Jealott's Hill Farm Diary - October 2009

Well, the combine has been washed off and put back in the shed, the sprayer has been round everything at least once this autumn – and so it begins again.

Another growing season is up and running and not looking too bad at the moment. Over the past few months the greatest asset for us compared to last year has been the weather, we didn’t have the rain that was experienced further west and north. So much so, that we were struggling to find grass for our grazing cows for a couple of weeks in September and had to buffer feed. So everything written here is mindful of the fact that we had it pretty easy compared to many.

Harvest was close to being enjoyable this year – they even let me out on a tractor at one stage! We grew all feed wheat last year (Duxford and Oakley) which yielded well apart from 30 acres that was mauled in last autumn to very heavy, wet and cold seedbeds.

Oilseed rape did well across the farm with no discernable varietal effect. We averaged 3.9 t/ha over the farm which is headed in the right direction – so far the 2 loads that have left the farm have come back at 46% oil content which again is good news.

We were helped by being part of the SIGMA OSR growers team which brought growers and experts together to share ideas and perhaps try out a couple of things. We greatly benefitted from Grow-How’s N-min program which tailored N-inputs much more effectively by taking account of N in the plant and soil. We made an average of 20% N savings across the farm, very welcome at last year’s prices. We also tested the system a little by seeing what we could get away with on a well established crop in a good seedbed that had received both FYM and slurry prior to cultivations and had been well rolled down after drilling – this crop yielded 4.6 t/ha and had only received 28kgN/ha from the bag. This is unlikely to become the norm across the farm for N management for OSR, however it did remind me of the importance of flexibility between and within crops.

This year we have decided to split our OSR crop with a conventional variety (NK Grandia) that fits in after our whole crop silage and the rest made up of the hybrid NK Buddy. I’ve probably been more focussed on timeliness of operations as they happen rather than on any calendar date. I used to get in a bit of a lather if our rape wasn’t in the ground by the August 20th – this year we tried establishing rape with a Sumo Trio cultivator and a seeder box on the back, this has done well in a variety of soil types and conditions. We sowed the rape end Aug – start Sept , with fairly high seed rates Buddy at 60 seeds/m2 and Grandia at 80 seeds/m2 - given the benign growing conditions since planting I should have been braver and gone lower but the important thing for me is that its still all there!

We’ve changed tack slightly on our wheat as well, reintroducing milling wheat on the farm we’re trying 50 acres of Gallant on a buyback contract, which will offer me a decent premium, but will not protect me from the vaguaries or volatility of the feed price – worse luck. We drilled this on the 17th September at 190 kg/ha – we increased all our wheat seed rates this year – a decision based on a hunch rather than evidence. I’ve felt over the past couple of years that we’ve often had a low plant stand going into the spring and when this is combined with lazy roots that have been sat in wet seedbeds, tillering is adversely affected – so I’d rather take the insurance with the drill, probably a bit old fashioned, but that doesn’t hurt once in a while does it? The other varieties on the farm remain unchanged and were planted up pretty much by the 2nd October.

We’re in the process of changing things around with our cows at the moment – moving to a single autumn block calving basically because chasing the add on p/l from year round or split calving is not worth it on this farm. I came to this farm from a predominantly arable background and have always enjoyed the challenges of managing the dairy, I have the utmost respect and admiration for those high performing herds who have tuned their businesses to best fit their circumstances.

Anyway – all for now, will keep you updated more regularly thro’ the season.

Cheers

Innes

Farm diary

Jealott's Hill Farm Diary - October 2009