A Proper Spring

It has been a fine change this year to have a season known as ‘Spring’. The more normal weather pattern in this neck of the woods is 7 months winter followed by 5 months of bad weather, however this year has been the exception that has proven the rule.

Last year we started drilling spring barley on the 18th of April. This year we were all finished by the 9th of April, and all going in to what must be the best seedbeds we’ve had in a while. Even the really poor bits are looking quite good as I write this.

Weather Report

So far this year has been very dry which is why we have been able to get on with the sowing so well. Up to last night, we have only had 103mm of rain all year. Compare that to January 2013 where we had 109mm in the one month and it puts things into perspective a bit. Now, I’m not unduly concerned at the moment, but the lack of rainfall could become a problem once the crops develop a canopy and start drawing lots of water.

One interesting fact this year has been the variation of rainfall within a short distance from Cults Farm. We have a Davis weather station, and one feature they offer is the ability to view other Davis stations in the area. There are two other stations within a 7 mile radius, both further west than we are. The below table shows the total rainfall for all 3 stations up to 29th April.

Farm	Yearly rainfall to 29/04/19
Cults	103mm
Farm 1 (6 miles west)	151mm
Farm 2 (7 miles north west)	196mm

I am hoping at some point to add live weather reports to the website, but have not been able to do it so far.

Lime and Soil pH

Field pH map — Map showing pH differences in a field. Red is high, blue is low pH

One of the important factors to get right when farming is the soil pH – in other words the acidity of the soil. Some crops (such as potatoes) prefer acid soils, but most like the pH to be just on the acidic side of neutral (a pH of around 6.2 – 6.5). To maintain the pH level of the soil we have to periodically apply lime, which is alkaline. Twenty or so years ago you would apply a blanket application of 2 tons/acre of calcium or magnesium lime, but things have come on a long way since then. When the fields are sampled the location of each sample point is recorded using GPS, so you can build a pH map of the soil in a field. We had two fields sampled this winter, the results of one are shown above:

A contractor is used to apply the lime to the fields, and he has a variable rate spreader that is also connected to GPS. As he drives over the field, the spreader automatically varies the rate of application, so the areas of low pH get more, and some areas will get none at all. The lime spreader is not a small piece of kit, and most things get out of its way when encountering it on the road (click on the image to see a larger version).

We try to sample 2 or 3 fields a year, which means we get round the farm every 5 – 7 years. Because the farm sits on a lot of limestone seams there are some fields that never need any lime. Lime was mined in the area up until about 20 years ago, when it became uneconomic to do so.

Spring Barley Drilling

We started drilling on 15th March on the lighter sandy soils at the north end of the farm. Drilling was in 3 phases, and we had 4 different grain drills in at various times.

Euan came in first with a 4m power harrow drill, and drilled just over 40 hectares.

4m grain drill — First 4m grain/fertiliser drill

4m drill — Euan working with the second 4m power harrow drill

He then went away for a few days to somewhere else, before reappearing the next week with a different 4m power harrow drill. This time he drilled 60 hectares, and that was the last we saw of him.

The drilling was finished off by Iain with a 6m power harrow drill, which you can see working in the feature picture of the post. This picture shows it in the transport position down at the farm.

He was joined by Derek who was learning with a 3m power harrow drill. Both the 4m and 6m drills have the fertiliser hopper on the front. Fertiliser is blown back to the coulters where it is placed in the ground. The 3m drill has a split hopper at the back, one half for fertiliser, one for seed. The press on the front of the tractor with the 3m drill is to consolidate the ground in between the tractor wheels.

Filling with seed in the dark — Filling the 6m drill with seed in the dark

It was my job to keep them both going in seed and fertiliser, and I was not hanging about much! 🙂 Because there was a bit of pressure on, we were working a couple of late nights. Between them they covered the remaining 46 hectares.

We are growing 2 varieties of spring barley this year: Diablo and Laureate. Both are malting varieties being grown for East of Scotland Farmers.

Carrots & Potatoes

Precision drill sowing carrots — Precision drill sowing carrot seed in beds

The carrots have been drilled for a week or so now, and like the spring barley they went in in excellent conditions. Carrots have to be planted with equal spacings between the plants, so a drill known as a precision drill is used. It can be seen working here.

As I write, the potatoes are being planted. These are being grown for seed again, though not by us.

The full cropping plan for Cults Farm for this year is shown in the table below:

Crop	Area (hectares)
Winter Barley	26.5
Winter Oilseed Rape	14.75
Winter Wheat	10.5
Spring Barley	144
Potatoes	18.5
Carrots	9.5

A Plague of Moths

Earlier on in the year we experienced a highly unusual plague of moths at the farm. There were two hatchings, one about the turn of the year, and the other in early spring. Now, to put you in the picture, I am a farmer from Fife in Scotland. This means that I don’t like spending money (I dropped a £1 coin once, and it hit me on the back of the head as I bent down to pick it up). The moths appearance coincided with my wallet opening on at least 2 occasions over the winter.

Combine arriving at the farm — Our new combine arriving at the farm

The first was for the purchase of a second hand combine harvester. Regular followers of my blog will know that I have talked about changing the combine for a couple of years. After much thought I purchased a Claas Lexion 630 combine. This is a change of make for us, so it will be interesting to see how we get on. It has been sneaked onto the farm and is currently hidden in a shed.

The second was the purchase of a fertiliser spreader in early spring, as the one we had was done. Again we have changed make, but this was at least partly because of looking to the future. I have talked about using GPS on the farm but so far we have not gone down that route.

Fertiliser spreader in a field — New fertiliser spreader in a field of oilseed rape

The new combine is fitted with a weigher that will allow us to produce yield maps of fields in the future should we wish to do so. Likewise, the fertiliser spreader is equipped much like the lime spreader shown above, in that it will allow us to apply variable rate fertiliser applications in the future. In both cases there is considerably more expense required to be able to do it, but at least we are getting ready for it.

… and Finally

Even in a dry year like this there are wet holes on Cults Farm. I received a call for help this morning as a trailer load of seed potatoes had got stuck down the bottom of the field where the tatties are going. He’d been a bit unlucky to be fair, as it wasn’t obvious there was a wet patch.

Forklift lifting boxes off trailer — …gently does it

There were 12 boxes of seed potatoes on it, together with 6 bags of fertiliser – about 15 tonnes in all. It was a delicate operation to get them all off without anything tipping over.

However, we got there in the end, and once the load was off the trailer managed to get out with no problem.

Autumn Field Maintenance

It has been a while since I wrote here so it would be easy to think that having successfully got all our winter crops in the ground we’ve been sitting around with our feet up. The fact that I haven’t written anything means that we have been very busy. A former Grieve at Cults described the farm as “all stanes and water”. Dealing with the latter has taken up a lot of our time this autumn.

Winter Cropping

However, before all that, after harvest comes the sowing of our winter crops. The back end (autumn) weather was kind, so we were able to put as much winter barley as we had planned. We are also dipping our toe in the water with wheat this year. We grew wheat in the past, but left it out of our rotation 18 years ago, as we reckoned at the time that spring barley paid as well and was far less hassle. We are venturing back in to it for two reasons mainly, the first being that (especially this year) we were becoming too reliant on spring barley as our main crop, and secondly we were curious to see if we could make a better job of it than we did all those years ago.

Most of the ground for the winter barley was min tilled rather than ploughed (see her e for an explanation). We were getting a bit pushed for time after the late finish to harvest and the ground conditions suited using min till this season. The results so far have been encouraging, though we have had a lot of spring barley volunteers coming through. A good sharp frost or two should correct that though.

Crop	Area (hectares)
Winter Barley	26.5
Winter Oilseed Rape	14.75
Winter Wheat	10.5

Drains & Ditches

Cults Farm sits on the side of a hill, so all the rainfall should run off to the bottom of the hill meaning we don’t need any drains, right? No, unfortunately not. The hill is riddled with limestone seams that ooze water out 24/7, and it is a continual job to keep drains and ditches cleared and working. The plan this autumn was to replace two drainage schemes that were no longer working, and to clear out some of the ditches on the farm. The picture below shows one field where we had a particular problem. This was taken in very early summer shortly after the crop had been sown. The field is just below the farm, and there is a burn (stream) running at the bottom of the photo.

Wet area in field where drains are not working

The dark strip in the middle of the photo is where water is seeping out the side of the hill. The light colour above it is sand, which is bone dry, so the water is getting down so far, then hitting something impermeable and running out the side of the hill.

The area was drained over 40 years ago by my father, but the drains have blocked up so badly it is no longer worth clearing them. It is easier and more cost efficient to put in a whole new scheme.

Thankfully, these days this is all done by machine. We use a local drainage contractor DT Stewart and Sons, and they come in with their trenching machine (shown working in the feature photo at the top), which digs the trench, and lays the pipe. The trench is dug using a very fast moving chain. The digger follows along behind to fill in the trench.

Trencher digging the trench and laying plastic drainage pipe

The drains have been put in 6 metres apart, and run straight in to the burn. You can see in one of the photos the new drains already running water. This was only about an hour after it had been laid. The last photo shows the completed job. Hopefully we should have no more problems with this part of the field.

Pretty much all of Cults has been drained at some point, and these still need to be maintained every so often. A lot of these pipes are only 1” or 2” in diameter (they are known as ‘whistlers’), so keeping them clear isn’t easy. It is often easier to dig up a section of the pipe and replace it. The following picture shows a tile drain being dug up using a digger. We reckon this drain will have been laid around the time of the Crimean War (c1855), as prisoners of war were used for this sort of work. They didn’t have diggers in these days, so the work was done with squads using continually narrower spades until the trench was deep enough to put the tiles in. It is no surprise that some drains are very shallow, and go round large stones!

2″ tile drain being exposed using a digger.

Ditches have been cleared too. This needs to be done on average once every 10 years or so, although there are some that could do with cleaning more often. Cleaning out ditches makes sure that drains will run properly, as outflows can get clogged up otherwise.

Winter Visitors

Because the straw was so short this year it was virtually impossible to get every single head of barley into the combine. A stroll over a stubble field after harvest revealed many heads lying on the ground. Because of this we have had a few visitors in cleaning up what was there. The first photo shows a flock of swans, and they were followed a week or so later by a flock of geese.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Finally, wishing you all the best for the festive season. We will be back in 2019 with more news and updates.

One more… one less: Final Harvest Report 2018

“One more harvest done, one less harvest to do…” Harvest finished on the 29th of September this year, one of the later finishes we’ve had for a while. It pretty much followed the pattern of the year so far, in that it was totally weird. We had an early start, and it looked like we were going to have an early harvest, as the crops were ripening fast with it being so dry and warm. Then the weather sort of half broke around the middle of August, and all the crops from the farm up the hill just stopped dead in their tracks. It was almost as if they got the rain, and stopped to take a good long drink before finishing off their ripening. It meant we had a long pause in the middle, and much frustration as we were wanting to get on and get it done.

Having said that, the pauses did give us a chance to get other things done, more of which later.

Demonstrator Combine

In my posts last year, I mentioned that our combine was a bit old, and probably needing replaced. Because we had repair work to do at the grain dryer this year I put on hold plans to change the combine, and our one has successfully negotiated another harvest without too much bother. However, it was very much on my mind that a major or serious breakdown might not be far away. Last year I had a wee shot of a New Holland combine and I was very impressed. Our ‘breed’ of combine is Case, and it is a totally different design from other makes, so I was quite glad when the local Case dealer, J. Low Agri Services, offered me a demonstration of a new Case combine. The feature picture of the post shows it in full work readiness, and the picture below shows it parked up in the farmyard where all the neighbours could clearly see it 🙂

Case 6140 Combine — Demonstrator Case 6140 Axial Flow Combine

This combine is the mid range model, but is still far bigger than ours. The header (the bit that does the cutting) is 25 feet (over 7 metres) wide, where ours is just 20 feet (over 6 metres). The extra width means you can cut more – in theory, but as I found out it does have its problems. A header that size is fine if you have big fields that are reasonably level. They don’t need to be flat, as the header ‘floats’ – ie it follows the contours, but we have some smaller fields, and fields with steep gulleys. This meant that the ends of the header could be hitting the ground, where the middle of it was sitting above the crop.

However, overall I was impressed, and it was a pleasure to drive and to use. I wasn’t impressed enough to ask for the price though. That will have to wait until later on in the winter.

Far Flung Outpost of the Empire

The main crop we grow at Cults Farm is malting barley. This is all sold to East of Scotland Farmers, a farmer owned co-operative who are based in Coupar Angus about 30 miles away from us. The way it works is they operate a grain pool. Basically their growers supply the malting barley to EoSF, who dry it down and store it. They then market it to the Maltsters over the winter. The price you get paid is the average of what they manage to sell it for. You get paid in installments through the winter, the first one usually coming in early October, so they want to get it all in by early September at the latest. This means that grain is going away almost as fast as it is coming off the combine – usually.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out that way this year for a number of reasons, and we found ourselves scrabbling about a bit to try and fit grain in as we harvested it. The first problem we have is that we are one of the furthest away members of the co-op, so organising haulage is a bit more challenging for them.

Secondly, the weather meant that everyone was cutting very ripe spring barley at the same time, and they were flooded out with malting barley coming in (as were the hauliers trying to lift it all).

Thirdly, we had agreed to store some of our barley until the end of the season for them, as this was a trial batch of a new variety (Sassy) for one of their maltster clients. Knowing this we planned our storage space out on the basis that the other variety we grew (Laureate) would be lifted fairly quickly after we cut it, but of course this didn’t happen.

Now, we have plenty storage space – we can easily store all our harvest in various sheds if we have to – but this year the available space was all in the wrong places. Thankfully the bulk of the Laureate was cut fairly dry so it didn’t start to spoil in the shed, but it was a bit of a struggle for a while.

Laureate barley in shed — Laureate in a ‘tidy heap’ awaiting uplift.

The other consequence of this was that we loaded over 700 tonnes of barley in just over 2 weeks – while we were desperately trying to get harvest finished. To say things were hectic is an understatement!

However, we got there. We were patient and talked regularly to the transport manager at EoSF, so that we (and he) knew what stages we were at. We are very grateful to Malcolm, Colin and Robin for their efforts in what was a tricky year.

Barley Quality and Yields

Every year has its own problems as far as grain quality is concerned. Two years ago our grain nitrogen levels were on the high side. Last year the grain skinned very easily (the husk of the barley comes away from the seed too easily). This year there were two problems: nitrogen levels and germination (I talk about ‘nitrogen’, but really I mean compounds containing nitrogen – proteins).

The nitrogen levels were high because the year has been dry. This has meant that the crop yield is well back, so any nitrogen the plant has taken up has gone into fewer grains that it normally would – so the nitrogen content of the grain was higher. Nitrogen levels were high across the country, and yields were down, so the maltsters agreed to lift their tolerances for nitrogen from 1.65 to 1.7. This made a huge difference.

Germination levels are extremely important in malting barley. The food store in a barley seed is starch. For brewers and distillers to make us of this it has to be turned in to sugar, so it can turn to alcohol in the fermentation process. The way this happens is to allow the seed to start to grow, so that it gets as far as turning the starch into sugar, and then stopping it. Obviously if the seed is dead, it won’t grow. Germination levels for malting barley have to be 96% or higher.

As I have said elsewhere, Cults Farm has early ground down the bottom of the hill, and later ground up the top. We had no bother with germination on the early ground, but as harvest progressed (and we got some rain), levels started to fall. Thankfully we only had one load rejected for germination (92%), and to be honest we weren’t that surprised when we heard about it.

Harvest Technology

Harvest technology has come on leaps and bounds since I came home to farm in the early 1990’s. You can get GPS that steers the combine, and maps the yield in a field (though we don’t have either), the combine can set itself, and follow the contours of the ground. However, perhaps the most essential part of the Cults Farm combine driver’s toolkit are a pair of Automagic Crop Ripening (ACR) Goggles. When you get close to the end of harvest and you are impatient for a crop to ripen off, simply put on a pair of ACR goggles and the crop appears ripe, allowing you to carry on harvesting.

These were originally pioneered by a neighbour of ours (the first version being known as ‘Ainslie Specs’), but we have developed and refined the design to include the standard ACR goggles, and the deluxe version. This has extra enhancements such as Instant Weather Improver (IWI) which makes clouds and rainfall invisible giving the impression of a sunny harvest day, and the optional Crop Yield Enhancer (CYE) which gives the impression the crop is actually quite good. This can turn the impatience of finishing a late harvest into a pleasant experience.

The below pictures show the view the combine driver would normally see of an unripe crop, and then the same crop viewed with deluxe ACR goggles with IWI and CYE turned on.

Unripe barley — Unripe crop of barley being harvested

The same barley crop viewed through Deluxe ACR Goggles

And Finally…

Combine Driver Companions – Sally & Susie

Harvest is a very stressful time of the year and we are very grateful to the people who help out, and generally help things to go smoothly. In no particular order:

Brian, David, & Cameron for driving combines, tractors, watching grain dryers, and helping to keep myself and Dad sane.

Stuart from Sellars for keeping the combine going.

Charlie Pryde for keeping the dryer going.

Chrystal Petroleum for making sure we had plenty fuel for grain dryers, combines & tractors.

Sally and Susie for keeping the combine driver company on long harvest days. They are too old to jump out from the cab to chase rabbits now, but that doesn’t stop them turning somersaults in the cab when they see one!

Harvest Report: August 2018

Last year I was able to do a harvest report once a week, but due to weather conditions we haven’t actually done that much harvest since last time I wrote. There has, however, been lots of things going on that are worth talking about.

Grain Dryer Fire

Last time I wrote I said that work was still being done on getting the new elevators and conveyors put in at the grain dryer. Work was completed, and everything up and running on 10th August. We spent the next few days putting the winter barley through the dryer, and were starting to move it round to the grain store. By the middle of the following week we were up to date with the drying, but I left grain in the dryer as the burners were due to be serviced.

There are 3 diesel fired burners in our grain dryer which I get serviced once a year, but because work had been ongoing I had delayed it. The engineer arrived just after lunch time on Wednesday, and cleaned all 3 burners. Now, normally we only run with 2 burners at a time but because we were testing all 3, I turned the temperature up, and we had all 3 burners going. Everything checked out fine, and I switched the burners off, leaving the fans on to let the dryer cool down. That’s when the fun started. We started to smell smoke, and there was smoke coming out of one of the exhaust pipes of the dryer.

I called for the fire brigade almost immediately, and started unloading the grain in the dryer as fast as I could. The dryer holds approximately 16 tonnes of grain, and I reckon I had about half of it out when the unloading mechanism stopped…

The fire brigade were here with 2 units within about 20 minutes, and by this time we could see which part of the dryer was on fire, as the metal was glowing red, and the odd flame was licking out from it.

They had the fire out within a few minutes, but we still had to get the dryer emptied so they could make sure it would not flare up again.

To cut a long story short, I had to get Stuart from Sellars out to help me clear the dry grain elevator, and Andy from Anderson’s Electricians to see if he could get the unloading mechanism working again. Thankfully he could, and we had the dryer emptied within half an hour. This enabled the fire brigade to dampen down any other hotspots they found, and everything was back under control.

It was 7.00pm at this point. I was soaked, black and blue, and my back was killing me, but I was so relieved that we’d caught it before it got well out of control.

The next few days were spent clearing up the mess, speaking to NFU Mutual (our insurers), and waiting on new parts, but by Wednesday this week we were back up and running again. We only lost 9 tonnes of grain due to smoke or fire damage, which was lucky to say the least.

I can only surmise that a spark from one of the burners hit a pocket of dust, which combined with the higher temperature, ignited.

Harvest Fever and Bare Ground Syndrome

Harvest Fever and Bare Ground Syndrome (BGS) are undocumented medical conditions that affect all arable farmers, and I’m sure some gardners as well. They both occur in late summer/early autumn, and early symptoms are twitching, restlessness, and continually looking at the weather forecast. I will deal with Harvest Fever first.

Harvest Fever

Harvest fever usually happens when a neighbour’s combine is seen to be working when yours is not. You may have a perfectly good reason for not combining, but that is irrelevant. The affected farmer will spend time rushing round his crops checking to see if there is anything fit to cut, and if so, the combine is rushed out to make a start. I suffered a minor case myself last week.

We had had a good day combining on the Friday, and there had been rain overnight. The weather during the morning had been cloudy, and things were not drying out, so I (correctly I thought) decided that there was little or no chance of combining. I had some errands to do in St. Andrews, which is about 10 miles away from me, so late afternoon I set off.

After about 3 miles I noticed that the sun was appearing, and shortly after that I passed my first combine. It was cutting wheat in a field next the road. “It’s OK, they’ve had sun here, which we’ve not had” I told myself as I drove on. After a further 4 miles I passed a second combine, also cutting wheat, in brilliant sunshine. I began to feel uncomfortable. Just outside St Andrews I passed a third combine, and well, that was just too much.

I literally flew round my errands, shot back home, and Cameron and I went and cut some barley. Was it fit to cut? Probably. I don’t care. I felt better at having done something…

Bare Ground Syndrome (BGS)

Like all good farmers, we plan a crop rotation of sorts. We set out a rough plan before harvest of what we are going to grow, and where. It is only a rough plan, as the weather can greatly influence things, but BGS is something that has to be watched for. BGS tends to appear where a field has been cleared of its crop, the weather is good, and the farmer has time on his/her hands. It tends to afflict the older generation of farmers worse, as they were farming at a time where every scrap of land had to be productive, but it can afflict the younger generation too if they are not careful. You get the same twitching and restlessness as with harvest fever, but this time it is because the farmer feels they’ve GOT_TO_GROW_SOMETHING!!! Economic and rotational rationale goes completely out the window as there is a compulsion to get a crop in that bare ground. When confronted with what is happening the affected farmer is able to come up with a myriad of plausible reasons as to why it is a good idea, and a firm hand is required to convince him of what is actually happening.

Back to the Future

Two years ago we decided to stop growing Oilseed rape. The main reason was that it wasn’t really making money, but it also tended to put us under extra pressure in August, when it was sown. Oilseed rape is a difficult crop to establish, and weed control can be a real problem. I can honestly say we’ve not regretted the decision since then.

Contractor ‘min-tilling’ stubble before drilling

This year we have sown 35 acres of oilseed rape… but the ground was in perfect condition for establishing rape, we picked a variety that gives us greater flexibility for weed control, and we used a contractor to do all the work!!

Oilseed Rape Establishment

Under normal circumstances we would plough ground before sowing a crop. Ploughing buries all the weeds, trash and rubbish and gives the new crop a good start, but the biggest problem with it is it takes time. The alternative is what is known as ‘minimum tillage’, or min-till for short. Here only the top 5 – 10cm of the soil is cultivated and the crop is sown. The theory is that by not inverting the soil you are keeping the natural drainage channels open, and also all the worm activity is undisturbed, so you are improving the soil structure where it matters. Generally speaking we are unconvinced by most of these arguments, but because it is so much faster than ploughing and if the conditions are right, then we will use it.

Euan drilling Oilseed rape behind the cultivator

From the pictures you will see there is some straw or stubble left on the top. The field is a light sandy field, which means that if it dries out and a wind gets up, then the sand will blow. If the young seedlings are newly emerged when this happens, then they get stripped out. The straw/stubble on the top gives them a bit more protection, which is an added benefit over ploughing.

Harvest Progress

We finished the winter barley on the 4th of August, and it was a reasonable crop considering the year. Due to the poor weather we didn’t get any spring barley cut until the 17th of August, and only got the one day and a bit. The fields we have cut so far are both sandy, so suffered with the drought this summer. The crop has not been good. The barley was destined for malting, but the grain nitrogen levels were high, at 1.71. In a normal year, the maximum allowed is 1.65, but because of the year nitrogen levels are high generally so the tolerance has been raised to 1.75 in some circumstances, and this may be raised higher at a later date as the full picture of Scottish crop quality becomes clear.

Grain prices are holding up very well, which will make up for the poorer crop, and as suspected there is very little straw.

2018 – The Weirdest of the Weird!

In the depths of the snow back in March this year, who would have thought it that we would be starting harvest on the 22nd of July? The above picture shows the combine working in our first field of winter barley in glorious sunshine – so hot in fact that after taking the photo it was a relief to get back in the tractor to the air conditioned cab.

This season has without doubt been the weirdest one I have experienced in my 35 odd years of being a farmer. In an earlier post I put up a table showing that this spring was the latest one in that time. Although we have started harvest earlier than this (but not by much), the interesting fact will be to see when we start harvesting spring barley. At the moment I think it will be early August, which will mean (after the late spring) the growing season has been very short indeed.

The Weather

After a cool wet spring we have had a prolonged dry spell. I wrote last time (2nd June) that we had the longest dry spell that I’d recorded on the weather station (20 days), and we have also recorded the highest apparent temperature of 30.9C on 28th June. There has been some rain, but not enough – 53.2mm, the wettest day being the 14th of June with 14.8mm. Another 8.8mm of that total fell last night. The rain has come in lumps rather than spread evenly.

So how have these extremes of weather affected the crops? Cults Farm is on the side of a hill, with light sandy soil down the bottom, gradually changing to quite heavy clays up the top. Sandy soils let water pass through them, so crops have suffered with the heat and drought. Clay soils will hold water much better, so the crops are coping reasonably well on these soils.

The following picture starkly illustrates the problem on the lighter soils:

How the weather has affected one field at Cults Farm

The area of white flowers near the bottom is an area where we could not drill a crop in the spring because the soil was too wet. As you move up the picture, you see light patches and dark green patches. The lighter patches are where the crop has run out of water, and is literally dying on its feet. The green patches are where the soil has managed to hold on to water better, and so the crop is still managing to grow.

Impact on Yields

This is very hard to predict, as generally speaking Cults Farm does better than you think it will in a dry year, and not as good as you think in a wetter one. The one thing that it is having a severe impact on is the amount of straw. The straw is very short this year, and so there will not be a lot of it. The shortage of straw is exacerbated by a poor crop last year, so prices have gone through the roof.

Wild Oats

Wild oats are a grass weed, and a very prolific one when they get established. If you have one plant in year 1, then in year 2 there will be 5 – 10, year 3 there will 50 – 100, and so on. They are an annual, which means they grow from seed every year.

Wildo Oat Plant growing in a crop of spring barley

They are an expensive weed to control using chemical sprays, because you are trying to control a grass weed in a cereal crop (which is a grass), so as long as you catch then early enough, the most cost effective method of control is roguing. This is where you walk through the crop and you pull them out, and carry them off in a bag for disposal. They are quite easy to spot, as they usually sit well above the crop (see photo), but if you see 1, you can guarantee there will be at least 5 that are smaller and just below the level of the crop, so care must be taken.

Having teenagers who need to earn some money is an advantage, as there is usually a ready supply of roguers. Add in a good summer like this one, and what better way to spend a Friday evening with the family than out roguing for wild oats? 🙂

These photos were taken on a warm Friday evening where we were all out for a couple of hours. An ice cold beer has never tasted so good!

Grain Dryer Progress

Way back in December preparations were started to put in new elevators and conveyors for the grain dryer. The idea was that if we started in plenty time, then everything would be in place well before the start of harvest. Unfortunately things haven’t quite worked out that way.

Again, the weather has played an important part. We effectively lost March due to the snow. April, May and June were drier than normal, which meant that a lot of farmers in our area were irrigating their vegetable crops. This put an unprecedented demand on Sellars to keep these irrigators working, and couple that with being short staffed means not much happened with the grain dryer until the beginning of July.

July is the holiday time, so since the 16th of July there has been a bit of a rush to get things up. I would imagine things should be up and running within the next week to ten days, but there is still quite a bit of work to be done as I write today. Once the engineers have finished, we have to get electricians in, and also joiners to put in new flooring in certain areas.

Harvest Update

Harvest started on 22nd July as I have said earlier. The crop was reasonable considering the dry weather, and just as importantly it was fairly dry. At about 16% moisture content it will keep in the shed for a considerable time, so thankfully we are not feeling the loss of the grain dryer too much yet.

There was only 1 field ready, the next two will probably be ready by the end of this week. Then we will have a short break before starting on the spring barley, probably the week after.

The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Spring

Did we have spring this year? The fact that I am only getting round to writing about it on June 2nd rather suggests that we didn’t. Last time I wrote we were still waiting on things to dry up so we could make a start to sowing spring barley. We finally made a start on the 18th of April, and then all hell broke loose.

Learning As You Go

You didn’t have to be a genius to see what was going to happen. We use a contractor for our sowing, and he hadn’t been able to turn a wheel for about 2 months. Last time (here) I mentioned the fact that I was considering hauling our old grain drill out from the back of the shed so we could do something in case he couldn’t get to us for a while. In the end I thought better of that, but sent him a wee message saying that if he was pushed I would be happy to take a shot of his 3 metre grain drill if that would help him out. Now, people that know me will realise that over the past few years I haven’t done a lot of tractor work – my efforts are concentrated in the office, with the exception of harvest time – and the last time I’d driven a seed drill in anger was autumn 2008 (see picture below).

Valtra with Drill — Valtra T130 with Accord 4m drill and Overum drill cultivator

So it was with some trepidation that I was informed that my offer was accepted, but it would be a 4m drill with front hopper and GPS. Initially it was only to be for a few days as Iain was short of drivers, but a few days turned into a week, which turned in to 2 weeks… you get the picture.

MF Tractor with Lemkin 4m grain drill — My “toy” for a couple of weeks!

So how did I get on? It took me a while to get used to the whole yoke, as I was having to learn the tractor, the drill/hopper controls, and the GPS. However after the first 4 or 5 days I was getting used to it, and was a lot more confident. And as is usually the case when confidence grows, carelessness can creep in.

I only really had one disaster to be honest, and that was when I was distracted with something else. I had come to the end of the round, and was going through the routine (lift up fertiliser metering wheel, lift up front hopper, shut down revs, lift up drill, reverse). As I lifted up the fertiliser metering wheel I noticed that a shock absorber had come off. The distraction was enough to mean I forgot to lift up the drill before reversing… the result was one mangled pre emergence marker – though it could have been a lot worse from what I have been told.

Mangled_marker — Ooops – what happens when you forget to pick up the drill

Apart from that I got on fine. OK, some of the later drilled ground that was very dry isn’t looking too clever, and that may be down to my inexperience as to how deep I needed to set the power harrow, and the seed coulters. However, I have learned, and all in all it was an interesting and enjoyable experience. We are very grateful to Iain for giving us a shot of the drill to allow us to get crops in the ground.

First Use of GPS

One thing that was a completely new experience was using GPS to steer the tractor. Basically the tractor has a GPS receiver that is connected to the steering. The signal keeps the tractor driving in a straight line. So once you turn at the end, all you should need to do is push a button, and the tractor lines itself up to match with the previous round – and it works quite well. Sometimes it wasn’t good at getting lined up to start with but once I’d got the hang of it, it made the job a lot easier. Whether it is worth the £10,000 price tag is another matter. I can see for a contractor it will be a bonus, and certainly for jobs where extra precision matters, but in our case that sort of money can be better spent elsewhere.

Knock On Effects

Spring sowing effectively finished on the 11th of May. By this time Iain was catching up on the work, so he was back on the yoke I’d been using, and Steven Eccles was also in with another drill of similar size. It was a late finish by normal standards, and because of this there have been various knock on effects.

The Weather

A favourite subject of mine. Since finishing sowing most of the spring barley crops have got off to a fantastic start. They have effectively caught up on where they should be at this time. This has meant added pressure for us, as we have had to cram what is usually a 6 – 8 week spray programme into about 4 – 5 weeks.

The weather has helped us here a bit though, in that it has been dry. The last rain we had of significance (>0.2mm) fell on the 13th of May. A new weather station record of 19 days without any rain has now been set (and looks like being broken today).

The crops that were sown on heavier ground that was a bit more cobbly are not doing so well, and really need a good soaking. According to the forecast we aren’t going to get that for some time yet.

Office Work

May 15th is an important date in the farming calendar. Scottish farming relies on government subsidy to keep it sustainable in the long term, and the deadline for submitting your application form each year is the 15th of May. Normally this isn’t a problem, but because I’d spent 2 weeks or so on a tractor I had a bit of catching up to do. Thankfully everything was submitted on time.

For the first time in a few months I’m beginning to feel a bit more in control of what is going on. Yes, there is still a lot to do, but we are not being dictated to by events as much as we were a few weeks ago.

A late spring does not make for a happy farmer…

It is at times like this that I wish I didn’t have a job so dependent on the weather. The past 6 weeks have been extremely frustrating, as we have not been able to do very much fieldwork at all. This Spring is one of the latest I can remember, and it because it was coupled with a wet back end (autumn) we have more grain to sow than we would normally. I took the above picture on March 26th when things were beginning to dry out, and it looked like we might get something done. I’m glad we didn’t as if we had, then every crow and rook in the county would have been feasting on it as no-one else has done much from what I can see. But is my memory playing tricks on me? I’m sure I’ve seen similar before. I decided to do a bit of research.

Digging Through The Archives

I have kept a diary, or journal, for 30 years now, so I spent an hour or so this evening going through these diaries to see when we started drilling (or sowing) in each year. I’m missing 1989 and 1990 as I was travelling, but the others are all there.

Start of Drilling Dates 1988 - 2017

1988	25th March	1998	19th March	2008	20th March
1989	-	1999	14th March	2009	18th March
1990	-	2000	12th March	2010	13th March
1991	26th March	2001	1st April	2011	24th March
1992	16th March	2002	28th March	2012	11th March
1993	12th March	2003	21st March	2013	4th April
1994	21st March	2004	30th March	2014	15th March
1995	24th March	2005	4th April	2015	21st March
1996	27th March	2006	6th April	2016	23rd March
1997	19th March	2007	15th March	2017	16th March

Dates that the drill started in the Spring from 1988 - 2017

The first point to bear in mind is that just because we start late doesn’t mean to say we finish late. For example, the latest year for starting is 2006 (6th April). But then we only had 105 hectares to drill (this year we have 175 hectares), it was pretty much all in ‘easy’ ground, and we were done and dusted by 14th April. 2012 on the other hand had an early start (11th March), but we didn’t get finished until 5th May because of a very wet April.

A second point to consider is that up until about 2001 – 2003 we did all the drilling ourselves. After that it has mostly been done using a contractor. So the ground may have been fit, but because the contractor was elsewhere we didn’t make a start. One thing that was very clear from my diaries was that when we did it ourselves we went as soon as we could.
So why use a contractor if we can start earlier ourselves? This year it wouldn’t have made a difference, and when the contractor does arrive he gets over the ground far faster than we could do it ourselves.

This is one year where I am glad we still have our grain drill though. With a poor forecast for the rest of the week it may well be getting hauled out from the back of the shed just in case…

Grain Dryer Progress

Regular readers may remember we had a bit of a disaster at the grain dryer towards the end of last harvest (http://cultsfarm.co.uk/2017/09/30/harvest-17-update-all-is-safely-gathered-in/). The main grain elevator came to the end of its useful life, so we were looking to replace it over the winter. With all things like this it wasn’t long before the whole project began to sprout arms and legs, and the potential cost started to escalate. I took the decision towards the end of October to get Sellars to rip out the current elevator, bottom conveyor, and grain dresser (installed in 1976) so we could clearly see what space we had for putting in new kit. This was duly done, and the decision taken as to what we are going to do. The new kit has arrived, and some building work has been completed. Hopefully construction will begin within the next few weeks or so. I’ll post updates as they happen.

Snow and Freezing Temperatures

The past couple of days have brought snow and a return to winter. At the start of the week I was drawing up a post as to how our preparations for spring work were going. They have now ground to a halt. The only work now being done is in the office (where it is at least warm), with the odd venture out to pull the occasional unfortunate motorist who has attempted to get up our brae without four wheel drive.

The ‘beast from the east’ has smashed a few weather station records. We have had colder days this winter, but it is the ENE wind that is the killer. The following image shows that although the actual temperature has hovered around -3.0C, the wind has made it feel a lot colder.

Unusually the wind chill has been greater than the apparent temperature. I’m not sure why this is, but think it has to do with the fact the air is quite dry at times. The relative humidity has an effect on how the temperature feels.

One thing I am glad about is that we don’t have any stock. Although we’ve not had a vast quantity of snow, it is drifting in the wind. This makes it difficult for stock farmers to feed stock in fields, and also to get the feed in to the farm. Stock kept inside are better off, but frozen water pipes are a real problem when the weather is this cold.

Before this weather arrived, neighbouring farms had started to work ground ready for vegetables, such as carrots. To get the best prices, some crops are sown as early as possible and put under plastic. This sort of weather delays things, which makes an already difficult job even harder.

Merry Christmas from us all at Cults Farm

We’ve been a bit quiet on here recently, but that’s because things have been, well, quiet really. We’ll be back in the New Year with (reasonably) regular updates as to what we are up to. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

‘Sober October’ Challenge for RSABI

I am pleased to report that I successfully completed my challenge to stay off the grog for all of October. At times it was hard, but I got there! As promised here, I have sent payment for £80 to RSABI, which together with gift aid comes to £100. I am currently enjoying a Californian red, which has been tempting me for the last 4 weeks. Right now I’m not sure how much work will be done tomorrow! 🙂