Farming
As I write this we are part way through harvest. We started, as always, with the oilseed rape. As predicted, the yield was not fantastic, and it was relatively dirty with weed contamination. Readers may remember that it was planted as a mixture of oilseed rape, linseed, and berseem clover, with the idea being that the other plants would not only confuse the pests, but that the increased biodiversity would bring all-round benefits, both to the soil and the insects and birds. In the latter aim it was certainly a success, and the blue flowering linseed in amongst the oilseed rape was a welcome sight. One consequence, however, was that we were unable to spray selective broadleaved herbicides on the crop, which under normal circumstances would take care of weeds such as sow thistles. This resulted in rather too much biodiversity (!) in some fields, with the combine struggling through head-high sappy thistles standing well above the crop. Inevitably, pieces of stalk and thistle heads end up in the combine tank, and with these generally being very wet, they have the potential to cause the heap of grain in the store to spoil rapidly. As a result we had to get a mobile bulk cleaner in at short notice, which removed about 5 tonnes of rubbish from the crop, as you can see below. This works rather like a big washing machine drum, with perforations to let the crop through but not the rubbish. Bucketing 2 tonnes a time into the back, it is capable of cleaning about 25 tonnes per hour.
The cleaned crop was thankfully deemed to have very good quality – OSR is judged on how clean and dry it is, but most importantly the oil content. Typically this is in the low 40s percent, but this year, for whatever reason, the results showed around 49%. The merchant we sell it to was so surprised he rang me twice to ask what we had done in growing it, and said that it was the highest oil content in the whole of east Anglia. I would love to be able to pretend that it was something we did, but it seems to be a case of good luck rather than design. Anyway, it was nice finish to what was otherwise a rather uninspiring crop.
Next to be cut was the Wildfarmed wheat. This yielded about as expected, but again was very dirty with weed contamination. We shall have to clean this before it goes off to make Wildfarmed bread. It was also found to contain pieces of ergot, which is a black fungal growth with strong hallucinogenic properties (not good – it sends you mad), and this will have to be cleaned out with a colour sorter by the merchant. This clever piece of kit recognises the colour of every single grain in a stream passed over a lens, taking thousands of photographs per second. It then uses tiny jets of compressed air to remove anything that is outside the set colour tolerances, at individual grain level. It is an expensive and relatively slow process, but necessary in years such as this. Ergot typically grows in grass weeds in the seed head in place of a seed, but can equally grow in the crop. Many cereal crops seem to be afflicted by it this year after a large amount of rain at flowering. It is interesting to read up on the symptoms of ergot consumption, which include “muscle spasms, fever and hallucinations and the victims may appear dazed, be unable to speak, become manic, or have other forms of paralysis or tremors, and suffer from hallucinations and other distorted perceptions”. As if this wasn’t enough, they can also include “violent burning, absent peripheral pulses and shooting pain of the fingers and toes, sometimes leading to gangrene and loss of limbs due to severely restricted blood circulation”.
Historically, before the days of colour sorters, all of this could be a real problem!
The next crop to cut was our conventional wheat along Gaddesden Row. This yielded slightly above our long term average, which was excellent, although a rather low protein content means that it will be destined to end up as feed wheat, rather than going to make Weetabix unfortunately. Along with ergot, low proteins seems to be a common theme this year, probably due to the lack of sunshine at grain-fill time.
In some ways of course the arrival of the combine is the end of the farming year, but in other ways it is only the beginning. As soon as the combine has left the field the busy work of preparing the soil for planting starts. This year the oil-seed rape stubbles had all been cultivated in readiness for planting the winter wheat in October before the combine returned to cut any wheat. As I write we are cultivating the wheat stubbles along Gaddesden Row in anticipation of planting a cover crop to ensure living roots in the soil in the autumn and winter, and before planting an oat crop in the spring. The un-precedented volumes of rain in the winter and spring have compacted the top layers of the soil, and with the recent sunshine it has come to resemble concrete. Restoring it and creating a seed-bed will require both hard work, in the form of cultivations, and nature, in the form of the cover crop roots.
We also await the return of the combine to cut wheat behind Bridens Camp and opposite Great Gaddesden, as well as the Wildfarmed barley and organic oats through the middle of the farm. Hopefully, by the time this magazine comes out much of this will be complete, and the autumn work can continue in earnest.
Roadside Trees
Everybody will be aware of the road closure last month on Red Lion lane and the disruption that this caused. Unfortunately this work was essential to deal with the fungal disease Ash Dieback (often called “Chalara”) about which I have written before, as well as other trees identified as being potential hazards. This disease causes the normally supple ash trees, which were often used for sports goods, to become brittle and drop branches, potentially falling on the roads and footpaths. Eventually the disease kills the trees. Road safety is of course of paramount importance, and sadly there was no option but to close the road. Indeed in the week before the work was carried out, two trees fell completely blocking the road. It was also an expensive exercise as the value of the timber has naturally fallen due to the disease, and the layout of roadside work, taking out individual trees, is very inefficient for the big machines, which are designed to work in large plantations.
We took the opportunity, whilst the machinery was on-site, to complete the heavy thinning of one of the sub-compartments in Big Wood, which will be replanted with native broadleaved trees. The crop here was planted with mixed conifers and hardwoods by Sir Thomas Halsey in 1963. It is interesting that estate maps and the village Tithe Map, as well as tree growth rings, record that this block was formerly farmland, and was planted as woodland in about 1830.
Cricket Bat Willows at Water End
We first planted Cricket Bat Willows (CBW) along the River Gade in 1974. These trees are some of the fastest growing of all species, and are grown on a rotation of 16 years, before they are felled and turned into cricket bats. Next spring we will be harvesting 23 CBW trees, which will be replanted with willow “sets” for the next crop. The last time we felled any CBW was in 2016, where 12 trees were felled and replaced with 20. Indeed the heap of lop and top from this felling is still apparent on the water meadows towards the Ladies Mile, which we left as a giant bug hotel rather than burning, which would be the norm. The felling is bound to make a noticeable change in the landscape of the Gade valley before the next set grow through, but more about this in the new year.
Works to the River Gade.
After many years of gestation, the works to the Broadwater and weir under the Red Lion bridge by Affinity Water finally got underway earlier in the summer. Or to be more precise the enabling works got underway, with the construction of a temporary roadway and compound on Bailey’s park. Readers may remember that the aim of the works is to repair the failed weir under the bridge, and to re-profile the channel in the Broadwater, being specifically designed to provide an improved range of habitats. The end result will be big environmental gain for the river. However, the actual work has been halted by a final ecological survey revealing the presence of water voles. Given summer breeding patterns and their protections, this caused an immediate halt to work. We understand that Affinity Water and their contractors will only start work again once all required mitigation measures are put in place – this may be in the autumn, or next spring.
GFJH
As I write this we are part way through harvest. We started, as always, with the oilseed rape. As predicted, the yield was not fantastic, and it was relatively dirty with weed contamination. Readers may remember that it was planted as a mixture of oilseed rape, linseed, and berseem clover, with the idea being that the other plants would not only confuse the pests, but that the increased biodiversity would bring all-round benefits, both to the soil and the insects and birds. In the latter aim it was certainly a success, and the blue flowering linseed in amongst the oilseed rape was a welcome sight. One consequence, however, was that we were unable to spray selective broadleaved herbicides on the crop, which under normal circumstances would take care of weeds such as sow thistles. This resulted in rather too much biodiversity (!) in some fields, with the combine struggling through head-high sappy thistles standing well above the crop. Inevitably, pieces of stalk and thistle heads end up in the combine tank, and with these generally being very wet, they have the potential to cause the heap of grain in the store to spoil rapidly. As a result we had to get a mobile bulk cleaner in at short notice, which removed about 5 tonnes of rubbish from the crop, as you can see below. This works rather like a big washing machine drum, with perforations to let the crop through but not the rubbish. Bucketing 2 tonnes a time into the back, it is capable of cleaning about 25 tonnes per hour.
The cleaned crop was thankfully deemed to have very good quality – OSR is judged on how clean and dry it is, but most importantly the oil content. Typically this is in the low 40s percent, but this year, for whatever reason, the results showed around 49%. The merchant we sell it to was so surprised he rang me twice to ask what we had done in growing it, and said that it was the highest oil content in the whole of east Anglia. I would love to be able to pretend that it was something we did, but it seems to be a case of good luck rather than design. Anyway, it was nice finish to what was otherwise a rather uninspiring crop.
Next to be cut was the Wildfarmed wheat. This yielded about as expected, but again was very dirty with weed contamination. We shall have to clean this before it goes off to make Wildfarmed bread. It was also found to contain pieces of ergot, which is a black fungal growth with strong hallucinogenic properties (not good – it sends you mad), and this will have to be cleaned out with a colour sorter by the merchant. This clever piece of kit recognises the colour of every single grain in a stream passed over a lens, taking thousands of photographs per second. It then uses tiny jets of compressed air to remove anything that is outside the set colour tolerances, at individual grain level. It is an expensive and relatively slow process, but necessary in years such as this. Ergot typically grows in grass weeds in the seed head in place of a seed, but can equally grow in the crop. Many cereal crops seem to be afflicted by it this year after a large amount of rain at flowering. It is interesting to read up on the symptoms of ergot consumption, which include “muscle spasms, fever and hallucinations and the victims may appear dazed, be unable to speak, become manic, or have other forms of paralysis or tremors, and suffer from hallucinations and other distorted perceptions”. As if this wasn’t enough, they can also include “violent burning, absent peripheral pulses and shooting pain of the fingers and toes, sometimes leading to gangrene and loss of limbs due to severely restricted blood circulation”.
Historically, before the days of colour sorters, all of this could be a real problem!
The next crop to cut was our conventional wheat along Gaddesden Row. This yielded slightly above our long term average, which was excellent, although a rather low protein content means that it will be destined to end up as feed wheat, rather than going to make Weetabix unfortunately. Along with ergot, low proteins seems to be a common theme this year, probably due to the lack of sunshine at grain-fill time.
In some ways of course the arrival of the combine is the end of the farming year, but in other ways it is only the beginning. As soon as the combine has left the field the busy work of preparing the soil for planting starts. This year the oil-seed rape stubbles had all been cultivated in readiness for planting the winter wheat in October before the combine returned to cut any wheat. As I write we are cultivating the wheat stubbles along Gaddesden Row in anticipation of planting a cover crop to ensure living roots in the soil in the autumn and winter, and before planting an oat crop in the spring. The un-precedented volumes of rain in the winter and spring have compacted the top layers of the soil, and with the recent sunshine it has come to resemble concrete. Restoring it and creating a seed-bed will require both hard work, in the form of cultivations, and nature, in the form of the cover crop roots.
We also await the return of the combine to cut wheat behind Bridens Camp and opposite Great Gaddesden, as well as the Wildfarmed barley and organic oats through the middle of the farm. Hopefully, by the time this magazine comes out much of this will be complete, and the autumn work can continue in earnest.
Roadside Trees
Everybody will be aware of the road closure last month on Red Lion lane and the disruption that this caused. Unfortunately this work was essential to deal with the fungal disease Ash Dieback (often called “Chalara”) about which I have written before, as well as other trees identified as being potential hazards. This disease causes the normally supple ash trees, which were often used for sports goods, to become brittle and drop branches, potentially falling on the roads and footpaths. Eventually the disease kills the trees. Road safety is of course of paramount importance, and sadly there was no option but to close the road. Indeed in the week before the work was carried out, two trees fell completely blocking the road. It was also an expensive exercise as the value of the timber has naturally fallen due to the disease, and the layout of roadside work, taking out individual trees, is very inefficient for the big machines, which are designed to work in large plantations.
We took the opportunity, whilst the machinery was on-site, to complete the heavy thinning of one of the sub-compartments in Big Wood, which will be replanted with native broadleaved trees. The crop here was planted with mixed conifers and hardwoods by Sir Thomas Halsey in 1963. It is interesting that estate maps and the village Tithe Map, as well as tree growth rings, record that this block was formerly farmland, and was planted as woodland in about 1830.
Cricket Bat Willows at Water End
We first planted Cricket Bat Willows (CBW) along the River Gade in 1974. These trees are some of the fastest growing of all species, and are grown on a rotation of 16 years, before they are felled and turned into cricket bats. Next spring we will be harvesting 23 CBW trees, which will be replanted with willow “sets” for the next crop. The last time we felled any CBW was in 2016, where 12 trees were felled and replaced with 20. Indeed the heap of lop and top from this felling is still apparent on the water meadows towards the Ladies Mile, which we left as a giant bug hotel rather than burning, which would be the norm. The felling is bound to make a noticeable change in the landscape of the Gade valley before the next set grow through, but more about this in the new year.
Works to the River Gade.
After many years of gestation, the works to the Broadwater and weir under the Red Lion bridge by Affinity Water finally got underway earlier in the summer. Or to be more precise the enabling works got underway, with the construction of a temporary roadway and compound on Bailey’s park. Readers may remember that the aim of the works is to repair the failed weir under the bridge, and to re-profile the channel in the Broadwater, being specifically designed to provide an improved range of habitats. The end result will be big environmental gain for the river. However, the actual work has been halted by a final ecological survey revealing the presence of water voles. Given summer breeding patterns and their protections, this caused an immediate halt to work. We understand that Affinity Water and their contractors will only start work again once all required mitigation measures are put in place – this may be in the autumn, or next spring.
GFJH