes at each one. I was looking after the farm machinery section where we told the children how we grow, feed, look after and then harvest our crops. We started with the Topdown, followed by the drill, fertiliser, sprayer combine and finally the grain cart. After my stand the children moved on the visit Paul, Rod and Tom, (our keepering team) where they got a taste of the good, the bad and the ugly in the countryside. Many frozen animals that had been trapped over the past year came out of the freezer to play their part in the tale. the highlight being the unveiling of a newly hatched pheasant! The kitchen gardens handled the next stand looking at growing vegetables, and why they are good for us, how they are grown and what pests can attache the unaware gardener. The final stop off was to visit the stable where we had a couple of sheep with their (not so small) lambs and Suzanne who was spinning wool. This was a real hit with the children to actually see the fleece being spun in to a usable fibre.

After a well deserved lunch break under the watchful eye of the combine the children headed off for another round of stands. First up was William from Frontier Agriculture who was talking about the crops grown on the farm and what they were turned into after they had been sold. He had a helper making pancakes with some of the wheat grown on the farm. Toff Millway followed William throwing clay pots and talking about his favourite subject 'Food'! This linked in well with the whole story of the day, how our food is grown where our food comes from and how we look after the countryside. After Toff, Martyn and Alan did a talk about the estate woodland, how trees are managed and what our timber is used for on the Estate. The final stand was with Roger Umpleby, known locally as 'The Bug Man' who had a collection of creepy crawlies that he had gathered under some logs in the wood over a few days prior to the event.

All in all the children had a great day, we just about remained dry, most of us kept our voices and the day was a great success.

A Successful Day, Dispite The Weather

2011-06-13T12:02:00.000Z

Our first visitor for this years Open Farm Sunday event arrived in the drizzle just before 9am. The tractors were polished, the trailers swept and the fields nicely mown. After a slightly delayed start we headed off to The Overbury Stud where Simon Sweeting gave us a talk about the workings of a stud farm. It was fascinating hearing about scanning mares to check for a pregnancy at 16 days. We also saw a Brown Hare running across one of the fields, a great start to the trip.

Following on from Simon we had a talk from Dominc Swainson about the sprayer that we use to apply the pesticides and fertiliser to the fields. We spoke about Integrated Farm Management and gave some exampled of how we use the philosophy at Overbury Farms to help with our decision making processes. We learnt about the annual requirement to have an MOT type certificate through NSTS for each sprayer and the fact that the sprayer operators all had to be trained through NRoSO We also spoke about the amount of planning we need to complete before fertiliser is applied to each individual field and the records that are kept of each application. This also contributed toward the farms accreditation to LEAF Marque of which we are very proud.

Our next station was to hear all about Bumble Bees and how they can help us with pollination of our crops. Stuart Veall works for Syngenta and he came out with a small hive of bees which everyone found amazing. It is hoped that another year we can have a couple of hives to help with our crop and margin pollination. We parked next to a beetle bank with pollen and nectar strips adjacent to each other and explained further about the farms conservation plans and how we are increasing food and habitat for farmland birds, including Corn Buntings and Tree Sparrows.

William Fox (Frontier Agriculture) was on hand to complete the story about what happens to our crops when they leave the farm. He told us about biofuels created from wheat and rape, Carling Beer made from our malting barley and even how beans are used in fish food as a protein source. Apparently when crushed the beans are sticky and can hold minerals and other constituents of a ration together in the water for feeding to fish. (Even Farmer Jake learnt something as well!). After the last stop we came back down from the hill and thawed out a little before unloading a repeating the process again.

We had such a lot of help on the day from Derek, Gordon, Graham and Tim for driving the tractors and getting the farm machinery in place; Tod, James and Harry, who looked after the livestock (sheep, chickens and a duck) and from Suzie and Kieren for setting up the gazebo and organising the lists and putting the packs together on the day. Obviously a huge thanks to our speakers on the day and to those that braved the weather to show up and listen to what I believe makes British food the safest in the world, being produced sympathetically to our environment, by the best farmers in the world.

Getting The Job Wrapped Up

2011-06-09T16:48:00.000Z

So far this year our silage making has been well timed and the sun and wind has helped dry out the cut grass nicely. For the last two years I have been using a local contractor to come and do the baling and the wrapping. Our old equipment means the whole team has to be turned out in order to get the job done. Derek would be baling, a couple of people carting the bales back to the yard where they would be wrapped and then stacked. Now with a little planning we can get Nigel to bale and wrap in one pass.

He's actually using the same amount of fuel doing the two jobs at once than he was just doing the baling. It helps our carbon footprint as farmers. Tomorrow we will get the trailers out and carefully carry the bales back to the farm and stack them up. We will treat them as eggs so that the plastic does not get ripped. The plastic seals in the bale which turns anaerobic pickling the grass into silage or a slightly drier product more suited to sheep called hayledge. The plastic will remain on the bales until they are used in the winter to feed the sheep. Once removed the plastic is stored and then sent for re-cycling as part of our commitment to the environment as per the requirements for the LEAF Marque Using two different colours of wrap the bales look like one of my favourite sweets, can you guess which ones?

Click HERE to the link of the baler/wrapper combo in operation, it really is an amazing bit of farm machinery

Is The Grass Greener with Sainsbury's?

2011-05-21T18:47:00.000Z

On Thursday the 19th May we hosted the Sainsbury's Lamb Steering Group Meeting at Overbury. The group started about a year ago and this was the first on-farm meeting which was a real pleasure to host. There were about 9 others farmers from all corners of the UK and even Northern Ireland, all farming different systems and producing lamb in different ways, all dedicated to supplying Sainsbury's. In addition there were people from Randall Parker Foods and Dunbia who are the processors for the producers lamb (We supply RPF- via the Mayhill Lamb Group). The day started with an update on JS lamb sales over the past year, then we moved onto an update of the Carbon Footprint assessment. This is the largest study ever conducted assessing the carbon involved with producing lamb. More about that another day. After that I did a presentation about Overbury Farms, what we do, how we do it and why. I talked about our crops, conservation, staff, machinery and then our sheep.

Following on from me was Bob Bevan from AB Sustain who was teaching us about grassland management.

One of the interesting things learnt from the JS Dairy Group was the attention to detail of grassland management and how carbon emissions and therefore cost can be reduced by better grassland management. This conversation carried on over a working lunch before heading out to the field for a tractor and trailer ride around the farm. We looked at 8 fields in total, starting with a hay field, then a silage fields then various permanent pasture fields ending up on the top of Bredon Hill, where Alice and Annie had their photograph taken as shown here!

It was a really good meeting, I felt that a lot had been achieved and there was plenty of conversation within the group. There is a definite opportunity to explore the grassland management here at Overbury, starting this summer with some over-seeding in a couple of fields.

Following the meeting we did a short bit of filming for the JS website all about the Carbon Footprinting and how we are benefiting by working together. That should be on the website under the Coorporate Responsibility tab on the 7th June.

Farm Update

2011-05-12T11:30:00.000Z

The last couple of months have been a difficult time on the farm with unprecidented low levels of rainfall during two important months. At the start of March we were all very delighted with the dry spell of weather, great for spring barley drilling, potato planting and of course for lambing. As the weeks rolled on and the temperatures rose the light arable land really started the run out of water. Fertiliser that we had applied just sat on the surface so crops were unable to use the nitrogen and insect pests were multiplying in the warm spring sunshine. Our newly planted trees, both in the orchards and the elm trees, required watering in order to keep them alive! Once started this job will need to carry on but with the investment in the trees we have to keep the going. Irrigation has been intense on the salad onion crops and today we have started on the potatoes. Our rainfall for March was only 8.6mm (driest in 60yrs) and April was even less at 5.4mm (long term average for April is 49.5mm)

The large cracks opening up in the fields are usually only seen in the summer months and this photograph was taken in mid April! It just goes to show how the weathers unpredictability impacts on our farming systems. As a rule our climate is not used to weather changes like this. Other areas of the world, like Australia and America, would expect these droughts much more often than us. It will be a very interesting season as it progresses, just what will the effects be on yields and quality be? It is still a long way to go but with the final leaves out in wheat crops (visible in April) 3 weeks ahead of usual there must be an affect, at the very least an early harvest.

Last weekend the rain arrived giving a very welcome 24mm. This rain was the right kind of rain, silly statement you all scream but it was gentle and warm. This gave it time to actually soak into the ground rather than run-off taking fertiliser with it into the nearest water course. The situation had eased slightly but more rain will be required to get these crops to harvest, and it might even have come too late for our malting barley, which is looking thinner and thinner.

'Lambing Live' at Overbury

2011-04-22T22:10:00.001Z

Well here it is, I have finally got round to blogging again after a very very busy few weeks. On Sunday 17th April we had our annual 'Lambing Live' event at Park Farm, home to our flock of Mule and Mule x Texel ewes. We were very lucky with the weather with hot sunshine all day for our visitors. In total somewhere between 850-1,000 people turned up to learn about our sheep flock and how we manage the farm and the conservation on Bredon Hill. I managed to get some video footage early in the day which can be seen here on the blog. It will give you an idea of the event and what can be seen. In addition to the clip we had Paul, Rod and Tom our Gamekeepers talking about life as a keeper. At the village hall we had lots of displays of local food including the very first opportunity to purchase cotswoldflour and lamb burgers being sold by our great friends at Eckington Manor Cookery School

Open Farm Sunday Training

2011-03-24T13:32:00.000Z

Yesterday Suzie and I visited Aston Hall Farm, on the Spetchley Estate, for some up to date training on hosting an Open Farm Sunday event. It seems long ago since we hosted a training event at Overbury and I just wanted to make sure we were not missing a trick or two.

The training was being delivered by Tom Allen-Stevens and Robert Kynaston, through LEAF.

The theme for this years event is 'Discover Life on Britain's Farms' and really opens up our farms for a great day out for all of the family. But how do we get our visitors there? That was the first part of the training. Depending of the size of event we wanted to host, there are lots of tools in the box; from parish magazines and postcards for small local events; through posters, banners and local newspapers for medium events, ending up with a chart topping national event using national media, tv and radio, the choice is ours.

The second aspect of the training, was once the visitors are here, what do we do with them? We looked at activities engaging our main senses, not just sight, but smell, feel, taste and hearing. How many people just stop in our busy lives and listen? The blackbird or the skylark singing proudly as it rises from the field, the sound of a far off child laughing at a new discovery.

We learnt how to make a visit personal, "this is my farm", "this is how we do things here on our farm". Engagement that's the key!

After a great game involving, leaves, roots, fertiliser, pooh and grazing cows, (I will blog about that another day), we went onto a health and safety (fake crime scene), we were the CSI farmers. Different aspects were explored within our scenario and how those risks can be managed. Don't forget farms are dangerous places and we should never underestimate the risks that we all face every day. But there are simple ways to avoid or reduce the risks. Fencing off areas that you don't want people to explore, putting up signs and moving machinery inside and locking it away. We must also remember the hand washing facilities that are required, liquid soap, running water and paper towels.

The final part of the warm spring afternoon looked at getting the message across. How to be positive about being a farmer and not using too much agricultural jargon. Outside an arable meeting who would understand the expression, "using pyraclastrobin to help control septoria?" sounds obvious but I know. I use too much jargon at times when I 'speak out'. As the message says on Roberts shirt, visit a farm, most farmers are happy to take people around their farms and are very proud of what we as an industry do. If you are looking to host a farm event on Open Farm Sunday please get involved and get in touch with LEAF there are lots of resources available and I know there are still some training events planned with spaces for everyone. Put the date in your diary Sunday 12th June 2011

Integrated Farm Management Training with LEAF

2011-03-22T09:42:00.000Z

Today I am at the Royal Agricultural College near Cirencester with managers and lecturers from many Agricultural Colleges around the country. The idea of today's training is how we can use the tools developed by LEAF to educate students, of any age. Tools such as The Green Box (which Caroline Drummond LEAF - CEO is holding up), Speak Out Training, LEAF Audit, notice boards and the LEAF Marque can have a real impact on farm about getting our message across. The message is summarised with 'LEAF on every plate and every gate'.

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Archaeological Anticipation

2011-03-10T14:53:00.001Z

Over the past month we have been paying special attention to one of our Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAM) right on the summit of Bredon Hill. The Kemerton Hill Fort is thought to be about 2700 years old and was built in the Iron Age period of time.

Over the years the field has changed with some quarrying taking place, to provide local stone, maybe for houses or stone walling. As a result we have an area of erosion, where the land has slipped away.

The erosion was uncovering some very interesting changes in soil type, colouring and even an old bone or two. The erosion here has been caused by heavy rain, sheep movements and general wear and tear. The dark area of soil (left) is thought to be a hole for a post, maybe a fence for corraling cattle or even part of a house. There are other areas of the hill fort that are suffering from erosion by mountain bikes, (we will tackle these bits another day).

Under our HLS agreement we have secured some funding to repair the erosion scar's, thus protecting the archaeology for future generations. Adam (Worcester Archaeological Service) was employed as part of the repair to survey and record what was being uncovered, before the face was sealed up again. GPS measurements, readings and photographs where all taken as an official record of the event.

After the excavations had been completed the repair work could begin! Leigh Watts, who is a local landscape gardner, was detailed with the prescription to repair, as detailed by English Heritage.

Stone from the quarry was used to build up the main layer and the final dressing of soil was collected from within the field boundary, by collecting up mole hill dirt! We actually collected a JCB bucket load, it took a while but luckily the moles obliged! This dirt was then spread over the stones and within a plastic mesh to stop further erosion until grass can establish. The grass seed will be collected later this year again from within the field boundary, although I'm sure there will be some seed from within the mole hill dirt that will start the process off. The sheep netting is a temporary boundary to stop unwanted feet and mouths disturbing the fresh soil. The final picture shows the half compeleted repair but you will be glad to know that it is now fully restored!

LEAF Training Day Success

2011-03-05T18:00:00.000Z

Yesterday was a first for Farmer Jake. I was asked by LEAF to give a talk about blogging and twitter to a group of 10 farmers as part of a funded two day course. The course was aimed at giving these farmers the skills and tools to host inspirational farm visits.

I was taking part in day two of the training session along with Susie and Patrick (from Green Shoots Media) who were talking and demonstrating photography and film. This picture shows Susie going through a selection of photographs giving tips on light, shade, framing and many other tips, the paparazzi hold dear to their hearts! I spoke to the group for about 20 minutes explaining, how I started blogging and tweeting, who inspired me and when I started. Then the group split up for a more in depth discussion about how to blog, what skills are needed, how long it takes and so on. We talked for a while about twitter as well, and I see a few more followers for No1FarmerJake (thanks) I had a really great morning, engaging with a wide range of people coming from different farming backgrounds. They all had one thing in common, wanting to enhance the experience of visitors onto their farms and for that I applaud, each and every one of them. I look forward to reading some new blogs and news from each of the farms as and when they start to appear. Good luck everyone.

Test Blogging From Iphone

2011-03-02T18:04:00.002Z

For the last couple of months we have been keeping pigeons at bay with many different tactics. This one is rather fun, it's called 'Hawkeye' and it rotates in the wind, reflecting sunlight with the reflective strips. They work well as part of the overall mix controls, these have to include gas guns backed up with shooting. It is important to protect the crops from these pests, whole fields can be decimated by large flocks. The value of rape is being pushed up again following the oil price and world supply and demand issues. As spring crops are planted and different food sources become available the pigeons will migrate away, and the crops can then hopefully grow away from any damage caused. Well this seems to have worked well. back in the editing suit (AKA-The Office) just a few changes and to let you all know that I have set up a youtube site which will be showing video footage of the farm and the activities that we do. Click HERE if you would like to have a glipse, then hit the subscribe button to keep upto date with our activities.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Orchard Planting

2011-02-28T15:45:00.003Z

Phase 1 of our Orchard Restoration has begun! After a very hectic couple of weeks organising, planning and re-planning we have finally planted a few orchard trees.

For this first year we have chosen some 'Off The Shelf' varieties grown in Worcestershire as a starting point. As a result of some research, in conjunction with John Clarke from The Kemerton Consservation Trust, we have chosen to plant the following apples: - Adam's Pearmain, Ashmeads Kernel, Blenheim Orange, William Crump and Worcester Pearmain.

This year 50 trees are to be planted in two orchards around Conderton. Once the spacing had been figured out (this came from Rob at FWAG's Orchard Report-see previous blog 20th Jan 2011) and the stakes hammered home the trees and tree guards are erected. They should support and protect the trees for the next 15 years or so. The main pests will be sheep and deer, rubbing and trying to graze through the mesh, and voles nibbling the bark on the ground. Squirrels could also be a problem we will need to watch out for.

A mixture of soil and mushroom compost is returned around the root balls. This combination should provide a breakdown of organic matter that will provide nutrients for the young trees. This organic matter should also help retain moisture for longer periods of time through the summer.

A generous helping of bark chipping has also been applied within the tree guards to stop grass weeds from competing for moisture and nutrients

I guess in reality once the trees are planted the hard work will begin. There will be annual pruning to encourage the trees to grow upwards and out from the top of the guards. This pruning won't start for another 12 months or so which will allow a little bit of time to read up on the subject and maybe even get some training! For the time being though we can assess the trees development through their first year and look forward to some tasty eating and cooking apples in the years ahead!

Our Very Own Lambing Live - 17th April

2011-02-19T07:54:00.000Z

The first lambs arrived just in time for the visit from Year 6 children of Wychall school on the 15th of February, (see last blog). So far we have had a slow start to the lambing with 6 ewes giving birth since the predicted start date of Valentines day.

The first group of ewes to lamb are our North of England Mules These have been mated with Texel rams to produce crossbred lambs, the females of which we will be keeping for breeding from, when they are about two years old, or 'shearling ewes'. We have about 200 to lamb now so fingers crossed the weather doesn't get too cold and wet for the lambs when they are out in the fields.

We will be hosting our very own Lambing Live at Overbury on Sunday 17th April where you can come and experience the excitement and drama of the lambing pens first hand. There will be orphans to cuddle, feed and play with; hopefully our ewes will still be performing, if not there is a great video of the process showing in the village hall (taken at Overbury). Our Game Keepering Team will have displays giving you a feel for what they do and some of the interesting sides of the countryside and wildlife issues they come across. There will be refreshments in the village hall and some static displays there as well. For the latest information on our lambing day become a Facebook Fan keep following this blog, or go the Farm Website here

We always warn Pregnant Women not to accompany your children on this trip for the health and safety of you and your baby.

Wychall School Visit For The Day

2011-02-15T21:52:00.001Z

Today was the first visit of the year to Overbury by Wychall Primary School from Birmingham. The first visit had to be cancelled due to the bad weather in November so it was a very excited group of year 6's that arrived just after 10 this morning. After a quick visit to the loos in the village hall, we headed to the park to look at our LEAF boards and then on to our Elm Tree, (see blog on the 8th Feb).

After that we walked through a small area of woodland, discussing different habitats and how we manage trees for conservation even after they have died. We then met the Croome and West Warwickshire Foxhounds by the Estate Office, where we all met 'Goldie' the Golden Eagle, with a 7' wingspan, very impressive, and lots of foxhounds.

We loaded up into the coach and headed for Park Farm to see our own Lambing Live. We saw 3 ewes that had 5 lambs between them and we met Tod our shepherd, up in the sheds making hurdles in preparation for lambing. Our lambing pens will be open to everyone on Sunday 17th April. Keep an eye on this blog, farm website or twitter for more details. A brisk run up to the hill fort on the the top of Bredon Hill followed and a look around at the scenery and to discover direction Wychall School and home is in.

A hearty lunch followed accompanied with some fabulous homemade tomato 'Billy Soup'! After we had warmed up we headed to the fields once again, this time looking at wheat and oilseed rape fields.

Here is everyone with their scarecrows, made at school and brought down for us to judge. There were some very good efforts with CD's, ribbons and faces all tied or glued onto canes, mops and sticks. The winner was hard to choose but eventually after a close contest Penelope and I choose this one which will be keeping the pigeons well and truly scared from Bean Hill. Thank you to everyone for being so well behaved, we had a great day taking you round the farm.

An Old RELIC Puts in an Appearance

2011-02-08T20:03:00.001Z

In the 1970's Dutch Elm Disease killed millions of Elm Trees across the country. Overbury was no exception with many trees succumbing to the disease. We have a field called 'Elm Piece' which once hosted many many hedgerow Elm trees, now there are none. Most British Elms produce suckers rather than seed and once those suckers reach a certain size they too succumb to the disease.

For reasons not fully understood a very old tree from Comberton survived and under a project called RELIC (Replanting Elms in the Countryside) cuttings were propagated from this 'mother' tree, producing young vigorous 'nurse' trees which we have been able to get hold of. It will take many years to us to see if the off-spring have inherited the parents restistance.

Derek and Gordon have planted 6 of these trees around the farm. Here they are having planted one in the Park opposite Silveril House. If you come to our Lambing Day on the 17th April, you will be able to see this tree for yourselves, as well as the excitment of the new born lambs and the game keeping display.

The first job to do was to site the trees, we put 3 in the parkland and a further 3 in hedgerows dotted around the farm. They were sited where they would not be shaded from other trees or hedges. Once the site was found the guard was put uppost frame was erected, rabbit fence dug in and also a pipe put down below the rooting zone so that we could water the trees during dry periods. I put this pipe under the roots to encourage those roots to go deeper in search of water. Once the tree was planted, with lots of mushroom compost, to provide nutrients and water retention, garden weed matting was laid over the ground to reduce competition from weeds. Finally a stake was hammered in and the tree attached, oh and a spirral rabbit guard for 'belt and braces' protection.

The end result is shown here (with it's name tag), not the end of the project by any stretch, there will be watering during the hot weather and next winter we might need to start prunning (depending of the summer growth). If you are interest in the project then have a look at the Kemerton Conservation Trust and follow the link. Big thanks to John Clarke who was one of the founding members of the project and who sourced our trees. I hope to be able to lay my hands on some more trees and maybe Elm PIece will live up to it's name again.

Stone Wall Regeneration

2011-01-31T08:43:00.000Z

One of the really great aspects of our Higher Level Stewardship agreement is the additional help and funding to repair some of our worst stone walls. Many of the walls were erected in the 1920's during the great depression, where labour was cheap and the raw materials were available within the fields or dug up from the on farm quarries. Now after nearly 100 years of rain, snow, frost and sunshine damage some are really starting to show their age and in need of repair. The frost damage really causes the damage where the walls sag and can't shed the water allowing it to seep into the centre of the wall where is freezes and thaws, gradually causing the stones to crumble and the wall to collapse.

Stone walling is a very skilled and papainstakingly slow operation hence the large costs involved in restoration. A typical wall, if you are using a proportion of new stone will cost somewhere in the region of £100/meter. This would include the toppers and the top wire used to try and keep the deer from leaping over the wall knocking it down. Our walls are being repaired by Matthew Fergyson who is based at Guiting Power. This is Nathan, who works with Matthew, who has stripped down a section of wall and is now rebuilding it. The almost final result is shown below, (minus the top wires)

For those of yo who regularly walk on Bredon Hill this wall is located near Sundial barn, shown above. The wall is about 450m long and runs along side a public footpath, so you are welcome to go and see the progress for yourselves. You might even give Matthew and Nathan some encouragement as they are there is all weathers!

Chinese Lantern on the Loose

2011-01-26T11:08:00.004Z

The farm seems to under constant aerial bombardment at the moment from falling debris! After New Year I picked up 12 Chinese lanterns and I am still finding them dotted around the farm. Is there a difference between a lantern and a fast food drinks can or an emptied car ash tray tipped out in a gateway littering the countryside (fined if you are caught)? I don't think so! There is also the problem of animal welfare especially livestock. The metal support holding the lantern together is not degradable and can easily be picked up by a sheep's leg or worse, get wrapped around a neck of an inquisitive beast. There is always the risk that they will land in a silage field, be chopped up and then consumed later in the year causing potential death. Don't forget we share this countryside with deer, badgers and foxes and if they get tangled up in the metal work there is no-one to cut them free. There is also a very real fire risk should they land before the flame goes out, maybe in a hay barn or on a stubble field, or even on someones thatched roof.

Even if the body of the lantern is biodegradable, how long will it take and do we therefore have to look at the mess slowly decomposing over the months? I appreciate that they are a spectacular sight in the night sky but the risks far out weigh the brief moment of splendour, especially if you happen to be the animal that ingests the metal! So please think again before purchasing them and spare a thought for the consequences that may follow on.

Seed Selection

2011-01-24T18:27:00.000Z

Today Paul Gillet and I went to see some game cover and stewardship seed mixtures sold by David Bright Seeds Paul is the Head Keeper at Overbury and together we wanted to go down and have a look at different mixes of seed after the hard winter weather we have been having. This would help us determine if there are any new varieties or species we should be trying that will stand up better to the cold weather.

Much of the grain maize was still standing, as was the cobless maize but much of the forage maize was flat. We looked at varieties of sorghum, millet (red and white), kale, mustard, turnips and a host of other species of planted, all designed to either feed or provide cover (shelter) for game birds, with benefits to other species.

Having just been accepted into the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme, I was keen to look at different seed mixtures aimed at providing feed and cover for our 6 target wild birds (Grey Partridge, Lapwing, Turtle-dove, Skylark, Yellow Wagtail and Trees sparrow). We saw mixes for yellow hammer and tree sparrow, both of which we have tried here at Overbury, containing mustard, mixed millet, spring wheat, spring barley and fodder raddish. Lots to think about and plan for ready for planting this spring.

Farmers Toast Carling Western Growers Group

2011-01-21T17:49:00.000Z

Yesterday I travelled up with James Cox, (2010 Malting Barley grower of the Year) to Burton-on-Trent to the annual meeting of the Carling Western Growers Group (CWGG). The group of over 70 farmers supplies about 20,000t of malting barley every year to Molson Coors The barley is used to provide malt for Carling Beer and we feature heavily as a group in their 100% British Barley campaign of which we are very proud to be associated.

One of the benefits to being part of this club is the knowledge that our produce, which we spend hours planning for, growing, harvesting and storing are going to a known home and one as popular as Carling. There are other benefits as well; being able to share knowledge about growing the crop more efficiently and therefore reducing the carbon footprint (also through the whole supply chain), preferential harvest treatment and having a direct link with the maltster and discussing, one to one, the intricate points of malting barley. The session concluded with a forward look at the corporate responsibilities and the contract for the next 3 (or so) years of barley supply. Everyone left with a positive feel about the group and what it can provide our customer with going forward, and it wasn't caused by the complimentary C2 Beer

Green Light for High Level Stewardship

2011-01-20T17:40:00.000Z

Some good news to share with you all in the New Year. Our Entry and Higher Level Stewardship application seems to have ticked all of the right boxes and has been given a January 1st 2011 start date. From this moment we are putting the scheme into operation. It is a great challenge but it will be so rewarding, not just for us, but for the people that visit our farm, those that walk on Bredon Hill and also for the wildlife we can support, attract and encourage. I hope that the visitors and walkers will be able to appreciate what we are doing and play their part by keeping to the public rights of way and following the countryside code

A huge thank you to the organizations that lobbied on our behalf, those at FWAG and LEAF the NFU and the CLA also Farmers Weekly for their write up in the 29th October edition. I would also like to thank Harriet Baldwin MP and Jim Paice MP for their support. The only omission from our scheme is the removal of funding for our educational access visits and the open access. These are two areas that really need support to encourage people to learn about their food, farming and the countryside on which we depend on for our living.

So it's full steam ahead, and as of this moment we have started work on our Orchard Management Plan. Rob Howells our local FWAG Farm Conservation Officer has started mapping and categorizing the trees currently in place. From this survey we will be able to work out a plan for planting and pruning over the next 5 years. Later this year we will start to identify those trees and if possible start replanting trees next winter.

Here is Rob in the Cherry Orchard assessing the condition of some very old Cherry trees that could someday soon be some of the first trees to be restored under our High Level Stewardship agreement.

Dusty Boots

2011-01-17T12:24:00.000Z

Firstly I would like to wish all followers of Farmer Jake a Happy New Year and may this be an exciting and prosperous one for all sectors of the agricultural community.

Last week I had the pleasure of heading down to the wild south west of the USA, near Phoenix (Arizona) to be exact to have a look at rather interesting bits of machinery. The flight out was direct from Heathrow and took nearly 12 hours from take-off to clear customs. I can't believe that they only had three booth's open in customs to serve a jumbo jet with nearly 400 people on board!

On day two we stopped on the outskirts of Phoenix to survey the city and it is vast. From the vantage point here we couldn't see either end of the city. Not a particularly high rise area, even 'downtown' just a sprawling metropolis with fields of farmland as green islands between the concrete expanse. These areas still farmed from underground water supply by the farmers who didn't want to sell for houses! If water could reach it it would be farmed. Much of the water used here is from underground or borehole water that has seeped down from the rocky mountains.

We visited a museum while we were staying out in the desert and found out that historically each of the land owners would have had their own brand of barbed wire so that people could identify who's land they were on. They were very intricate and would have taken an age to put together, some didn't even seem to have much of a barb on them at all.

The high street in the small town we stayed in could have been taken from a western movie set, with small saloons and cacti bordering the, less than, main road. Roll up the tarmac and tie up your horse, it really could have been 1851 not 2011. There was quite a lot going on for a sleepy town, but at the heart of it was still the rodeo and the cowboy way of life (oh and the fast food outlets...), evident in the trucks driving around branded with stickers and the leather shops selling boots, stetsons and saddles.

Although the trip was short, only 5 days in total, we had a great time and a big thank you to our hosts for looking after us so well. At the moment I can't really say too much more about what we were doing but who knows maybe in the future there will be an opportunity to let you all into the little secret! Watch this space....

Scenic Overbury

2010-12-20T16:51:00.000Z

'The Plains' looking North East from the park road

"Wish we were up in the barns at Park Farm"

The southerly view through the Oaken Wood, the Park Road is there somewhere!

Sun setting across 'The Break'

Cold Snap Bites hard

2010-12-20T11:18:00.000Z

The cold weather is really starting to cause problems on the farm now after the enjoyment and picturesque beauty of the fields and farmland when it first arrived. Water pipes are frozen up and with up to 8" of snow in places we are having to feed hay out in the fields. This wouldn't be so bad, except that the fuel in the tractors is turning 'waxy' and blocking up the fuel filters. Pershore, only 6miles away, recorded a temperature of somewhere near -19 Celsius of Saturday night. This morning I went to Chris Tallis Farm Machinery to get some diesel anti-freeze and we're adding it to the tractors and farm trucks as we thaw them out. I have never experienced problems, to this degree, before although I'm sure it's nothing compared to Scottish and Northern England farmers who would experience this much more frequently. Just a case of wrap up warm and keep the home fires burning ready to thaw us out when we return!

The Ashes

2010-12-09T11:57:00.000Z

No not the cricket, although that has been riveting watching, listening and googling, but a row of Ash trees in one of our orchards. The trees have not been pollarded (trimmed) for a number of years and so whilst we were replacing the fence line we trimmed up two of the trees. We didn't do all of the row in order to keep some existing habitat for the wildlife in the area. We'll get back to those in 4 or 5 years or so. Some of the wood will be dried out and used as firewood. The tops and some smaller branches will be left to rot down in the field where they will provide food and habitat for a wide range of insects, fungi, mammals and bacteria, all living in and feeding on the decaying material. They are very old trees and host a wide range of insects and birds. There is even a little owl living in one of the hollows.

Update on Rape Plants

2010-12-02T16:25:00.000Z

This is a shot I took last week (18th MOvemeber) of the Sesame OSR planted with our direct subsoiler drill. The plants are growing nicely with most of the field ranging from between 7-10 leaves. They are now 83 days old. There is some predation around the field margins from rabbits and some game birds, but most of the field is looking well. They have been treated with a single fungicide application, some trace elements and a grass weed herbicide mix. Now all we need to do is keep the pigeons at bay. We are experimenting with a few different bits of equipment this year to do this, as a large block of rape is near our local village. There is a wide range of prices for bangers, kites and day ropes so it is paying to shop around.

Hands Off Our Kit!

2010-11-26T12:12:00.001Z

As part of the one going battle against farm theft we have installed the CESAR cesarscheme datatag system on our farm tractors, JCB and combine. The potential problem really came home to roost when a neighbouring farmer had a tractor, very similar to one of ours, stolen a couple of weeks ago. There are some shocking statistics from the agricultural and construction industry with 11,174 machines stolen in the last two years. That's more than 15/day, with huge cost to the industries and major hassle when a machine is stolen. Gone are the days when you could just pick up another tractor off the shelf, they're normally built to specification and to order.

We do take farm and village security very seriously and so this seemed the logical next step. The system was very quickly installed by Chris Tallis Farm Machinery christallis and was up and running immediately. I first saw the service in the Farmers Weekly security supplement and thought that the combination of stickers, chips and DNA paint seemed a belt and braces approach that meant we would be more secure. The photo attached was taken by John from dark arts marketing who are running the marketing campaign for CESAR. Keep your eyes open for our combine appearing (in print) all over the place, it is after all quite distinguished!

Fencing

2010-11-25T08:57:00.000Z

With the majority of the arable work done, just some P and K to apply when I conditions allow, our eyes turn towards the inevitable winter maintenance requirements.

This winter we are focusing on fencing. With about 2.5Km needing attention we will be quite busy for most of the winter. The most urgent ones, those containing the sheep in will be targeted first. The fencing team is made up of Derek, Gordon and Graham (when he isn't loading grain - lots moving at the moment). We are currently doing some of the fences at Manor Farm Conderton before heading up on Bredon Hill (hopefully it will be warmer by then!) As always the team is accompanied by a 45 gallon drum to burn all of the off cuts and old stakes providing some much needed warmth during breakfast and lunch.

Movember Artistry

2010-11-22T16:35:00.001Z

Well the month of Movember is rapidly approaching a close and our Mo's are looking very splendid indeed. For those of you Mo Bro's and Mo Sista's out there who don't know what we're on about, a few of us have been raising the awareness of mens health, mainly testicular and prostrate cancer, during the month with some facial topiary! Dominic came over today to have a look around some fields and Penelope grabbed us for a quick photo session! To find out more about these issues and get involved just click the link movember This Movemeber is coming to an end but the worldwide charity event, I'm sure will be about next year. So if you want to get creative with your face then get involved!

Malvern Conference

2010-11-18T19:35:00.000Z

Tonight I am at the Malvern Showground at a conference with the title, 9 Billion People 'Feeding Britain in the Global Context'. First up is Professor Sir John Beddington responsible for all science and engineering in the UK.

Ploughing For Spring Barley

2010-11-12T19:50:00.000Z

After the very exciting EBLEX progressive sheep group meeting, it was nice to get home and see how the farm is progressing. I caught up with Derek ploughing in MF Allotments, getting it ready for spring barley, due to be planted early next year. We're ploughing some of the hill land to speed up the spring workload even though it costs slightly more per hectare than using the topdown in the spring. It will also allow us to start planting earlier in the year as the ploughed land should dry out faster.

Lamb Control

2010-11-12T09:09:00.000Z

Today we had to move a small bunch of store lambs down the road from a field of grass onto some stubble turnips. The turnips were planted in the summer and should provide enough winter feed to fatten these lambs. They are in a bunch of 77, with a further 260 to follow in a couple of days. The road was quiet and after we had got them out of the gateway they moved swiftly down the road. It amuses me that if you ever want to get sheep out of a gateway intentionally they will not oblige, however, leave that gate open when you want to remain in the field it's a different story! Storm, the sheepdog, favourite at Wychall school, makes an excellent cornering manoeuvre to herd the flock into the field gateway.

UK Grain-Event

2010-11-03T17:03:00.006Z

This a first for Farmer Jake, remotely sending a picture from the phone, uploaded straight to the blog. I have slightly edited the words as I didn't know if it would work or not, but hey presto here it is!

Well, I've had a successful day at the East of England Showground looking at all aspects of grain. From the marketing forecasts from Jack Watts ,of the HGCA, for this and the coming season, to various building manufacturers and grain drying equipment it really was an interesting time. I met some interesting people, some with old Overbury connections, and some new contacts as well, worth the 2.5 hr drive, definitely!

Well now that I have mastered this skill, well the IT dept have (thanks Suzie), you never know where the next blog update will be sent from.......

Autumn Rolling In

2010-11-01T10:15:00.000Z

This is a view along Crashmore Lane running towards our main farm buildings. The hedges and verges have just been very neatly trimmed, by Gordon. The colours this year look amazing and although not particularly cold I definitely have that autumn feel. The field work has nearly been completed. We will start overwinter ploughing a couple of fields in preparation for salad onions and spring barley later in the week. There is some outstanding spraying to be done, weather permitting and then the farm maintenance schedule will begin, this year we're targeting quite a lot of sheep fencing!

I have to start writing a talk that I am giving at the LEAF Presidents Event, in London on the 16th November, all about getting the most out my LEAF Membership LEAF. A little nervous I have to say but I'm sure it will alright on the night! After the talk I am attending a series of meetings about becoming a LEAF Demonstration Farm which is very exciting.

HLS Renamed as Hopelessly Lost Scheme

2010-10-27T08:13:00.005Z

Well the title says it all!! Forgive me for this blog but its been a week brewin' and a stewin' and there are no fancy video's put to music, for if there were I would be struck off! In summary 2 years of vists, meetings, planning and at least £60,000 of Natural Englands funds spent to date and we are no further forward, he's more....

Over 2 years ago we could see the termination of our Countryside Stewardship Agreement and Entry levels Stewardship happening on the 30th September 2010. Natural England (NE) had European funding and were willing farmers to take up HLS options on their farmland. We got NE involved from day one to work together from the onset of the scheme to deliver the optimum benefits for the farm business and our environment. We studied hard, did the Farm Environmental Plan (FEP) looked at our natural biodiversity, paid for bird surveys and helped out in the COSMIC study to assess our archaeological credentials to get into the scheme (see earlier blogs). This has helped future schemes assess the risks to archaeology much more effectively i.e cheaper, faster and more accurately. All of this has taken up considerable time and funding. At last the joint ELS/HLS application was drawn together and handed in on the 17th June 2010.

Our scheme covered, in summary, all of NE targets and then some...SSSI Calcareous grassland, Orchards plans, species rich grassland, woodland pasture, extensive heritage sites, including 5 SAM's (scheduled Ancient Monuments), arable bird options, arable plant options, open access, educational visits, the list goes on.

During harvest we had an onsite meeting and everything was going to plan, only one meeting required as the NE staff knew exactly what we were planning to do. The overall scheme was included in this years NE budget and the capital works were budgeted for over the next 5 years. Busy schedules and the inevitable computer delays meant that the date slipped into October. Computer delays that are of the Rural land Registry's doing, this parcel number doesn't match that number or this code doesn't match another code.

Then came the 20th October- meaning the scheme needed to be signed, sealed and delivered. It was added to the computer after it locked out a few times and was ready to sign on the Tuesday (19th). Then, wait for it, there was no-one senior enough to actually sign it off. Just for clarity and in case you didn't hear that bit, It was sitting there ready to sign. Had it been a smaller scheme it would have gone through. So discrimination is rife at Natural England, size really does matter! So in our case it's the bigger schemes with more diverse habitat that will actually deliver the best results and be more efficient with the funding, that get penalised. In our case having already had 10 years in CSS and 5 years in ELS.

I attended the Sainsbury's 'Farming for the Future Conference' on Friday at Stoneleigh Park, where Jim Paice (Minister for Agriculture and Food) was delivering a speech so I managed to have a few words afterwards. I will let you know the outcome of his findings when I get them. I hope he will be able to pass on the concerns to Caroline Spelman, Secretary of state for DEFRA, mind you a letter will be on it's way as well, I don't expect she will be reading my blog!

Where to now? NE are saying wait until 1st April but what happens then? Will there be any funding? How much and will it fit into our farming business. NE don't know and I don't know the answers but I do know that whatever trust there was between this farmer and NE (policy makers) has gone in the same direction as the Dodo and there's no scheme around today to bring him back.

First Run For Bean Drill

2010-10-20T09:45:00.000Z

Yesterday was the first full day using our home made bean drill. The machine started out as a sublift cultivator and a cannibalised accord air seed hopper and seed metering mechanism. The shakerator legs are mounted 50cm a part and we're blowing about 20 seeds/m2 down two tubes behind each leg. We thought two tubes might give us a little more protection in case one of the tubes blocked up. Although conditions are a little damp the machine is going well, with good seed placement and fairly even depth (15cm). Hopefully we can cultivate the ground to level it off before too much wet weather arrives. This will aid herbicide activity, increase combining speed and make cultivations for next wheat easier and faster.

Head In The Clouds

2010-10-09T20:00:00.000Z

Derek was out early this morning working ground after summer turnips up on Bredon Hill. The field is called 'Cobblers' and was planted with stubble turnips in April earlier this year. After the lambs had eaten all of the turnips we sprayed off the remaining weeds with glyphosate and left them to die off. That was about 3 weeks ago and so in preparation for drilling the land is worked with the Vaderstadt Topdown. The tilth was really good and after 24hrs drying will be ready for planting on Sunday morning! The land should be in really great condition with the poultry manure applied for the turnips (lots and lovely natural fertilisers) and the sheep acting as mobile fertiliser spreaders the wheat should get off to really great start.

Rape Plants 35 Days Old

2010-10-05T15:45:00.000Z

Quick update on the new oilseed rape drill out come. The picture above is the result 35 days after the seeds were planted. We have managed to establish 36 plants/m2 having sown 80 seeds/m2 (45% establishment). The higher seed rate was used as a higher seedling loss was anticipated due to seed falling down the leg slot and increased slug activity as consolidation was not as easy.

This picture is in the next door field sown at the same time but we only planted 60 seeds/m2. The establishment has been much better with 52 (86%) plants established. I would however think that 52 plants could still be a little too thick. Only time will tell and there will be some plant loss through the winter. It's still a long time until the spring. The next thing to look out for will be Phoma, sure to be a problem with warm temperatures and rain showers to get the spores moving!

John Deere's New Livery Spotted at Overbury

2010-10-04T10:32:00.000Z

John Deere's new tractor livery has been spotted out and about at Overbury this autumn. Any comments as to the reasoning behind the new design?

A Slick Fix

2010-09-30T15:19:00.000Z

Our 2 year old Bateman RB35 (batemansprayers) self propelled sprayer was in the farm workshop yesterday with a hydraulic oil leak. The leak started during harvest but was only a slight drip, drip, drip and so went unrepaired. It has been getting worse with the increased use since harvest, spraying off volunteers and putting down pre-emergence herbicides on rape and latterly wheat. As it was raining yesterday Tim power-washed the area where the suspected leak was emanating from, removed the wheel and located a small solenoid attached to a leaking pipe. Half a turn with the spanner cured the problem after a 3 hour operation to remove the wheel and bodywork to gain access to the offending pipe. If only all breakdowns were that easy to fix.

Sowing The Seeds

2010-09-29T08:33:00.000Z

Sorry all I could not resist this bit of 'Farming to Music'. It is actually a cover version done by the The Wurzels which I feel is rather fitting considering the agricultural theme!. I was drilling, or planting, a variety of wheat, called Gallant, which we are growing for the milling wheat market. This variety is liked by many millers and if all things go to plan could be being milled into flour from next November (2011). A proportion of this crop has already been sold forward some as far ahead as March 2012! This demonstrates how long term the farming industry is and how much money and investment is made into our crops that we will not see a return on for at least 18 months.

If you think this is a long term commitment then consider breeding beef animals? If the cow is pregnant for 9 months and then the calf takes a further 24 months to fatten (can be quicker) then you would have to wait nearly 3 years to get any money back and who knows were the price will be that far ahead. Would you get a better return on a no ball during the 3rd over?

Quinoa On The Menu

2010-09-24T16:43:00.001Z

This is a strip 15m wide of quinoa and kale that just about managed to survive and establish during the dry summer months. The colours are fantastic to look at and are shinning brightly in the warm autumn sun shine. The seed heads are full and although a little thinner than I would have liked should provide a valuable feed source for the coming winter. Too late for British Food Fortnight http://lovebritishfood.co.uk/ but great for the LBJ's (little brown jobs AKA birds) over the coming few months.

Lamb Selection

2010-09-23T15:10:00.000Z

Today Tod and I gathered up a group of lambs that have been grazing the stubble turnips that were planted in April. The lambs have been grazing them for about 4 weeks and we thought they would be ready to sell through the Mayhill Lamb Group to Randall Parker Foods and the onto Sainsbury's. The lambs were all weighed and their weights recorded on our Shearwell weighing system. They were weighed two weeks ago and the average growth rate has been about 1.5kg liveweight/week. We picked out 86 lambs that weighed between 42kg and 46kg liveweight which will be taken to the abattoir early next week and could be on the shelves of Sainsbury's stores by the end of the week.We then have a bit of a dilemma as the field with the turnips, should be planted with wheat by the end of September but with so many lambs nearly ready a change in diet could set them back. With the current growth rates many more will be of marketable weight in two weeks time so that might be the cue to move the lambs and plant the wheat.

Slug Trapping

2010-09-22T23:41:00.000Z

We have now started to plant (or drill) the seeds for next years crops. We have started drilling on our highest ground on the top of Bredon Hill to try and get the young plants well established before the nights get colder and slows down their growth. One of the main risks to the young seedlings at this time of year and after oilseed rape, are slugs! There are some cultural control methods as practised using 'integrated farm management' such as rolling the soil surface to consolidate the soil. This makes it hard for the slugs to move around in the soil from plant to plant. In conjunction to rolling we might need to apply slug pellets. Before we spread the pellets on the field we have to see if there are enough slugs there to justify the application so we set some traps. I have selected the area of the field where there is slightly more trash (crop residue from the previous OSR as there are likely to be higher slug populations in the moist organic matter.

I raided the game keepers pheasant food bin and located some layers mash as my tasty lure for the unsuspecting slug headcount. After dishing out the free lunch I covered the mash with an insulated sheet, weighted it down with stones and left the scene. The sheet will keep the area of mash moist and dark, just the right habitat for the slugs to feed in. I will return in a couple of days for a headcount to see if there is justification in a application of pellets.

Big Green Tractor

2010-09-12T09:00:00.003Z

Sound again required for this footage and be patient right to the end! You can't beat a good bit of Country and Western (Jason Aldean on itunes), mixed with a slight rock undercurrent and tractors! Enjoy, I thought it was quiet funny, although I'm sure the mix has been done before, but it could start a new trend.. maybe the Wurzels could be next??

Rape Rolling

2010-09-10T07:55:00.003Z

The beauty about autotrac is that once it is set up, in the field, it allows you to concentrate more on the job in hand rather than keeping in a straight line. That is the case most of the time! However whilst I was rolling yesterday, ipod wired into the tractor radio system, I had a little bit of fun. Listen and watch the clip to share in some of my humour.... (by the way no animals, trees, hedges, walls or pylons were hurt in the making of the clip)

Oilseed Rape Planting with Home Made Drill

2010-09-01T14:18:00.004Z

After sitting in the farm workshop most of the year our new project was finally tested. The cultivator drill was originally designed to plant beans straight into the stubble, a one pass, minimal tillage bean planter. After a little modification we managed to sort out the seed rate and Derek set off on the trial planting Sesame Oilseed Rape. Half of the field was 'topdowned', straight after the bales had been shifted, which meant a really good chit of grass weeds. Although not part of the original plan it will be an interesting test using the new drill into land previously loosened. The object will be to retain as much moisture as possible for the small seeds to grow in and to allow good root development down into the disturbed soil. A second field is to be trialled as well; half with the new drill and half with our vaderstadt carrier and biodrill. We'll see how the fields develop!

Princes Countryside Fund

2010-08-27T07:45:00.004Z

http://dev.princescountrysidefund.org.uk/countryside-matters/did-you-know

I was sent this link through Twitter from http://www.twitter.com/FarmrPhil and I found it really interesting so I though I would pass it onto my followers and post it on the blog for all to see. Agriculture is such a wide, diverse, complicated industry looking after so much of our countryside and nature, there is still so much to learn about. Maybe the silver lining about the wet weather means I can sit in the office and learn a little more about our great industry.

Pea Fed Lamb Time Again

2010-08-24T11:45:00.004Z

It's that time of year again when the aftermath of the pea crops are utilized by the lambs. With so little grass around at the moment the availability to ship 500 lambs onto the peas for a few weeks really takes the pressure off the main grazing areas.

An advanced group of lambs have been grazing the peas now for 5 weeks and 2 days. They will soon be ready to sell as our 'Pea Fed Lambs'.

If you are interested in this very special opportunity, with unique flavours and rated by top London chefs do get in touch with Suzie at the Estate Office for more details. Orders need to be with us by the 1st September to secure your whole (£155+delivery) or half lamb (£80+delivery).

Indoor Catchup

2010-08-23T13:41:00.005Z

Well with all of the wet weather it has meant that I have been able to catch up with a few jobs in the office. First on the list was to try and download some video taken during the harvest (still 1/3rd to go) Next I thought I would have a go at my soil protection review, to fill in the new mapping pages. Then I remembered that the maps that I have, through the RLR (Rural Land Registry) are incorrect. I did send details of the corrections with my SP5 form in May but as yet there have been no new maps issued. Oh well there's no point in doing the review on incorrect maps only then to have to redo them on the correct maps, assuming they will ever be corrected and agreed! With the rain beating down on the office window and the forecast not looking particularly special this could be a long week of finding indoor jobs to do. Back to coding invoices I guess!

Harvest Update

2010-08-18T21:04:00.003Z

We've had a crazy couple of days, with the weather being as good as it has been (at least in this neck of the woods). The combine has been working hard, with numerous balers in hot pursuit, gobbling up the straw before the next shower appears from the Severn Vally.

Luckily the crops were sprayed off with Glyphosate which meant the straw was fit and ready to bale once the combine had been through the crop. (I dithered again this year about spraying them off but again glad I did!)Many thanks to the teams of balers, lorries and loaders taking the bales off the fields ready for Oilseed Rape drilling in the next couple of weeks.

Group 1 milling wheat safely gathered in tackling the Group 2 Cordiale tomorrow and Friday before the Tipple seed and malting barley. Another good week of sunshine and we will have cracked the back of the cereal harvest leaving the beans, which BTW are ready now!

Seed Cleaning

2010-08-17T13:03:00.002Z

Really busy on the farm today. CAM (Cotswold Agricultural Merchants) arrived promptly at 8.30 to start cleaning and dressing next years seeds that we will be planting in a month or so. First on the list is Scout, a Group 3 biscuit making wheat. Next will be Gallant, followed by Solstice both milling wheats.

In addition to the seed cleaners arriving the sun also put in an (unexpected) appearance meaning men and tractors were at a premium to get harvesting and seed cleaning and grain drying completed simultaneously. Never the less all jobs progressing well at the moment (fingers crossed). I will be studying the forecast carefully today (and assuming the opposite), still trying to get the Grasshoppers out to watch the combine

Same Field, Slightly Different View!

2010-08-10T10:51:00.002Z

Lovely straight lines.

All in a Day's Work

2010-08-09T21:37:00.008Z

Yesterday the team had a really good day combining winter wheat (Oakley) on Manor Farm, Conderton. The moisture started off at about 17% but soon dropped in the summer sunshine and stiff breeze. Tim kept Gordon and Tod busy on the trailers all day carting the grain back to Graham in the grainstore. By the end of the day nearly 400tonnes had been harvested and put into the bulk shed.

The autotrac was working well, here munching off a 9m part of the field to inch perfect accuracy.

The straw was sold off the field and the baler was hot on the heels of the combine all afternoon and by the following day many of the bales had been carted back to the farm.

Cultivation

2010-08-04T21:36:00.003Z

After the combine, following a couple of days later, is the Vaderstadt Topdown, one pass cultivation system. This is a really great piece of farm equipment, versatile in all kinds of situations. From going straight into the stubble, see left, or working down ploughing the machine is very good at creating a seedbed, whilst doing a moderate job at some slightly deeper cultivation. Not as deep as a subsoiler but good shallow pan busting. The tractor, driven by Derek, is a John Deere 8530 pulling a 4meter machine, which on some of our steep fields is wide enough!

Dampened Enthusiasm

2010-07-27T09:11:00.004Z

I think we might have been in this situation before! Rain that was not completely forecast at the weekend has arrived stopping the progress we made at the weekend. We managed an hour combining yesterday afternoon before rain arrived and more rain fell this morning, heavy enough to stop us for the day (I expect).

There are a few tidy-up jobs that will be done today as field work has also stopped.

A bearing to change on the hedge cutter before that is pressed into service. We can't cut any hedges until after the 31st July due to the cross compliance requirements. We would have taken a few wet days like this as an opportunity to get a few hedges trimmed up in the past.

There is also a new chopper belt tensioner that needs to be replaced on the combine. Hopefully when the sun does put in an appearance we should be ready to press on with our oilseed rape harvest.

Combine Rolling After False Start

2010-07-25T15:09:00.007Z

Back to some proper Farming! We actually started combining on Monday on some Trick Winter barley, seed for Syngenta, which I would definitely grow again. On some very sandy light land, the feed barley topped out at 9.45t/ha (on 11.75ha) which is a great yield considering the year. Order your seed now, there's not that much going around this year!

Today saw the start of the OSR (Oilseed Rape)harvest, here Tim is cutting the first field of Excalibur on some of our lightest land. Moisture started of at 14% but by the time the headland was off it was down to 10%, quite acceptable. Not commenting on the yield yet as I will wait for the yield mapping data to come from the combine but early indications (i.e. me driving at lunchtime) look quite good but very early days so don't quote me on that!

Ragwort Worries

2010-07-25T15:00:00.005Z

It's that time of year again when the yellow peril rears its pretty head above the grass and other weeds. Ragwort, poisonous to livestock when dead/dried, is one of the major 'non tolerable' weeds found around farms and even more readily seen on our roadside verges and central reservations.

It's an annual problem that can only really be controlled by digging/pulling every year. This year we have started early following the combine around pulling the few sprigs from the hedge bottoms and stewardship margins. An on going battle for us made even more frustrating when I see it seeding merrily along the A46 at the bottom of the farm. Wake up local councils and get it sorted out or with hard cuts coming in local budgets will it just fall of the bottom of the priority lists?

Beasts in the Barley

2010-07-22T21:03:00.003Z

Just for the records I also found a whole lot of ladybirds and larvae in the Coors Malting Spring Barley this afternoon. Even though it was raining the larvae were hard at work searching for their supper. On the menu tonight (I think) were grain aphids. There were a few small populations, not enough to worry about spraying them, so the beneficials will be able to control them for the next couple of weeks prior to harvest.

Interestingly the malting barley has not received any type of insecticide at all through the growing season but the wild bird seed mixture has received 3! It just goes to show that correct applications, at the correct timing, of the correct products can control the nasty (damage causing) insects whilst allowing the good ones (beneficials) to thrive.

Ladybird Bonanza

2010-07-22T15:04:00.003Z

I popped in and had a look at the wild bird food mixtures that we planted in April to see how they were progressing and what a surprise I had.

Many of the plants that were growing, this is fat hen, (actually a weed), but good feed value never-the-less are hosting the largest populations of mealy cabbage aphids I have seen in a long time.

Feeding on these aphids are many hundreds of ladybirds. Here is a ladybird in it's larvae stage fattening up on the aphids.

This shot is showing three adult ladybirds feeding on some black bean aphids on a Quinoa plant. There was also more hoverflies and other beneficials than I could count.

Many of the plants have seeded well and should provide the most fantastic source of seeds during the coming winter months.

In the fore ground of this picture is some fodder radish that has some very large seed pods that will hold their seed well into the winter providing a much later seed source.

Litter Louts - No Respect!

2010-07-12T19:27:00.004Z

This was the depressing scene that I found tonight in one of our farm gateways. The field is not open to the public and there is no public footpath within the field. The rubbish was beer bottles and cans, plastic food containers and even a pair of broken glasses. Not only was the rubbish left which in itself is wrong but they had also had a fire at the same place. With the very dry vegetation and fields of crops adjacent to this field who knows what may have happened. This problem is becoming more of an issue on Bredon Hill and it is a real shame that this area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) is being treated this way by a ignorant few, spoiling it for the many people who appreciate it's magnetic charm. If you see or suspect this kind of activity happening please, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know.

More Bee Food

2010-07-06T10:04:00.004Z

Here is another small area that we have planted with a duel purpose. As well as providing a great source of pollen and nectar, as well as overwintered bird seed (it's intended target) it will also enhance the shoot area as it forms part of a game cover.

The mixture contains; phacaelia, triticale, oats, red and white millet and is targeting tree sparrows.

At the top of this area is a block of maize, both sections are about 0.4Ha in total.

Again in the warm sunshine insects were everywhere, feeding on the nectar produced by the flowers. Here a honey bee is just about to land on a phacaelia flower for lunch.

Millbank Trials

2010-07-06T09:18:00.004Z

The field photographed is hosting our trial areas for wild bird seeds as part of the impending HLS scheme. It was planted in April with a wide variety of plants aimed at producing wild bird feed through the winter. the mix included mustard, fodder radish, kale, linseed, sunflowers, millet and we added some spring barley just for good measure.

Despite the dry summer the crop got off to a great start, fending off most of the pigeons eyeing up the juicy seedlings, mainly the sunflowers and kale. The flee beetles and the pollen beetles also had a go but a timely insecticide brought them to a swift end. What has amazed me is the diverse insect life that is benefiting from the plants in flower. I walked into the crop this morning to find bumblebees, honey bees, butterflies, spiders, ladybirds, hoverflies and many other hungry beasties all feasting on the pollen. I was really pleased about this, an uncalculated but not unsurprising benefit.

We need more farmers to take up these options as part of Campaign for the Farmed Environment, it wasn't that expensive to establish, it might last two years, with the kale surviving, and the benefits to general farm biodiversity will be enormous.

Straight Talking

2010-06-29T16:45:00.003Z

This truck was parked up in rural Ontario, in a small village called Manotick, just outside the capital city of Ottawa (Canada) and I had to stop and take a picture of it. I feel it demonstrates in a heartbeat a simple message, straight to the point.

Coors 'Best Practice' for storage

2010-06-16T07:49:00.004Z

The malting trade is a very difficult business as we are dealing with a living growing seed. The seeds or grains must therefore be kept in perfect conditions to avoid loosing germination or getting pest infestations. Keeping those two key thoughts in the forefront of our minds was the key message from James, who's farm we visited last night. Drying the grain and then slowing cooling the crop was the best way to avoid any costly rejections at the malthouses in Burton on Trent.

Trying to get the crop dried to a target of 14% moisture and then cooled down to about 10 degrees should see the crop safely into long term storage, from harvest 2010 until the summer of 2011.

Next week a group of growers are heading to Denmark to see what we can learn from the Danish growers and maltsters about getting the right product to the right customer at the right price. I'll keep you posted as to how we get on!

Evening Tours

2010-06-08T13:53:00.005Z

On a cool and drizzly Monday evening Alex and I were joined by the new (and not so new) tenants of The Overbury Estate for a farm tour. the idea was to introduce ourselves to new neighbours and to try and explain what goes on at Overbury Farms throughout the year. An explanation about tractors roaring through the village at midnight during harvest to why dogs should ideally be kept on leads whilst walking around, lead to an engaging discussion. All sorts of interesting subjects were raised, keeping me on my toes answering all of the questions, which I really appreciated, I did honestly!

We are so busy carrying on our normal but hectic lives, we wave at each other whilst passing not really knowing the purpose of the trip but hopefully now some greater insight as to what might be going on will be helpful. It really was a great fun evening, even though we overran by half an hour, finishing the trip with the lights on the tractor, tells it's own story. I feel that this might be a trip worth pencilling in your diaries again for next year, I might even have attracted a few more followers of Farmer Jake's blog!

Silage Wrapped Up

2010-06-07T11:33:00.003Z

Following the grass being cut, the grass swath is spread out in the sun to dry. When dried to the correct level it is gathered together into long rows that the baler can follow. This makes it an efficient way of collecting the grass and wrapping it up. The baler and wrapper is a very new piece of nachinery allowing both operations to be completed by one machine.

Worm's Eye View of Potatoes

2010-06-07T10:25:00.002Z

This is one of the potato fields that Cobrey Farms rents from us. The field was planted in mid April and the potatoes emerged a couple of weeks ago. With the dry weather Henry Chinn has asked us to start irrigating the potatoes. they receive about 25mm of 'rain' each time we irrigate. the bare area in the middle of this field is where we spotted a lapwing nest when we were cultivating the field. In order not to disturb the nest we cultivated and subsequently planted around the nest. unfortunately the nest was predated after the field was planted. At the start there were 3 eggs in the nest but they soon disappeared leaving no trace.

This is a shot down between the potato rows showing how the plants grow and develop. Wit the warm water and adequate water they will very soon reach to meet across the rows. They need lots of water so that the skins of each potato are blemish free. This means that they will look more desirable to the customer when packed in clear plastic for the supermarket shelf. If these skins are good when harvested in August, Henry will pack them into 1 tonne boxes and put them into storage where they will stay untill Christmas (I expect). To find out more about Cobrey Farms you can visit their web on www.cobrey.co.uk

2010-06-03T15:08:00.002Z

Yesterday evening (Wednesday) Gordon went off, with a good forecast for sunshine to mow one of the silage fields. The field is just south of Conderton and was planted last spring with perennial rye grass and red clover. The ley was grazed by sheep last summer and autumn before being rested over the winter ready to be cut for silage this spring. the red clover in the sward (mix of forage types) will provide good protein for the ewes prior to lambing next March. The rows of grass are being thrown around today to get the maximum wilt (to reduce the moisture), before being baled up in round bales tomorrow afternoon. The British summer can play havoc with silage making and even more so with hay making (as you need about 5 days good weather at least) so fingers crossed it stays dry for the time being. (Although the rest of the farm desperately needs about 50mm of gentle rain sshhhhh)

Crow Predation

2010-05-28T10:07:00.004Z

Paul, the head keeper at Overbury sent me this picture of a crow that was living on the farm. Under the nest was a total of 56 pheasant eggs and 5 partridge eggs. These eggs were all from wild bird nests and just goes to show the damage that just one pair of these predators can do to the native bird populations. There is lots of evidence published by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust www.gwct.org .uk detailing the need to control these predators to help game bird survival but also to have a very positive effect on the LBJ's (little Brown Jobs) ie the rest of the natural bird population (thrushes, blackbirds, yellow hammers etc).

Adjacent to this nest site was a magpie nest which was taken out earlier in the year and it was swamped with thrush and blackbird eggs.

Beetling About

2010-05-28T07:10:00.004Z

Earlier this year we decided to plough up about 0.5ha of winter beans in order to establish a beetle bank and some extra winter bird mix area. The beetle bank will protect the wild bird feed area, incorporating a game strip from the activities going on in the field. I walked up and down the strip hand sowing grasses such as Timothy and Cocksfoot which will provide a great nesting habitat for the birds. The beetle bank as it's name suggests will also provide a wonderful home for many beetles and insects which in turn will provide food for creatures higher up the food chain. This mixture is called 'Yellow hammer Mix' and includes, mustard, spring wheat, mixed millet, triticale, spring barley and fodder radish. It will of coarse provide food for many more birds not just the Yellow Hammers.

The reason for this trial is to learn about growing these mixed crops as we are preparing our HLS scheme application which will include some areas of the farm dedicated to growing crops to feed birds. Now all we need is some nice warm rain to get the crops established!

Arable Bird Survey

2010-04-29T13:49:00.004Z

Today I went out on our arable bird survey walk around with John Clarke and his wife Pamela. The walk takes us to 3 areas of the farm, that we walk through about 3 times a year to see what bird species we are able to identify. We are specifically looking for farmland bird species including; skylark, lapwing, yellow hammer, turtle dove, but all species of note are recorded. Today we spotted; skylark, lapwing, reed warblers, black caps, sedge warblers, reed buntings, yellow hammers (on our cultivated margin- result) linnets and a few others. These records should help us in collating information to enhance our HLS (Higher Level Stewardship ) application at the end of May.

Today we had a brilliant find in one of the fields Pamela actually discovered a skylark nest which is amazing. I found one about 5 years ago and have waited to find another since then. We have always had skylark but locating the nests is very rare, so it was a complete joy to find one today and here it is for you to take a peak at. Here is a shot of a lapwing on patrol near a nest in one of the sites we manage specifically for this species, very rare in Worcestershire.

Poultry Muck Spreading

2010-04-28T11:39:00.001Z

Poultry Amount to Spread

2010-04-28T11:13:00.010Z

Today we started spreading some poultry litter as an organic manure to provide fertiliser (feed) for the stubble turnip crop that we are going to plant for sheep feed through the summer. The muck was delivered 2 weeks ago and has been sitting in field heaps dotted across the farm waiting to be spread. Today was that day, hopefully just before some nice warm rain (see previous blogs). The spreading contractor, Phil Odam, has just bought this spreader that can weigh each load and apply it very accurately. The spreader has a GPS guidance device which shows where the muck has been spread.

We want to apply about 7tonnes/ha to the fields which will provide enough nitrogen for this crop. 7t /ha is a very small amount and you have to look very hard to actually find it on the surface but it does contain a lot of nitrogen fertiliser of which about 30% is available to the crop straight away. The manure will also provide enough phosphate and potash for this crop and hopefully for the following wheat crop, to be planted in September. It smells a bit but with Derek hot on the heals of the spreading team, working the manure in and planting the seeds, the smell and much of the nitrogen will be captured. Gordon is following behind rolling up. If it rains tomorrow we should be in the pound seats and the sheep should be well fed. You can catch up on this fields progress by coming along to our Open Farm Sunday event on the 13th June this year.

Where are all the Leverets?

2010-04-23T08:59:00.004Z

This spring Derek has been ploughing ground in preparation for planting peas over the next few weeks on the brash land at the top of Bredon hill. He commented to me earlier in the week that he hasn't seen many leverets (young hares) this year. Another comment he made was that he was ploughing in the warren field, which is about 50 acres and he was being followed by 21 Buzzards, yes you heard me correctly 21!! That is just over 1 buzzard to the hectare. I think that there might be a link between the two. Obviously the buzzards need to feed on something, were they being attracted by the thoughts of juicy worms, I suspect they were when we are ploughing but what about afterwards? We know that there are fewer rabbits this year, (myxomatosis has killed a lot) so what else do they feed on, the odd vole, or mouse maybe a rat or two but I suspect that a nice young leveret in the middle of an arable field makes a much tastier and easier snack. When do we draw a line under some of these species and say right, we need to start managing them before the balance is turned too far in one direction or another?

Watering The Onions

2010-04-23T08:32:00.003Z

With all of this dry weather we have been asked to start watering the onions. The northerly winds have really dried out the land very quickly, going from muddy wet conditions at the end of March to bone dry conditions in about 3 weeks. These onions were planted about 2 weeks ago and are being watered for the second time already. This watering will help the small seeds to germinate very quickly and there is no real rain on the horizon for at least a week! They are due to be harvested in August. We could really do with some rain, gentle warm rain that is, very soon to help wash in some recently applied fertiliser on the spring barley and to get the grass growing again. The cold nights have also slowed up the grass growth with is not great for the ewes providing milk for the hungry lambs.

Grasshoppers Come To Visit

2010-04-09T13:05:00.003Z

This morning the Overbury Grasshoppers came up to the lambing sheds at Park Farm to see for themselves our sheep lambing. Nearly 30 parents and children had a tractor and trailer ride from the nursery in the warm spring sunshine. They witnessed a lamb being born as well as being shown some older lambs that had been orphaned, lots of bottle feeding followed. If you want to find out more, and see some more pictures do have a look at the grasshoppers blog or website, www.overburygrasshoppers.co.uk

If you are interested in having a look this Sunday (11th April) is our lambing day when tractors and trailers will be taking families from the village hall in Overbury upto Park farm between 10 am and 3pm. There is a £5/adult charge and children go free. there will be lots of other attractions in the village hall for people to look at. More information can be found at www.overburyfarms.co.uk

Making Sense of SOYL

2010-04-09T12:51:00.008Z

This year we have been using the SOYLsense system to variably apply our Nitrogen fertiliser to the Oilseed Rape and wheat crops. The system uses satalight imagery of the fields to assess the growth of the crop, the Leaf Area Index. We can then use this information to create a plan of each field which will apply different rates of fertiliser across the whole area.

This system needs regular calibration to check that what the satalight sees is actually what is happening on the ground. Yesterday Steve from SOYL came out to sample our wheat and oilseed rape crops to check the imagery. If the image shows a very lush bit of the field, say in a valley bottom, where there is naturally more fertility, we can put less fertiliser on. Similarly, if an area looks very thin then more can be applied. This is helping us apply the expensive fertiliser much more accurately to where each of the areas of the field need variable amounts. The maps are generated in the office and sent to the sprayer on a memory stick. Tim then plugs it in drives to the field and the sprayers GPS system tells the map where it is. The map then tells the sprayer what to put on and off it goes. More infomation can be found at http://www.soyl.co.uk/

Roman Wall

2010-03-15T16:38:00.002Z

Great excitement last week in one of the COSMIC survey sites the team uncovered a Roman wall. The results of the crop marks and the subsequent geo-phys were whole heartedly confirmed with the excavation of this wonderful wall arrangement. It was probably part of a villa or settlement high up on Bredon Hill where the Romans would have relaxed looking down through the Vale of Evesham. What an amazing thought that they would have been able to gaze down, looking at a similar topography to us. i wonder how different it would have looked?

Wait and See.....

2010-03-11T14:06:00.003Z

This year I have finally caved in and we are trying some cultivated margins to see if we have any rare arable plants on a couple of headlands on the top of the hill. The area totalling about 0.77Ha has been ploughed, cultivated and rolled. We have just missed out planting the spring barley seeds and putting any seedbed fertiliser on those areas.

We are hoping to encourage all kinds of plants rare to Worcestershire that like the thin brash soil over lime stone which will inheritably have a high ph. Plants that we might expect to see will be poppies, some rare ones (Rough Poppy and Long-headed Poppy and lots of red British Poppies. there could be some Lamb's Lettuce, Venus's Looking Glass and Night-flowering Catchfly.

John Clarke who help us with our arable bird monitoring wee be on hand to help determine what we have managed to cultivate later in the summer. Maybe from may onwards we will have some interesting things to see. If this trial is successful and we don't get swamped with weeds that are not too rare ;Charlock,Cleavers and Brome grasses then we might put this option into our up and coming Higher level Stewardship Scheme. In the mean time please do not walk all over the margin, it is not an excuse to walk on a wider bridle path and please keep all dogs off this area as well, as in time it will provide pollen and nectar for insect which will in turn provide food for young chicks.