Down on the Farm - Harvest Time
HARVEST IS OVER and done with for another year and not a very memorable one at that I am sorry to say. There were some good crops, a lot of average crops and some that could have been a bit better! Most of the crop variation can be seen on our yield maps produced for us by the combine harvester, and there were no surprises in that 90% of the variation coincided with the soil variation of the fields. Where we have heavy soils and the moisture is retained on the whole most of the yields have been good, but we suffered on the light land as when we had the very hot period of weather in the late spring/early summer the ears on the crops did not have the chance to fill out as well as they should which would have given us better yields.
However, although the yields have not been particularly wonderful the quality of the wheats has been excellent. Milling wheat, used for bread making, gets paid the best premium but the quality has got to be good. Once accepted it goes into mills such as Bowman's Mills in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where it is processed and set out to bakers. We have to spend more time and money on these "quality" wheats but the rewards are there if everything is right.
Lower down the scale we grow soft wheats which are used for biscuit and cereal making and for example go to Weetabix just off the A14 near Corby or Cereal Partners in Welwyn Garden city where Shredded Wheat is made! An interesting fact is that five years ago such companies were paying twice as much for our wheat as they are today, but the price of the end product has not come down at all Šso much for fair trade!!
The wheats that are left are of the feed varieties and although they yield more the quality is low so generally most of them go as animal feed. Some (quite a lot in this area) go to a plant at Icklingham where a refining process removes the gluten and the resulting product is then sent to a factory in close proximity to the Millennium Dome where further refining takes place before it is sent on to companies like HP to be made into sauces etc. Of benefit to us on a financial note the factory at Icklingham takes in wheat seven days a week and having such a large user to close in economically good for us with today's high fuel and haulage costs.
Back on the farm all the land for oilseed rape has been prepared and drilled with most forward crops emerging nicely. This year we prepared the ground in three different ways: (i) one field was direct drilled straight in to the wheat stubble (ii) some fields were "min tilled" once only with a cultivator and (iii) some were ploughed before drilling.
The ploughing was necessary because we had sludge from a sewage works applied to the land and the by-law (and being a good neighbour!) says that it must be inverted within 36 hours.
In the past most human sewage was dumped out at sea but increasingly in the future it will be treated and put onto the land. This is very good for us as it benefits the land by adding organic matter to the soil and replaces some of the nutrients that we would otherwise have to do by using artificial fertilisers. Also, the cost to us is minimal, so everyone benefits!
Anglian Water visits the farm and specifies which fields we are allowed to put the sewage on and those that have restrictions i.e. those that are near to houses, the wrong type of soil etc. It also carries out soil tests that give us an up to date soil analysis so that after an application we know what nutrients have been added and therefore allowing us to reduce our own fertiliser usage Šan added bonus!
Wheat is the next crop on the agenda for planting and at the time of writing we have just made a start.
(I have not forgotten about Tractors: A Brief History - Part Two, it will follow, at some point!)