Farming in September 2009
Another summer has flown by whilst waiting for some good weather. Its now late September and its drier than its been since the spring. We’re hoping the dry weather will hold for a little while longer as apple harvest is just around the corner and things get pretty muddy pretty quick in the orchards. The apples have loved the summer rain and we’ve got plenty of work ahead of us. We can put the trickle irrigation system for the orchards on the bottom of the shopping list for another year.
Our maize has won the Harewood End Agricultural Society Best Maize in the World Competition for the second year. Last year I assumed we were the only entry since our "winning" maize was pretty poor. This year I am extremely pleased with our maize and feel it’s a little bit more worthy. I know Rachel will be delighted that we get to keep the cup to clutter the window cill for another year!
Things are progressing well with the installation of the milking robots. The robots are Lely Astronauts and since it’s the 40th anniversary of the lunar landings we’ve christened our two Neil and Buzz. The scheduled has slipped a bit and lift off is now 1st December. If we didn’t have Farming Year getting in the way we’d have it done by now! We’re all looking forward to switch on even if it does mean being with the cows 24 hours a day for the first few days.
Whilst many things in agriculture are new and cutting edge, some things are not. We have just planted several fields of turnips to provide extra grazing for the sheep during the winter. By sheep I mean the paying type from Wales not the hobby Herdwicks, I’m not surprised they are a rare breed the amount of mollycoddling it takes just to keep them upright! The grazing sheep add phosphorus and potassium to the soil. The turnips also provide a cover crop over the winter when the land would otherwise be bare preventing soil erosion. The use of turnips has been advocated since the Norfolk Four Course Cycle and Turnip Townshend in the late 17th century.
Farming Fact: In the last 30 years sparrowhawk numbers have doubled and sparrow numbers have halved.