Farmer Focus: A low-disease year for organic crops
John Pawsey © Jason Bye With all our undersowing and weeding completed, we have focused on getting our spring-sown environmental stewardship options drilled, which have all gone in well.
Over the past weekend we had just over 17mm of rain, which should get them off to a good start, as well as giving our undersown leys the first dollop of meaningful moisture.
After a third dry spring in a row it now looks as if harvest 2022 is back on again.
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See also: Farmer Focus: Are we in for an early harvest?
It seems to me that to date it has been a low-disease year in our organic crops.
Pretty much all the leaves of our cereals are disease free and the beans in our wheat/bean bicrop are podding up and free of chocolate spot (looks around for some wood to touch).
We just need some sun in June to swell all of our grains.
We have several new or novel crops in the ground for this harvest that have diverted my attention.
We are growing organic peas for baby food, which are struggling against sitona weevil, but getting themselves together now.
Our lentils are looking fabulous and are like little hedges running up the field.
However, the camelina they were planted with for architecture was sown shallowly above the lentils and has only just germinated after getting hold of the recent rains.
Our chia, also sown shallowly, has just emerged and is looking a little weedy, so the next priority is to hoe it.Â
Away from the farm, I took a fascinating trip to Andy Cato’s Colleymore Farm, Colehill, and his Wildfarmed Grain venture.
We have some of his “wild” grains at Shimpling, but what Andy is doing in Wiltshire is absolutely fascinating.
If you want to see some fine examples of interspecies and pasture-based cropping, I thoroughly recommend you get on a tour.Â
