WTFIH @ Thriplow Farms, April 2016

 What follows is a copy of the first article published in our local village newsletter. It doesn't follow on very well from the March one, as I actually wrote April first. In the future it will hopefully be more coherent.This is the time of year when we really get going on farm work again after a quiet winter. Towards the end of March we started to plant our spring crops, and this work will go on until late April. First off we will sow peas, beans and oilseed rape, then move on to oats and barley, and finally linseed and maize towards the end of the month. Unlike most farms we are using a "no-till" system, which means that we try to move the soil as little as possible, so you won't see a plough or cultivator on our fields. This is because we are trying to preserve moisture, improve the quality of our soils, and save diesel. As an extra benefit it takes much less time as well.It is also a busy time tending to the crops we established last autumn, like wheat, oilseed rape, barley and oats. These will all be getting their second batch of fertiliser, which as it is a liquid, we can apply with our sprayer. The other really important job now is that we try to protect the crops from the fungal diseases that love our cool and moist climate - all in all it is a busy month for the sprayer.We will be running tractor & trailer rides at Daffodil Weekend this year, so please come along for a 20 minute tour - there is even a roof in case the weather doesn't cooperate.If you want to see which fields are which, and what's in them, take a look on our map page here.For more regular updates, follow us on Twitter: @OOOfarmerTo receive email notifications when there is a new blog post fill in your email address at the top right of this page, or click the "follow' button at the bottom.