WTFIH @ Thriplow Farms, March 2018

It is still fairly quiet on the farm as we come towards the end of winter, with time being spent cutting hedges, digging out ditches, and getting machinery ready for work to come over the next few months. It has been tricky trying to time the last bit of sugar beet harvesting between Foxton & Fowlmere, as every time we get a start, it rains. Hopefully it will all be done by the time this article is published, and the resulting pile will have been taken to Bury St Edmunds where it is turned into Silver Spoon sugar. If you want to support British agriculture, you should buy this instead of Tate & Lyle, which is all made from imported sugar cane.The next farm job will be to start applying fertiliser to the oilseed rape, and some of the wheat which we think needs a helping hand to get growing quickly. At around the same time we be starting to plant our spring crops, beginning with either oats or barley. After the cereals will come sugar beet - making use of a new machine we are being lent - and then finally the peas in around the middle of March. All of these spring crops are planted into a cover crop, which was killed off in the middle of January. As anyone who spent time around Fowlmere & Thriplow will know, last autumn was a great one for our cover crops, as they really enjoyed the wet and warm weather. There are several reasons why we plant these covers, but the main one is that we are trying to put carbon back into our soils, as that increases their fertility and ability to hold onto moisture, both of which are very important to us as farmers. It also takes carbon out of the atmosphere, and locks it into the soil, which is good for the environment as a whole. Finally, another benefit is that these growing plants hoover up any leftover nutrients in the soil, which stops them being leached down into the aquifers, where they could cause water pollution. So you can see why the government is so keen that we grow them.Lastly, I need to talk quickly again about the walking routes over Thriplow Farm. I am still getting many questions about what has happened, and why, so I have written an in-depth analysis. Unfortunately some of our signs which tell people to keep off the environmental strips have been vandalised recently, which is a real shame. I would ask people to remember that we are voluntarily providing over 6 miles of walking access that we are in no way required to, so even if it does not go exactly where you would like it to, please try and appreciate that there are reasons why it is how it is. We love to see people enjoying the farm on these tracks, so please get out there and use them as the weather gets better.