WTFIH @ Thriplow Farms, May 2018

Reading last month’s column again, it’s amusing to see that I suspected I would be soon complaining the weather was too dry. Safe to say, we aren’t quite at that point yet. The spring drilling started on March 20th, with a field of barley to the south of Thriplow. It was really still a bit too wet, but we were three weeks behind schedule, and mindful of all the work that was coming up soon. It took a day to plant that field, which was slower than usual as we went over the ground twice, in different directions, sowing half the seed each time. This gives us a thicker crop, which helps to suppress the weeds without relying so much on herbicides. Next up were the peas, which went in fine, and at the same time we started on our sugar beet fields.The first operation here was to cultivate the strips where the sugar beet are going to grow, whilst leaving the other 80% of the field untouched. We got off to a bit of a rocky start, as the old cover crop residue - these were the fields behind Fowlmere which had the sunflowers last autumn - was still damp, and it immediately blocked up the machine. Luckily, later in the day it dried out enough to get going fairly efficiently. After the strips were formed, we strapped the planted onto the tractor, and retraced our tracks to drill the seed. This was not without its complications, due to using an unfamiliar machine which had been lent to us. Over the course of several days we got the job done, and at the same time our other machine headed to Barrington to plant 85 hectares of oats. With the weather forecast looking ominous, there were some late nights, but eventually the last bit was done at 1am on a Tuesday morning. At 8am that same day, it started raining, and has been fairly constant since then, with around 60mm in the three weeks since we finished.In general, this sort of wet weather is good for our farm, which is mostly on drought prone land. But there are limits, and no seeds like to sit in cold, wet ground. Particularly in Barrington, where the soil is much wetter and rich in clay, quite a few of the seeds are rotting, although exactly what proportion is difficult to say at the moment. Still, we are the lucky ones. All around the country most farmers have ether not even started their spring work, or have only done a little bit. Even worse, all the livestock farmers are tearing their hair out - no sun, and too much rain, means there is no grass for the animals. Spare a thought for them, it is not easy at the moment.