Month: October 2017

Early Autumn Update

Autumn is usually a fairly quiet time on the farm. There are things going on, but after the madness of harvest we all stop to take a breath for a while. This year is no exception, and apart from a bit of winter barley being sown, things were quiet.

Carrot Lifting

We let out some ground each year to a neighbour for growing carrots. This helps us in many ways, but principally because it gives us another crop in our rotation. We have been finding that the crop of barley following carrots is generally better than one that follows a cereal crop.

One condition we have is that they are not to be strawed up. Carrots are covered in straw in the autumn to protect them from frost. This allows them to be lifted throughout the winter. The problem is getting rid of all the straw when they have been lifted. This is why we don’t want them strawed up, so they have to be lifted before frosts are likely.

The weather has been kind, and the ground is reasonably dry for lifting this year (so far at least). Yes, there is some mud trailed out onto the road, but not as bad as it can be. You can see from the photo at the top of the article that there is not much mud on the tractor wheels.

The photos this month show the harvester lifting the carrots into trailers, and also the shaw remover.

Removal of carrot shaws before lifting

This machine takes the leaves etc off the carrots before the lifter comes along.

Autumn Drilling

I wrote last time that I didn’t think we would be putting any winter crops in this year because it was getting a bit late for drilling winter barley. In the end, we put in about 20 hectares, but it was not because we wanted to.

Like most occupations, farming is governed by complex and at times mind boggling regulations. The current iteration of the subsidy regime includes what is known as the 3 crop rule. Basically to qualify for subsidy you have to grow at least 3 crops, and no one crop can occupy more than 75% of your total arable area. Now, don’t get me wrong, the idea behind this is sound, in that it is there to stop subsidy going to big monoculture farms like you find in the Paris Basin, and down in South east England. Normally we would not be anywhere near falling foul of this regulation, but because of the poor late summer we were not able to get any oilseed rape in the ground, and were struggling for winter barley. Our other main crop is spring barley, which would have taken over 80% of our arable area. We had little choice but to put some winter barley in the ground.

We ended up drilling winter barley down the bottom of the hill, as that was where the ground was fittest, and because of the mild, dryish weather we have had since then it is looking quite good. We may therefore get away with it. It does mean that we have lost some good spring barley ground though.

RSABI Sober October

For those wondering how I am getting on in the challenge I set myself last time (here), I have successfully got to 29th October without touching any alcohol. At times it hasn’t been easy, but with 3 days to go I should just about manage now. I can see me having a glass of wine or 2 on Wednesday evening though!

RSABI – Supporting People in Scottish Agriculture

RSABI helping hand bannerFarming has changed dramatically on many fronts since I came home to farm, but perhaps the biggest change is in the number of people that now work on farms. 40 years ago the farm had 5 employees working, as well as Dad and my grandfather. Now there is myself and Dad, and a couple of part time helpers at harvest time. Farming can now be a very very lonely job.

Given that you are at the mercy of so many things beyond your control, and are living ‘on the job’ 24/7, it can be very easy to become wrapped up in your own wee world. It is perhaps no surprise that farming has one of the higher occupational rates of suicide in the UK.

I am fortunate in that I have many interests outside farming, and also have another business fixing computers, which gets me away from the place for a while and means I meet other people. But even I have to admit that there were times this harvest where I just felt that the pressure was getting a bit much.

RSABI is a charity who’s roots go back to 1897, when agriculture was going through a tough time, and people were in desperate need of help. The Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution was set up to help elderly, disabled, and distressed Scottish tenant farmers and their dependents, and has now become RSABI. You can read more about the charity by going here or the banner at the top of the article.

So why am I bringing them to your attention now? MacMillan Cancer Support are running a fund raiser called Sober October. Basically you get people to sponsor you to stay off the grog for all of October. Now, before people rush for the exit, I’m not about to ask anyone for sponsorship. In the first place, I want to do something to help RSABI, and secondly I would feel embarrassed at asking people to sponsor me for something like this.

I enjoy a beer or two, and a glass of wine or three at the weekend. Assuming the price of a good bottle of wine is around £10, and 3 or 4 good beers is another £10, that is £20 a weekend I spend. I am going to have a Sober October, and donate the £80 I save to RSABI at the end of the month. Now this WILL be a challenge. Just before my birthday I ‘replenished my cellar’ with some very nice wines that I have been enjoying the past few weekends. They will now sit and tempt me every Saturday night, and I’ll have to find an alternative to have with our chinese takeaway! 🙂 However, it is all in a good cause. Wish me luck, and I’ll let you know how it goes.