WTFIH @ Thriplow Farms, June 2018
Wow. I have to say, for the last six weeks, the weather has been just about perfect. Sun follows rain follows sun follows rain - and quite warm too. If we continue on like this for the next six weeks then harvest could be quite exciting. Most of the spring crops we planted last month have been performing well since they dried out a little bit, with the exception being the large field of oats over in Barrington where a fairly significant proportion of the seed, perhaps a quarter, rotted in the ground before it could germinate. This causes a double problem because not only is there no crop, there is also no competition for the weeds, which then go out of control. So we will have to kill off those patches fairly soon to stop the problem getting any worse. The other unexpected piece of spring crop news was a last minute decision to try growing soya. This is a massive crop on a global scale, but almost un-cultivated in the UK, where our weather is a bit cooler than is ideal. We planted it towards the end of April, and hope to have it harvested by the end of September, or early October at the latest. I love drinking soya milk, so it’s quite exciting, and I think I’ll have a go at making a bit of tofu as well - if we can keep the hares, slugs and pigeons off long enough for it to produce a decent crop.Elsewhere on the farm, the winter crops are looking good, with all of our fertiliser applied, and all the spraying up to date. It has been a real pleasure to drive around for the last few weeks, and see the oilseed rape fields bright yellow from edge to edge. This is not something we have had the pleasure of seeing for several years, so I’m quietly [dangerously?] optimistic for harvest. The same goes for most of our wheat fields, which keep on being watered just as I begin to wonder when we will get the next bit of rain. The plants are tall and bushy, without much disease pressure. Again, I’m optimistic, although there is a very long way to go before harvest, and plenty that can go wrong. Let’s just keep this sunny weather, with a nice bit of rain once a week, preferably overnight. That isn’t too much to ask, is it?