Well, 2024 was a bit rubbish on the farm. We didn’t get all our planned cash crops planted, either autumn 2023 or spring 2024 and some of our summer cover crops (grown instead of profitless break crops) were disappointing, to say the least. The spring linseed was a bit patchy too, but the weather ensured that we’d never get round to harvesting it…eventually, come a relatively dry spell in November, we just cut some wheat into the standing linseed. I thought the seed in the pods was going mouldy and won’t be worth the hassle of cutting and cleaning. As it turned out, quite a bit has germinated but most has fed the big flocks of finches etc that are cleaning the place up. I’m also pleased, though it may sound surprising, to see large flocks of pigeons grazing away on the linseed cotyledons. Having given up trying to grow oilseed rape, I’ve become much calmer about seeing pigeons. They are doing a great job pruning back the small-leaved clover that is meant to be an understory for some of our Wildfarmed wheat. We got the cattle to graze it down hard before we drilled the wheat with the Weaving GD (we tried the Horsch CO but it dragged too much of the living mulch up), but the clover came back fast with the mild autumn. The wheat has all emerged nicely and is much happier now the clover is getting the pigeon haircut.
It might be that I’m getting old, but I found that trying to manage 1000 hectares regeneratively was getting too much. Getting old also means getting serious about succession planning, so Paul and I are attempting to split the farm in half so our children can do their own things on their own patch without having to consult cousins. It turns out that it’s not that straightforward of course and the budget has stirred things up further so I can see that the professional fees column in the accounts is going to be bulging.
I know that there are several people on here who can manage far more acres successfully and all that I can say is that they are cleverer than me. We are going ahead and farming our own halves anyway and it will help us ascertain what works best on our land. Paul stirred things up for the neighbours by parking a plough in his yard. He had a couple of fields that he reckoned needed a reset so the plough went in. I must say, after 14 years of no-till, it turned over lovely and the wheat went in beautifully and is zooming away with all that mineralised N.
We got all our drilling done on our half (no-till), despite it being slightly later than intended and everything has come up nicely. The ground is in good nick on the whole, despite a wet year with not enough cover. I’m confident that we’ve learnt valuable lessons about getting on with increasingly unpredictable weather. Herbal leys are a joy, especially now there’s government money in them and the beef price climbs skyward, I’m tempted to increase cattle numbers and plant more.
We’ve just pregnancy tested the cows and, it turns out, next year won’t be a number boosting year. I thought I’d tighten up the calving by taking the bulls out a couple of weeks early (I know this is Direct Driller magazine so I shouldn’t be talking about animals, but seriously, it isn’t that hard to run some cattle and it makes life much more interesting). As a result we will lose a few more cows than I planned and half the new heifers we added didn’t take, so the herd will stay much the same size.
There are some real old friends amongst the culls, our oldest cow at 15 has thrown in the towel. We’ve had 13 calves off her and now she’s off to cow heaven, with 7 others, 12, 13 and 14 year olds and a couple of younger ones. The pastures are still quite soggy, so we’ve brought them onto the outdoor corral where they’ll now stay until it dries up a bit. The culls are going in the morning, so I went out and had a quiet word with them to thank them for their hard work. They took the news kindly but I still feel dreadful!
Joanna has been on a Listening to the Land course and is backing me up on this business of talking to the animals. Although apparently I should go further and talk to the fields and find out what they are thinking. This makes perfect sense to me, but I think I need a bit of practice. Anyway, we’re planning a one day course on 1st July, just before Groundswell in case any of you out there wants to tune into the subtle energies dancing under your feet.
It should set you up for the best Groundswell yet (get it in your diaries: 2nd/3rd July 2025), which we’re working on inbetween all this farming and other stuff.
Applications to run a session are pouring in (there’s a form on the Groundswell website if you want to apply) and they are nearly all brilliant so choosing which to put on is again going to be very tricky. We are also working out how Groundschool (the new educational wing of the broader Groundswell project) is going to happen, we are about to apply for planning permission for phase one with classrooms and teaching kitchens etc. Never a dull moment…
