Farmer Jake's Blog

July 2010 - Posts

• Dampened Enthusiasm

  I think we might have been in this situation before! Rain that was not completely forecast at he weekend has arrived stopping the progress we made at the weekend. we managed an hour combining yesterday afternoon before rain arrived and more rain fell... Posted Jul 27 2010, 10:11 AM by Farmer Jake Select Tags... SaveCancel Filed under: Oilseed Rape, Hedge cutting [Edit Tags]

• Combine Rolling after False Start

  Back to some proper Farming! We actually started combining on Monday on some Trick Winter barley, seed for Syngenta, which I would definitely grow again. On some very sandy light land, the feed barley topped out at 9.45t/ha (on 11.75ha) which is a great... Posted Jul 25 2010, 04:09 PM by Farmer Jake Filed under: Oilseed Rape, harvest [Edit Tags]

• Ragwort Worries

  It's that time of year again when the yellow peril rears its pretty head above the grass and other weeds. Ragwort, poisonous to livestock when dead/dried, is one of the major 'non tolerable' weeds found around farms and even more readily seen... Posted Jul 25 2010, 04:00 PM by Farmer Jake Filed under: Ragwort [Edit Tags]

• Beasts in the Barley

  Just for the records I also found a whole lot of ladybirds and larvae in the Coors Malting Spring Barley this afternoon. Even though it was raining the larvae were hard at work searching for their supper. On the menu tonight (I think) were grain aphids... Posted Jul 22 2010, 10:03 PM by Farmer Jake Filed under: Malting Barley, Coors, ladybirds [Edit Tags]

• Ladybird Bonanza

  I popped in and had a look at the wild bird food mixtures that we planted in April to see how they were progressing and what a surprise I had. Many of the plants that were growing, this is fat hen, (actually a weed), but good feed value never-the-less... Posted Jul 22 2010, 04:04 PM by Farmer Jake Filed under: ladybirds [Edit Tags]

• Litter Louts - No Respect!

  This was the depressing scene that I found tonight in one of our farm gateways. The field is not open to the public and there is no public footpath within the field. The rubbish was beer bottles and cans, plastic food containers and even a pair of broken... Posted Jul 12 2010, 08:27 PM by Farmer Jake Filed under: rubbish, AONB [Edit Tags]

• More Bee Food

  Here is another small area that we have planted with a duel purpose. As well as providing a great source of pollen and nectar, as well as overwintered bird seed (it's intended target) it will also enhance the shoot area as it forms part of a game... Posted Jul 06 2010, 11:04 AM by Farmer Jake Filed under: phacaelia, honey bee [Edit Tags]

• Millbank Trials

  The field photographed is hosting our trial areas for wild bird seeds as part of the impending HLS scheme. It was planted in April with a wide variety of plants aimed at producing wild bird feed through the winter. the mix included mustard, fodder radish... Posted Jul 06 2010, 10:18 AM by Farmer Jake Filed under: higher level stewardship, ladybirds, butterflies, bumblebees, CFE [Edit Tags]