Since last harvest:
• Oats bales
• Rain
• Budget and consequences
• Our values
• Winter
• Concrete and tanks
• Poor prices
• From wet to four very dry months
• Reunion and cereals
• Purchase of a bowser
• Where we are today
• Harvest planning
• Future outlook, basics good lime
compost balance soil indices
• Do less better! Assess priorities,
given past week and budget.
• Other non-farming opportunities
It’s been almost a year since I wrote an article for Direct Driller magazine. A lot has happened since the end of last harvest and I had to re-read it to see just how much has changed in that time!
As with most farmers, my life seems to be dictated by the extreme weather patterns which have become the norm in recent years.
On September 21st of last year the Weald of Kent Ploughing Match was held near Pluckley. The weather was delightful, the sun shone and dust blew around the carpark. The ploughs seemed to do their thing and all was good! That evening the heavens opened and pretty much for the next four weeks we watched it rain!
The day of the ploughing match was also the day that my wet oat straw was baled! Having cleared all the bales off the fields and lined them up in rows on the headlands ready to cut the strings and turn them into compost, I happened on a big slice of opportunity!! What I discovered (with a bit of help and advice from Guy Eckley) was that these heavy damp bales of straw could be built into a bund suitable for storing muck!
This muck was spread onto the growing crop of wheat this spring and now I have a pile of bales covered in chicken muck, which should make fabulous compost once someone volunteers to cut the strings for me!
I normally aim to be drilled and sprayed up, with all the machinery washed, oiled and away by the October half-term. It’s normally a good incentive and with four children, of whom three were school age last October, my wife had booked a holiday. Well, the half-term came and went, and we had yet to plant a seed! I returned home from a week in Turkey with a fair lump of drilling to do. Happily, it actually dried up enough to get the wheat and beans planted. That’s where having two stupidly big drills comes into its own!
Once we had finished drilling it rained for what felt like three months. December through to the end of February was wet and although the crops established, they didn’t tiller well before winter set in. The other thing that came out of the blue last autumn was the Chancellors budget! Never in my lifetime has one event single-handedly knocked the stuffing out of every farmer I know. I found myself walking out to the The old kit will have to stay Drilling wheat 12th November yard and looking around wondering “What’s the point?” I did spend a lot of my time over the winter phoning farming friends and all were feeling the same way. The incentive to invest, build, grow and expand had gone in one afternoon! I take some consolation in the fact that we only own about 4% of the land that we farm but it doesn’t take much machinery, a yard and a house to get the valuation over the Chancellors threshold.
The effects of the budget meant I looked afresh at everything we do. On the back of harvest ’24, where yields were down across the country, I expected market prices to rise. What actually happened was that the UK millers committed to import German wheat to make up the shortfall and the price just drifted as the marketing year progressed. The combination of these two factors and the current machinery price inflation has meant that we have not considered (or purchased) any new machinery over the last year. The only thing that did arrive was a second-hand diesel bowser. The two 45-gallon barrels, which were strapped in the back of the truck, probably aren’t in keeping with current regulations!
One thing we have done over the last year is complete the Countryside Stewardship capital works, which were part of an agreement that started last year. This involved concreting our farmyard and installing 200,000 litre rainwater harvesting tanks. Most of January was spent digging up the old yard, crushing stone, installing drains and laying concrete. Then came the delivery and installation of eight 25,000 litre tanks, which, once f illed, should make us completely self-sufficient in water for spraying. At least if farming is tough, we have a good yard, sheds and water, which in the future I see as an increasingly valuable asset.
At the end of February it stopped raining and we’ve hardly had any since! I can’t remember a spring period where you could get your entire weekly workload done comfortably and have the weekend off. This is good because we support Maidstone Utd and have been able to follow them for almost all their matches this spring!
Sitting here now on the 24th of June, the crops actually look better than they should. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not going to break any records, but they have steadily improved through the growing season. The liquid fertiliser was all applied, in good conditions over three splits. We only used fungicides (at reduced rates) on two occasions, which were a T1 timing, then somewhere between T2 and T3. We have used foliar applications of trace elements (mainly potassium and magnesium plus early phosphorous), which has noticeably kept crops clean and healthy. I have just returned from a pre-harvest break in North Norfolk with my wife. It was stunning! Big fields, a wide variation of crops, quiet rolling country roads and Holkham Beach, one of the most beautiful places to walk! If anyone there fancies swapping places for a farm in mid Kent let me know!
We will continue our collaboration with Guy Eckley for this harvest and autumn. We continue to own all of our own machinery but have an agreement to cooperate, which suits both family businesses. Between us we have two 12m drills (one disc and one tine), two tracked rotary combines and far too many tractors, trailers and telehandlers! We have three to four extra seasonal staff that join us, as well as both of our wives who make sure we’re all fed and watered!
After harvest this summer, we have a chunk of compost to spread and some remedial subsoiling to carry out with our Sumo LDS. We are planning on using this before planting winter beans and also where remedial work is required. In accordance with the SFI regulations, we have soil-tested the whole farm using a grid system, which has resulted in us needing to apply a lot of lime this autumn. We will sell the wheat straw in the swath pre-beans to help the cash flow for this. I was lucky in buying my fertiliser before the price was withdrawn but having to pay for fert and lime in quick succession will give the bank account a kicking!
The recent events in the Middle East come as a reminder of the priorities we place on things! This, combined with the current governments treatment of the farming sector, is leading me to question my farming and non-farming priorities on a daily basis. A recent Worshipful Company of Farmers reunion in Oxfordshire/ Gloucestershire was an excellent reminder of why we should stop and get off the farm a bit more. We completed the course in 2008 but the friendships within the group are as strong as ever, with group members from Germany and Tasmania attending this year.
Can I take this opportunity to wish you all a very safe and breakdownfree harvest! Last week, I attended the funeral of a very close farming friend who passed away at the age of 57. It was a stark reminder of the frailty of life and how much we take for granted. Phil Broad will leave a very big hole in the local farming community. He will be dearly missed. RIP Phil!
