I am looking forward to putting the 2020 harvest behind us not because of Covid but due to the extreme wet weather of last autumn & winter, which has had a devastating impact on our ability to grow our crops.
A new arable farming year dawns & our recently drilled crops of winter wheat & Oil seed rape are looking so much better than this time last year, so a great excuse for optimism during these dreary times!
Oil Seed Rape
This year we’ve tried something a little bit different & drilled the crop directly into the cover crop a month earlier than normal when conditions were good & dry in early August. The cover crops give us no income but are grown rather than leaving a field fallow of any crop.
This was an experiment as usually we drill it immediately after the wheat has been harvested but because of a pest called the Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle which has been consuming the rape crops in recent years, we thought that maybe drilling earlier to allow the crop to get established before the Flea Beetle starts becoming active might help … as can be seen from the photo to the left the crop is very nicely established & doing well which is a great relief!
Winter Wheat
We have drilled 80% of our wheat but still have some 65 hectares to drill where cover crop was drilled back in May & some of the fields were grazed by sheep from a neighbouring farmer. What we have taken away from this experiment is to not allow the crop to get too big before spraying off and to then try and drill because the cover crop was just too bulky & the drill was unable to cope with the extra vegetational residue. As a consequence we have had to carry out extra cultivations to break it down in preparation for drilling & now the weather has turned too wet to travel on it with the machinery! Timeliness is so crucial with our heavy old clay land!! So we wait patiently now for a window of dry weather …
On a brighter note what we drilled in September has germinated and is looking good going into the winter as is shown to the left.
Wild Bird Mix
By comparison our field boundary wild bird seed mixture cover crop strips are doing their job well in providing winter food for a range of bird species on the farm. It is a joy to walk through them & to see so many little birds flying in & out of them!
Our Focus for the Winter
To learn how best to manage a cover crop that is correctly mixed for our heavy land. I am determined that the cover crop will become a regular addition to our crop rotation so that not only the condition of the soil benefits but the wild life & pollinators are enhanced as well, which is a long term investment.
Hopefully when I write my next article in early spring I will be able to report on the progress we’ve made over the winter months on how we are to best manage our whole field cover crop for the next season so we get the right balance between productive arable crop growth alongside improving the environment.
Stay safe!
