Farm Focus

It’s official, the driest summer since records began and certainly the hottest with temperatures reaching into the 40s – too hot for both humans and most machines to work in. FARMING Rosemary’s DIARY

Our agent told us the machinery we are using nowadays wasn’t designed to work in such extreme heat, as well as the risk of fire. The agents have no back up equipment as is normally the case so the outlook was very bleak if disaster struck, it really is a very serious situation to find yourself in, quite frankly worse than war time, when the government were able to provide machinery to keep wheels turning. We had a depot in Helpston, named The WARAG Yard, opposite the Bluebell, the old Nissan hut was there until recently, that’s where you collected the machinery from. Harvest certainly started very early with us on 11th July, apart from the heat, Sunday 31St July was the first day we stopped as it forecast rain – a well-earned rest.

As far as yield and quality, the lighter soils have been disappointing as was to be expected with the lack of rain fall. Quality is good in some areas, but again affected by adverse weather conditions whilst crops were growing and ripening. Looking back at past harvests, 1976 comes to mind, harvest finished late July, early August, with some farmer’s crops yielding half a tonne an acre nearly 50 years ago. Farming has moved on since those days, but so have the costs of growing the crop. It’s too early to predict the yields this year and we won’t know until we have it safely gathered in the stores - we do have a yield monitor on the combine which gives us a fair idea, but the more accurate one is from the store itself. At least we are able to have a harvest which I’m sure we are all thankful for. Farmers are now focussing on next years sowings, firstly oil seed rape, will it be a waste of time sowing it in such dry conditions? do we give it another couple of weeks to see if we get any rain? Or do we abandon the crop and sow something else later in the hope there will be sufficient moisture in the soil. Oil seed rape needs to be sown early, so there’s a very small window for sowing (end of July, first ten days of August is the ideal sowing slot) I can’t ever remember the gardens looking so burnt up and dead, it’s been very difficult to keep plants alive. I keep our vegetable garden very simple, only growing runner beans, a few broad beans, early potatoes, a few tomato plants, cucumber and marrows. I have to admit I have a few hours help to keep on top of the garden. Last year we had an abundance of vegetables, but this year, apart from the potatoes it has been extremely poor. We are having to feed the cattle out in the fields – using some of our winter feeds, so everything is affected by this abnormal hot spell. I think next spring we will see the extent of the damage that the hot weather has caused. Not only shrubs, but some trees are dying off in hedgerows and woodlands.

We, like most farmers have been able to combine most crops without waiting for some to ripen, which is normally the case, we hope to complete our cereal harvest on Saturday 6 August. I think this could be a record for us.

I am sure we all look forward to normal weather conditions with warmth and moisture in the next three months so that sowing and planting can be completed in readiness for next years harvest.