WTFIH @ Thriplow Farms, June 2020
I never wrote one of these articles in May - I suppose there must have been something else going on that distracted me. It has been a really busy time on the farm, with the weather just about holding up as we would like it. The wheat crops are now looking really good, and even those that had looked thin and uneven all year have picked up, and are also looking highly respectable. We have applied all of their fertiliser, and the first batch of all-important fungicide.
WTFIH @ Thriplow Farms, April 2020
For most of the time since my article last month, not a lot has been happening on the farm. The combination of cool weather and the constant topping up of soil moisture levels has meant that we haven’t been able to get on with as much field work as I would have liked. That is not to say we have done nothing though - all of the oilseed rape and winter wheat has received their first batch of nitrogen fertiliser.
WTFIH @ Thriplow Farms, March 2020
I definitely can’t say yet that Spring has Sprung, but we are just starting, as I type this, to get back onto the fields. The first job of spring is always to begin applying fertiliser onto our oilseed rape. We want to wait until the plants have started to wake up and grow again, otherwise they cannot use the fertiliser, and there is a risk that too much rain will wash it away - wasting our money and also possibly causing problems further along in the water system.
WTFIH @ Thriplow Farms, February 2020
It’s the middle of winter - but it really doesn’t feel that way. There have only been a couple of frosts so far, and they have all been pretty minor. Cold weather is actually an important part of the farming year fo us, as it stops the cycle of some pests and diseases. Aphids and slugs are both sensitive to the cold, but perhaps more important is are the fungal diseases, particularly on our wheat plants.
