Pondering Picking Peas

Peas emerging 19th April

For the first time we have no-tilled all of the hand picked peas up on the Bredon Hill.  Previously the crop had been cultivated to create the seedbed to plant into.  Historically the fields would have been ploughed in the autumn and left bare over winter, then cultivated ahead of the drill (planter).  More recently the fields were cultivated (quite deeply) ahead of the drill and then planted, but not any longer!  The picture above shows the peas emerging through a sprayed off cover crop of oats.  The oats were planted the previous autumn and left to grow over the winter.  The plants were using the sunshine and nutrients available to them to capture carbon, in the form of plant material-roots, stems and leaves and also feeding the biological process in the soil with sugars which the plant releases through the roots.

Peas in row 11th May

Once the crop was sprayed off with glyphostate, to kill all the green material, the seeder planted the peas.  It was a very dry spring this year but by not cultivating the soil we held all the available moisture-enough to get our crops to establish very evenly.

Peas meeting across the row 26th May

As you can see from the pictures above the crop established very well and continued to grow on and produce a very good yield of quality peas for the fresh vegetable market.  This year the fields designed for peas have once again been cover cropped with oats and they are preparing the seedbed for next years peas which we will start to plant from the end on March 2018.

Harvest Roundup

Harvest seems a distant memory, as the grain store fan are blowing the cool air through the harvest grain and the Cross Slot drill is wrapping the last few fields of autumn planted winter wheat.    It has not been our biggest harvest ever, although I think we were spoilt last year with some great yielding crops but it was far from a disaster either.  Our oilseed rape and winter barley were the worst performing crops down about 20% from last year and slightly below our longer 5 year average.  The oilseed and barley grains were small which gave us problems of different sorts.  The barley size meant that we had high screenings, that means that too many fell through a sieve resulting in less usable quality.  The majority of the crop was sold and moved at harvest to Molson Coors.  The oilseed rape has lower oils that last year; about 44% rather than 48% which gives us a slightly lower grain price and the seed sizes were very small.  This meant that the losses from the combine, those seeds that carried straight through in the straw were a bit higher than normal although fairly insignificant in terms of yield loss and on the bright side added to the cover mix. 

The peas where slightly up on last year and have some fantastic colour so will make a good price in a difficult market.  The wheat we harvested was very variable with some every good yields, in excess of 10t/ha and also some wheat from the hill that were slightly disappointing yielding about 8t/ha.  All of the quality has been excellent and with very little drying costs due to the lovely warm sunny weather.

Our new MacDon draper header performed really well across all of the crops we harvested.  It was easy to hitch onto the combine and very easy to alter the header angle and draper speed on the move during operation.

Harvest can be a long drawn out season but thankfully this year; with near perfect weather, it was over in time for a bank holiday weekend off for everyone, the last one was in 2003!  Thanks to all the hard work and effort put in by the whole team and also for the patience to those in the village often held up with tractors and trailers rolling through the village.

Planting Peas Into Cover Crops

The cool spring has certainly held up planting progress on the farm this  year.  The weather felt warmer in December than it did in April which is crazy.  The maximum air temperature for example in December was 13.9 degrees and in April the maximum was only 14.9!  The minimum air temperature in December was 2.1 and April the minimum was lower at -0.9.  

As a result of the cooler temperatures and a wetter start to the year;  Every month since January has been 30% wetter than our 25 year average.  As a result we have 

had to be very patient to wait for the right ground conditions before we could start planting our spring crops.

Barley started on the 23rd March when soil temperatures were rising but the peas really had to wait until we had a constant 10 degrees soil temperature so that they could be planted and emerge very quickly.  This field was planted on the 25th April, on light sandy soil, into brilliant conditions.  The cover crop was a mixture of oil radish and oats which survived the winter and really had started to grow.  The peas germinated within 5 days and this picture was taken at that point and shows the young root just emerging from the seed.  The pink colour is a fungicide to stop disease slowing the growth of the plant in the very early stages.  As you can see from the photograph the cover crop and the use of zero tillage (or direct drilling) has really helped the survival of earthworms in the soil partly through not disturbing their habitat, through cultivations, but also through providing them with a food source through the winter.

So the crop is off to a good start so we will see how the season goes and how many tonnes of mushy peas will be harvested later in the year.

A Late Spring?

The spring has finally arrived after a fairly dry but chilly start to the year.  Rainfall totals for the farm, from the remote weather station indicated just over 100mm of rain since 1st January.  Soil temperatures, however have been really cold, only getting into the critical range for seed germination of between 7-8 degrees at the end of March.  Seeds will obviously germinate at lower temperatures but the emergence of the crop will be slower, leaving the seedlings exposed to pest (slug and pigeons) attack for a longer period of time.  An old saying that spring barley should be out of the bag and out of the ground in the same week should be remembered.  This is especially true for crops that are direct drilled in non-cultivated soils.  Cultivation warms up the soil by moving the soil, and can help dry out the soil to allow earlier plantings, but there are disadvantages.

By drying out the soil it leaves less moisture available to germinate the seeds especially if the weather turns warm and windy after the seeds have been planted.  It also risks smearing the soil at the lower depths, where the tine or disk is working, which means putting a deeper compaction layer in the soil. It also burns up the organic matter in the soil releasing carbon into the atmosphere.  I remember in spring 2013 we planted spring barley ahead of my Nuffield trip to Canada and three weeks later the seeds hadn't emerged, it was that cold.  It just goes to show that you can't farm by the calendar!

There is also a practical balance to think about as well, we can't justify having enough man and machinery power to drill everything on the perfect day, so we have to start when we can on the suitable fields in order to get the crops planted.  These are two pictures of beans (top) and peas (below), planted using a direct drill (no cultivation) system.  The peas have germinated and the roots have started to emerge within 3 days, which is great news.  The seedbed was moist and warm so crop establishment will be quick and will hopefully outgrow the early attack of marauding pigeons!  The beans were planted 10 days earlier, but germination was slower as the seed bed was cooler.  As the sun shines the soil will continue to warm up and it is important that these crops get away to the very best start to optimise their potential and deliver a good harvest in August.  There's a long way to go and we'll have to wait and see how the season develops.

Open Farm Sunday-8th June

Come rain or shine we will be taking part, along with almost 400 other farmers around the country, in this years Open Farm Sunday.  The annual event is organised by LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) and it is a great day out for all the family.  If you are interested in having a look around a farm to see how your food is grown and how farmers look after the countryside go to the website, type in your postcode and get searching!

We are conducting guided tours around the farm, lasting for about 1.5 hours and taking in some of the tremendous views form the top of Bredon Hill overlooking Cheltenham.  We'll be stopping off at Overbury Stud to visit the horses before heading towards Beckford and heading up the Yellow Brick Road.  We will stop off to look at the arable land and how we are using different crops to protect our valuable soil and increasing the populations of earth worms in our soil.  After this it is off around the hill escarpment to look at pollen and nectar mixes designed to provide much needed pollen and nectar for all of our pollinators and recently planted wild bird food seed mixes.  These are not not harvested but left through the winter to provide valuable winter feed for our farmland birds.  Following on we will be sampling some fresh peas before returning via the Park to look at our sheep flock  then on to the village hall.

Trailers are setting off from the village hall at 9.30, 11.30 2 and 4pm.  Places are limited so you will need to call the Estate Office (01386 725111) or e-mail reception@overburyestate.co.uk 

Nuffield Trip Day 10 - 2 Exceptional Operators

Thursday the 5th of December and Tom and I first headed down around Ashburton to visit the first of two first class farmers operating Cross Slot drills.  First up was David Ward who has been using the Cross Slot System since 1995.  The farm is a silt farm over gravel/shingle with irrigation. The farm soils are only able to hold 80mm of stored water and when the heat comes on with North Westerly winds and hot temperatures evapo-transpiration can be as high as 8mm/day, so the irrigators need to get around the farm once a week.  David farms about 950 acres, with help from three employees, growing rye grass seed, clover seed, oilseed rape (hybrid - seed), vining peas, radish seed, spring barley, winter wheat and spring wheat.  The farm also carries and finishes 20,000 fat lambs through the winter on ryegrass and oat based cover crops and also takes weaned deer through to market weights.  The production numbers were staggering, with yields around 12T/ha of winter wheat and 11t/ha of spring barley.  I was starting to ask myself why bother with winter crops when lambs can be fattened off cover/grass crops adding to the margin/ha of a short season crop?  Might this work well in a black grass situation?  I need to think outside the conventional box when I get home!

The soil we dug up in every field was in fantastic condition, a sweet smell, lots of little worms and plenty of nodulation on the pea roots.  The crop; yes it was watered, looked stunning.  It had an even germination and was rocketing through the growth stages in the warm weather.  It was clean, even, and full of yield potential.  Still a long way to go!  We moved on to another draw dropping crop, this time of spring barley.  David put the potential yield at 11t/Ha and I would not doubt that.  The crop was planted after a winter break crop, direct drilled, and it has not looked back.  The leaves and stems were clean, disease free and stiff.  The heads were billiard table flat and not a weed in sight.

On the other side of the road we stopped to look at an organic farm that David has been asked to farm conventionally for  couple of years to 'sort it out'.  We dug some soil up which had recently been cultivated and left fallow ready to plant.  The tilth was very fine and had no structure.  If there was any kind of heavy rain event it would have slumped and capped, squeezing the air and the life out of the soil.  If the wind started blowing from the West, then a layer of topsoil would send up in the sea, through wind erosion.  I have to say it wasn't the best advert for organic farming.

The organic matter on David's soils have been increased from 2.8% 20 years ago to over 4% now.  This is helping store more valuable water in the soil, but it is not a particularly quick process and needs a mixed rotation and livestock putting some organic matter back into the soil.  The crop below is of hybrid oilseed rape seed production and will receive about 240mm of irrigation water through the growing season, which is staggering, but these farms are kitted out with high cost centre pivots or walking irrigators.  But the returns are worth the capital cost many times over with high value crops, good yields and good prices.  You have to ask how environmentally sustainable is this constant extraction of water from the underground aquifers? Can this practise continue at this pace for the next 10, 20 or 50 years?  The politicians are starting to look at extraction quantities, the environmental impact, and the potential election of the Green Party may force changes in production systems in the Canterbury area.  This could have an impact on UK seed supply as many of the varieties we grow are sourced from New Zealand seed stocks.  Less water use could see a reduction in output and therefore less seed and what seed will be produced could be exported to other countries or we'd end up pay more more for our seed.

After the flat land and soils,which reminded me of the silt soils of Lincolnshire only shallower and over shingle, we headed south of Timaru to St Andrews to meet Mike Porter.  Mike has a dry land farm, annually receiving only 22 inches of water just off the East coast in the rain shadow of the Western Mountains.  Mike harvests around 400 Ha on his farm and runs a flock of breeding ewes around on some permanent pasture.  Like many New Zealand farmers Mike stubbled during the late 1980'sduring the de-regulation, when subsidies were cut over night and the dollar was devalued by 20%, to make the country more export competitive.  This, coupled with interest rates of 20% and the worst drought in 40 years (88/89), broke many farmers and almost took out Mike as well.  Since then he has developed a great farming system revolving around the cross slot drill, reducing cost and also increasing return per hectare.  Don't forget it's all about profit per hectare rather than out and out yield!

Mike's farm reminded me of my time in Idaho with rolling hills and slopes of around 26%.  Mike farms feed wheat (8t/Ha) and barley (6,5T/Ha), oilseed (3.5T/Ha) and rye grass with a small area of vining peas seed (3T/Ha).  The system is very integrated with the lambs being fattened on ryegrass stubbles or green feed oats, through the winter and forage rape in the summer.  The crops are established by just spraying off the previous crop and direct drilling into the stubble or residue.  Mike does roll everything to reduce the threat from slugs and also uses, usually one, dose of slug pellets.  This is an interesting shot looking up a bank where the tractor has had a higher level of wheel slip, the forage rape seems to be more forward.  I think, and I'm not sure, that this is due to mineralisation of soil carbon due to soil movement under the tyres releasing nitrogen which the crops picking up.  In a couple of weeks the difference would have disappeared as the crop evens up.

Mike supplies Canterbury Meat Packers who are a dedicated supplier of New Zealand Lamb into Waitrose  of which Mike is obviously very proud.  The oats can grow about 3-4,000 Kg of dry matter in the autumn which can be stocked at around 12 stock units per hectare.  The lambs feeding on the forage rape are growing at around 300-350g/day which is very acceptable, and are stocked at around 70/Ha with back fencing which allows some regrowth and a secondary grazing.  In comparison to David's soil, Mike's deep clay soils can hold up to 220mm.  Interestingly starter fertiliser is used to establish the fodder rape making Potash available to the new seedling as soon as it germinates.  Something that the Cross Slot is able to do at ease.

This pivot irrigator is irrigating grassland for a diary conversion on a neighbouring farm and is probably the only one in the southern hemisphere working on such steep banks.  At the moment Mike is in a red zone for irrigation, i.e there are no local plans in extend the area available to irrigate.  A huge thank you to David and Mike for giving up their time to show us around their farms.  Although very different farms;  attention to deal, passion, hard work and the love of farming and growing were evidently common place in these excellent farmers.

Nuffield in New Zealand Day 5 - A Story of Two Brothers

After a hearty breakfast we loaded up and headed from Fielding through Palmerston North before driving nearly 2 hours South towards Masterton.  Our next host provided a great lunch; Nathan and Kate Williams.  The farm is about 200 Ha with some extra seeding done on contract with the Cross Slot drill.  In total the drill plants around 400Ha/year.  The farm grows spring barley and spring peas, which take about 100 days to grow through the spring and summer.  These fields are then planted with Italian Rye Grass, which carry in the region of 7,000 lambs from 30Kg liveweight to their prime weight of about 42Kg.  The lambs achieve this liveweight gain in around 6 weeks

Red clover and Italian Rye grass seed is also grown as seed crops and sold to local markets, or in the case of the IRG some is replanted on the farm reducing the seed cost of winter animal feed considerably.  Nathan's father Jim was telling us about the traditional method of crop establishment which was full inversion with the plough and then power harrowing several times.  The Cross slot drill has been used to establish all of the crops on the farm since 1998, increasing organic matter in the paddocks and increasing crop yield.  Fertiliser is always applied at planning to spring crops with the seed, which is traditional with the farmers here in New Zealand.

Jim told us that the farm is actually more intensively managed now using no-till as more management time is spent looking at the crops rather than sitting on a tractor seat.  The speedy turn around between crops also adds to the yield of the winter grass crops, allowing increased carrying capacity of lambs on the farm, increasing the return.  Is this potentially more management time to get to 20T/Ha of wheat?  Nathan has just started looking at winter wheat again, this is Einstein grown on river silt land, looking very well.  The crop is planted at 88Kg/Ha, receives three fungicides, 2 plant growth regulators and about 400Kg of urea.  Septoria and rusts are the main diseases so a fairly similar program to us in the UK.

After a short drive through even more stunning countryside we met up with Nathan’s brother Mick and his wife Karen who were the 2013 Wellington Ballance Farm Environment Award winners.  Mick and Karen farm in the crook of the Ruamahanga river in Central Wairarapa.  The farm is predominantly spring planted with arable crops; barley and peas, with redclover, and Italian ryegrass grown for seed.  Here are some peas that have been drilled with the Cross Slot drill straight into sprayed off IRG.

Short term IRG leys are planted after peas and barley in the autumn and used to fatten lambs on through the winter period.  The farm carries in the region of 6,000 lambs through the winter grazing on the IRG.  Soil temperatures rarely get below 5 degrees in this area so the grass grows all winter; which is a great advantage. Mick uses a 3m Cross Slot drill for the crop establishment except for 4 Ha of onions grown for seed.  Both of the farms we visited today were fantastically run, with great passion for doing the best job possible whilst being innovative and positive.

We left Mick and Karen’s and headed on to visit Roger and Barbara Barton, near Greytown.  Roger is a 1995 Nuffield Scholar and Barbara is the secretary of New Zealand Nuffield.  We had great company for the evening and a fantastically well cooked homely meal for supper (thanks to bambi)and a couple of Tui’s.  Just the ticket!