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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Fine, Dry Weather

The good news is that the good spell of dry weather has continued allowing us to get most of the spring drilling done. As I write, we have about 14 hectares to do out of 137, so we should get finished this week.

The bad news is that the good spell of dry weather has continued, meaning that we have only had 120mm of rain here so far this year. Put that together with the total rainfall for October – December last year of 101mm, and things have been dry. Nature has a habit of balancing things out, so we are in for a prolonged wet spell at some time. The other take on this is that we have had quite a wet decade, so perhaps things have turned a corner, and we are in for a few dry years?

The fertiliser spreader has been in action this week, putting the final fertiliser on the winter barley, and the spring barley has also had its ammonium sulphate. This gives it some nitrate, as well as all the sulphur it needs for the season.

The new cultivator has also been in action, though it is beginning to show its sore points. It is really designed as a stubble cultivator, but we are using it also as a primary cultivator (that is cultivating ground that has been ploughed).

Because the ploughed ground is so hard we are losing bits off the tines, mainly the points. We will have to have a think over the summer as to what modifications we may need to make for this type of work.

Patience is a Virtue – Using Agricultural Contractors

With the price of agricultural machinery compared to the price of the produce we grow, using a contractor to do some of the work is a necessity. For example, we can’t justify the capital cost of a seed drill to do what we have to do, and besides, with the wide range of soil types we have at Cults Farm, finding a ‘one size fits all’ drill is not easy.
In our neck of the woods, there appears to be two types of contractor. The first is where someone has decided to set up a contracting business. The second is where a farmer has bought a large piece of kit – bigger than he probably needs – and then does some contracting with it to help spread the cost. Usually the second type is where a son has come home to the farm, and is quite happy to do this sort of work. The contractor we use is Iain Brown, who I’ve known since my days at Uni in Aberdeen. We have been using him to do all our drilling for over 20 years, and he has various types of drill, along with various sizes of tractor to pull them. When he comes in, he isn’t long in covering the ground.

So what are the drawbacks of using a contractor? Well, you have to be patient. Usually when your ground is fit to drill, so is the ground of most of his customers, so he can’t always come to you when you phone him up. Last weekend in the glorious sunshine we had to watch our neighbours drilling while we waited. To be perfectly honest, he couldn’t have done much here anyway, as not much was fit enough. Euan arrived on Monday afternoon and was here until Wednesday afternoon when the rain arrived. For a while on Wednesday we had 2 drills going, one 3m, and one 4m, so they hammered over the ground. Thursday was fair, but our ground was wet, so the 4m drill went away elsewhere where it was drier. It has rained on and off since then, so with a good forecast for this week, we are waiting patiently again.

First of the spring barley peeping through the ground

The warmer weather has brought both winter and spring crops on quite quickly this week. We were spreading fertiliser on the winter barley – the first dose of nitrogen of the spring, and the first sown spring barley is just beginning to peep through the ground.

A Typical Scottish Spring

The week began with gale force winds, freezing conditions and snow, and ended up in almost summer like conditions – a typical Scottish spring week really. The maximum temperature recorded on Tuesday was 4.8C, with a ‘feels like’ temperature of -3.5C. Saturday brought a maximum of 16.8C, although a cool breeze meant it only felt like 14.8C. Although there wasn’t a lot of rain during the week it was enough to stop us, and then the wind was so cold the ground dried out very slowly.
Amazingly drilling continued at the start of the week until we were snowed off on Tuesday afternoon. Euan had managed to dodge the showers, and drilled just under 100 acres (40 hectares) in a little over 3 days. We haven’t done any since then due to things having to dry out, and the contractor being busy elsewhere. With a good forecast

for this week, we aren’t too bothered, as when he does come, most fields will be ready.
There was some activity though. We rent out some ground for carrots to Edenwood Farm, and they made a start to prepare the ground. Fertiliser was spread, and then the deep ridger appeared, complete with GPS system.

When the weather did improve at the weekend we were able to get on and roll the fields of spring barley that had been sown. Rolling serves a double purpose, firstly firming up the seedbed, and also pushing down any stones that may be near the surface. Rolling is also a fine job to learn how to drive to a mark, and to be able to judge turning widths etc. Cameron was given the job as his first tractor work, and was getting on fine once he got the hang of it.

The final story of the week was the purchase of a new cultivator. We’ve been needing one for a while, but not really found what we were looking for. We got this one on demonstration from McLaren Tractors, and so far it has done all that we have asked of it, so it is here to stay.

Out of Hibernation

And so we start again. The winter has been very kind to us this year, and we’ve not had a lot of rain. The ground has dried out fast, so we were able to get a start to drilling some spring barley this week.

Lemkin Solitair drill (Iain M. Brown) drilling Laureate spring barley

Of the 3 varieties we are growing this year, Concerto and Laureate are destined for the malting market. Both of these varieties are new to us, though Concerto has been around for a few years now. We’ve avoided Concerto because it skins and splits easily – that is the husk can come away from the grain at harvest time. This can lead to rejected loads, and has been a problem over the past few years. However, maltsters can be a fickle bunch. They decide which varieties they want, and if you want to sell to them, that’s what you have to grow. The agronomic qualities of a variety are usually further down their list of priorities.

Laureate is a new variety that has done well in malting trials over the past couple of years, but hasn’t really been tested commercially. It will be interesting to see how it does, as it shares the same problem as Concerto – that of skinning.
The third variety we are growing is Belgravia. This is being grown for the feed market, and therefore on land that is perhaps not so conducive to producing a good malting sample. Up until last year, Belgravia was a stalwart of the malting market, but it is now out of favour (see above comment about fickle maltsters). It is a fairly bullet proof variety to grow, so we see no reason to stop growing it. We are also hopefully covering our backs a bit, in that although it is currently out of favour, if we have a wet harvest and skinning/splitting is really bad, then they could well accept it. We shall see.
The land down the bottom (north) end of the farm is light and sandy, so we are able to start drilling earlier there. The photos show the drill being loaded with seed (yellow bag), and fertiliser (white bag).

The drill places the fertiliser alongside the seed, so it is readily available for the growing seedling. This gives it a faster start, and leads to a slight increase in yield. It is more costly to drill it this way though. As usual, all our drilling is done by Iain Brown, as he can bring in

the right type of drill for the various soil types on the farm, though in this case using a power harrow on the lighter soil is perhaps overkill a bit.