FARMER FOCUS: Forced to resort to the plough
It would appear that I have been “outed” in the local farming community as a charlatan. It is true, there is a plough slithering its way up and down trying to get some fields prepared after they were re-drained. It just broke my heart to see my anaconda-sized earthworms cut in two, or smeared to the furrow bottom and what was once a structured soil reduced to shiny slabs.
Despite the land appearing dry on top and the drainage machines making no imprint, it is surprising to see how compaction has travelled through the soil profile.
The good thing is that the new drains are running like the Victoria Falls. This proves that the previous system established in 1949 had seen its days, hinted at by the old system being bone dry when we cut through the pipes. It is surprising that one or two of the new drains are still running at full capacity a week later and after no additional rain.
With the land having dried up, all the early fertiliser is on and just waiting for some rain to wash it in. It was remarkable how the land travelled, well everything that was direct drilled anyway. The only field of wheat to have been established “conventionally”, which had a seed-bed that an onion grower would have been pleased with to help with the pre-emergence, was an absolute bog and is now being re-drained as I write.
The great thing about having help on the farm is doing the jobs that are easy to put off. We have been scrambling around in the bottom of ditches piling and boarding banks that keep slipping in and blocking the flow of water. We have been pulling iron buckets through tunnels clearing the sediment out and the machinery is all getting cleaned. All I need now is a farm competition to enter.
Will Howe farms 384ha of medium to heavy land at Ewerby Thorpe Farm, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, growing wheat, oilseed rape and winter beans
