Dennis Ford
Dennis Ford
Dennis Ford farms 384ha
(950 acres) from Home
Farm, Hinton Parva,
Swindon, Wilts. One-third is
owned, two-thirds tenanted
and a small area contract
farmed. Cropping is winter
wheat, barley, rape and
beans, plus spring rape,
linseed and flax
WITHOUT going into too much detail, December turned out to be fairly quiet.
Having completed our spraying, we decided to attack our fertilising programme.
Although we have a Frazier Agribuggy (which can normally walk on water), the wet ground would not let us get far without making a mess, so we decided to wait for some drier conditions. But when they came the wind was far too strong for us to make a start. Now the wind has dropped, it is again too wet!
We have at last received our soil sample results and maps from our local GPS and mapping company. These have showed up some interesting results.
Where we now have two fields there were once five (the hedges and boundaries were taken out 30 years ago). The levels of both P and K show marked variations, especially where the soil changes in structure. The heavier ground proved to be more deficient than the lighter areas, ranging from 1- up to 3+.
This year we will have contractors in to spread the fertiliser, if it dries out enough, but next year we may be able to justify our own GPS machinery and software.
Our spring groundwork has also not taken place yet. All of this is on the downland, so I am not too concerned at present. Seed-beds are fairly easy to create once we get a short dry spell.
To help with this process, we have bought a second-hand set of discs with a following coil press. One pass with this combination followed by our one-pass cultivator should allow us to sow with our new (last autumn) Accord 6m disc drill.
Dennis Fords autumn spraying campaign is now complete. Compound fertiliser is the next input to be applied as soon as soils start to dry out.