1983

The best  (and easiest)  cereal harvest we have ever had.  Both wheat and barley comfortably beat the previous records and,  in doing so,  gave us some serious storage problems. Prices were also higher th an we had budgeted so the results overall this year have been good.

It would, of course, be nice to claim credit for these yields.  It would be reassuring to feel that they were achieved by our remarkable farming skills and that we were entirely  (or even largely) responsible. However, to do so would be ridiculous and simply untrue. As is always the case on our thin land, the weather holds the key. We need rain, and this year we got it when we needed it most - in the spring. Without ra in we will inevitably do badly, and with it we shall do well. All we ourselves can ever hope to do is to ensure that the various jobs are done at the right time. If we have a secret weapon it is simply timeliness. This often means that we are accused of impatience by other farmers,  and certainly there have been times when,  had we waited, we would have done better.  It was always said in the old days that the difference between a good and bad farmer was fourteen days. Today it is near er fourteen hours.

CEREALS  (1650 acres)

This was the first year we have grown more wheat than barley, and for a time it seemed that this was the wrong decision. The barley looked good from the moment it went into the ground in perfect conditions. The pre emergent herbicides worked well, and throughout the spring and early summer it was obvious that the crop would be outstanding. Not so the wheat. When the rains finally stopped at the end of May,  it looked almost as good as the barley,  without being quite as spectacular.  However,  the drought which lasted throughout the summer caused the wheat to die prematurely. As white patches appeared on some of the lighter land our optimism faded.

There was not enough moisture to fill the grain and we envied the people on good strong land which could retain moisture. Our fears were, happily, unfounded.

The high point of the harvest was the performance of the new winter barley, Panda,  which exceeded our most optimistic estimates.  The breeder,  Victor Desprez, visited the farm three days before harvest and predicted a yield of 70cwt.  In fact that particular field gave just over 80cwt and broke our barley record by just over 10cwt.  But the other varieties also did well. That old standby, Igri, had its best year ever. Otter, whose obituary is written prematurely every year, confounded us by doing 56cwt. Tipper managed 60cwt and we were more than happy with it.  The mystery is why it has not caught on better. But at least we should be able to sell the unwanted seed for malting - and maybe make more than the seed premium. Halcyon looks as if it could take over from Otter.  Its yield was good and the only problem seems to be whether the straw is strong enough.
 
Avalon, after a disappointing year in 1982, came back with a bang to give us the highest yield we have ever recorded from a single field at 84 cwt per acre. Norman and Longbow did less spectacul arly, but this was largely because several  fields were  third wheats.  Fenman gave the best  samples, and its yield was impressive too.  Poor Moulin,  on the other hand,  had a disastrous time.  Its yield was poor due to a bad seedbed and a very low seedrate, but as if that were not enough, it then failed to pass the Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) tests which all new varieties must undergo.  As a result,  it will not be marketed next ye ar.  Instead we shall be growing Nickerson's entry in the quality wheat stakes, Mission. We shall also be growing two new ones from the PBI, Brimstone and Brock.

We shall be experimenting with Durum wheat by growing 80 acres of Capdur for seed. Whether or not the higher price will compensate for the low yield remains to be seen.

Next year our system of cereal growing will see a very profound change when we stop burning straw completely.  It will undoubtedly cost us a lot of extra money,  but then controlling pollution is always expensive. All combines will have choppers fitted and,  instead of simply discing twice to make a seedbed, we shall have to incorporate the straw with cultivators and discs before ploughing every acre. What this will do to the date of drilling remains to be seen, but we shall still try to have all the corn in the ground by the end of September.

HERBAGE SEED (200 acres)

A disappointing year.  Yields of Frances at around 8cwt/ac re were below average for early Perennial Ryegrass. The Contender did a bit better but it proved to be extraordinarily difficult to combine because the straw was very tough indeed.  It managed to wrap itself around anything in the vicinity,  including  the  insides  of  combines,  tractor  axles,  car  prop shafts and tedder bearings.  Fortunately, the prices for herbage seed are still relatively strong and this will compensate a bit for the poor yields. Next year we shall be growing an early Perennial Ryegrass for NSDO called Mantilla.

OILSEED RAPE (200 acres)

Like the barley, the rape looked god for the whole of the growing season. But,  unlike the barley,  the eventual yield of 24cwt/acre  (3 tonnes/ha) was rather disappointing. We experimented with sulphur for the first time but, as usual, it is impossible to say with any certainty whether or not it made economic sense. We gave up swathing the crop and this year allowed it to ripen naturally before combining it direct.  It was a great success and we shall  certainly repeat the process next year.  Not only does  it save money,  but  it also spreads the harvest by ensuring that the rape comes between the barley and wheat.

PEAS (100 acres)

After three years we are gradually learning how to grow the crop.  The actual yield, at about 25cwt/acre, was not outstanding,  but at least we managed to harvest the same a creage that we drilled. In the past we have lost part of the crop to either pigeons or weeds. We shall continue with peas because they do make a lot of sense to our system. Not only do they go through a combine,  but they also enable us to clean the land during the winter and provide an excellent entry for wheat. The outlook for all sorts of protein in the EEC is relatively cheerful.

SUGAR BEET (225 acres)

After  last year's near-miraculous  crop,  this year will inevit ably be a disappointment.  However,  at the time of writing it looks as if we might average 14 tonnes per acre which is a lot better than we had once feared at the height of the drought. The crop itself was drilled rather too late and never looked at all well until early September. We used a weed-wiper to try and control the weed beet and bolters. This certainly cost less than hand rogueing but there were a few problems to deal with. The worst of these was the occasional drips of Roundup ont o the beet, which made the fields look messy and didn't do the plants any good.

CATTLE

The most successful calving ever. 81 animals were served and we lost only two calves, making a mortality of 2.4% compared to more than 10% in other years. The main reason for this seems to be that we fed the animals less. So not only did we save money on the beet pulp bill, but we also got more calves. It was almost too good to be true. The prices at Bury St Edmunds Market were lower than we had hoped i n early May, and we also had fewer animals to sell.  Thus the  financial  results of the beef herd were only ordinary.

SHEEP

We lambed earlier this year,  starting on New Year's Day. This may have been one reason why the lambing percentage dropped from 1.71 to a rather ordinary 1.52. Whatever the cause,  it meant that we had 100 fewer lambs than we had budgeted for,  and that  inevitably affected the results at the end of the year. The EEC Sheepmeat Regim e has, of course, done wonders for all sheep enterprises but it has had the side-effect of making early lambing not worthwhile any more. The price we received at Easter was only slightly better than that we were paid in early September - thanks entirely to the subsidy which made up nearly half the price. But in spite of this (maybe because of this) we expanded the flock to 450 ewes with the addition of a further 100 animals this autumn.

MACHINERY

The most exciting arrival this year was the new 8 wheeler Scania lorry, which was only the second to be delivered in England. Together with the Leyland and the Magirud Deutz, we now have a fleet of three 32 HGV lorries, which most experts would feel was too much for a farm of this size. But it certainly makes harvests easy.
 
We bought a new Sanderson 345TS Teleporter to accompany the existing 245TS. One John Deere 4040S arrived to replace a 3140 which simply was not strong enough to lift the 8 metre Roger drill. After harvest w e replaced the Claas Dominator  116CS with a new machine,  and the two Claas Dominator 96s were exchanged for two Claas Dominator 106s. Other purchases included two John Deere 2140s to replace the Ford 6600s, a Bomford hedge cutter and a diesel Land Rover.

THE FUTURE

The farm will be bigger next year. We managed to buy 118 acres from Geoffrey Todd at Chrishall Grange, and we are taking over a similar amount which had been let to Perrin Bros. However,  by far the biggest chan ge which will happen next year is our decision to stop burning straw altogether. Whether or not the practice is actually banned by law, it is now quite impossible to justify it to an angry public who feel - quite rightly - that farmers should be no more allowed to pollute the world than any other industry.  Regardless of the NFU Code, nobody has yet found a method of burning straw which will not dump soot and ash onto the surrounding countryside.
 
Throughout Europe farmers manage to  incorporate straw on all types of land, and there is no reason at all why we cannot do the same at Thriplow. Our light land is, in fact, better suited to the practice than the strong soils. But even farmers on heavy clay can make the system work - albeit with a lot more horsepower. We shall try to do this incorporation without buying any new machinery, but it may be necessary to purchase different ploughs which have more underbeam clearance,  trashboards and have been designed  fr om the  outset  to work  in  these very difficult conditions.

We shall be converting a cottage at Duxford into a student hostel with six bedrooms. This will enable us to house the three pre-college students who come to the farm each year. It will also mean that we shall be able to take on foreign students who want to gain experience on an English farm for the harvest season.

We are seriously considering installing a straw-burning boiler to provide central heating for th e five houses at Thriplow Farm. Although this will be an expensive project, it should save money within a few years if oil prices continue to rise at the present speed.

We are hoping to build yet another grainstore in time for next harvest. This one will have a capacity of 1250 tonnes in five separate bays and will allow us to cope with increasing yields (and acreage) over the next few years.
 
Looking to the  future,  it now seems inevitable that the Good Days of arable farming are coming to an end. They have lasted longer than any of us dared hope, and we must be grateful for that. Certainly we have succeeded in increasing our output as successive governments have asked us. Thus we should feel not the slightest sense of guilt or shame when faced with critical TV programmes.  Indeed, if only other industries had responded to government incentives as well as agriculture, the economic health of this country would be very robust.  It is strange that both the press and television are only too happy to castigate the engineering industry for failing to move with the times,  for failing to invest, for failing to use the  latest technology and for remaining rooted in the 19th century.  But the same media also criticise farmers for enlarging their fields, for pulling down obsolete buildings and for using computers. The farmer should,  it seems,  chew straw as he totters around a filthy farmyard  kicking free-range chickens out of picturesque old buildings, while the engineer, clad in a white coat, should be staring at a computer terminal. This double standard is stupid. Of such stuff is idiocy made.
 

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