Shoreham Farming Notes – March 2012

A letter from Ethiopia …

Ethiopia is synomous, in most people’s mind with news reports of drought, famine and starving children. The country has suffered from several dreadful humanitarian crises, notably in 1984 and is currently recovering from a recent, but localised drought in the area bordering Somalia, in the south.  So on a recent holiday, I was surprised to learn that the region of Ethiopia that Thomas, Crispin and I were travelling through has twice the annual rainfall of Shoreham, regularly grows two crops a year and 60% of the country’s export trade is from agricultural commodities, including livestock, wheat and coffee. 

We spent one week in a 4 x 4 vehicle, choosing rural routes and a second week on foot walking through remote areas of Tigray, so we had plenty of opportunity to talk to  farmers. The harvest had virtually been completed and ploughing was underway in some of the fields – often a tiny square of land on a wide, open plain. Elsewhere, long ribbon fields of cultivated soil were retained between low stone walls, that formed terraces on the steep hillsides. We saw many traditional wooden ploughs being pulled by pairs of oxen, with a ploughman shouting commands as he wrestled to steer the entire assembly along the furrow line. 

Almost everything was undertaken by hand, in fact I never saw a single tractor or combine during the entire two weeks. Cereals were all cut using a sickle, with the unthreshed stems heaped into perfectly formed straw domes, about 5 feet in height, which peppered the landscape. After harvest these mini haystacks are dismantled for transfer closer to the village, using a donkey or perhaps with the aid of a cart pulled by oxen. 

Threshing is a family affair. A circle of straw, about 2ft. deep, is laid out on an outdoor, earthen threshing floor, ready for a full day of trampling by a team of oxen, muzzled and roped together. Turns were taken to keep the line of 4, 5 or even 7 animals walking round and round, whilst others repeatedly forked straw into the air to separate the grains and children ran about sweeping in any material that had fallen outside the circle.  

We saw wheat, barley, maize, sorghum and millet, all crops familiar to me, but I also discovered teff - a cereal crop that I had never previously even heard of. When growing, it looks more like ryegrass than wheat. As a grain it has a tiny seed but is extremely nutritious and forms part of the staple diet of Ethiopians. It provides a protein rich, gluten free flour with a natural yeast, enabling it to ferment in a pancake type mixture, before being cooked on a large griddle. The resultant injera bread is a slightly sour, spongy flatbread that is torn into pieces and used in lieu of cutlery to scoop up a selection of meat and vegetable stews from one communal plate. Presented in the usual rolls, injera has an uncanny resemblance to carpet underlay and to our ill-tuned palettes, tasted pretty much like underlay! 

Land close to rivers, springs and lakes were able to benefit from irrigation water, conveyed by gravity along earthen channels to temporarily flood small fields growing horticultural crops. We saw cabbages, onions, peppers, potatoes and beans being grown, with the work shared by men, women, children and the omnipresent oxen. 

Having neatly sidestepped the snowy snap in the UK with temperatures down to –13°C, we returned to learn that the prospect of a drought in Kent is currently probably greater than Ethiopia.  

William Alexander

23^rd  February 2012

Shoreham Farming Notes – January 2012 

Water-meadows are a particular feature of chalk valleys, although they are not exclusive to these landscapes. They are relics of a system, started in the late 1500’s and used into the 1900’s to encourage the premature growth of grass to provide stock with an early bite. Water was diverted from the river by adjusting the height of a sluice that sent a flow into a carrier or main ditch, from which it was then diverted into a series of wide depressions, spreading out like fingers across the field. Any surplus surface water ultimately rejoined the main river further downstream.  

Precision soil leveling during construction and skilful management of water levels by a ‘waterman’ or ‘drowner’ (who would often be employed by a group of neighbouring farmers) was essential to facilitate the precision ‘floating’ of these meadows. Irrigation was used in early spring, to keep frosts off the ground with relatively warm water running across the surface and so encouraging the grass to start growing several weeks earlier. Later if the summer was dry, then more water was provided to keep the grass growing.  Once the hay was made in the summer sun, the meadow could again be floated to encourage another grass flush for late season grazing.  

This system also allowed the ground to absorb any plant nutrients or silt carried by the river water – these deposits fertilised the fields and provided superior crops of grass, enabling the farmer to rear more livestock, usually beef cattle or sheep, on his acreage each year.

Today, tell-tale field undulations indicate where these historic practices were once employed and can be observed in various meadows adjacent to the river Darent.  There is a particularly good example evident in the meadow to the south of Castle Farmhouse, where ‘ridge & furrow’ formations can still be seen.  Although the original brick-built sluice remains, the associated header ditch has long since gone. 

With climate change resulting in more weather variability and more frequent drought periods, the intelligent use of water in agriculture and horticulture has become imperative.  Water resources, their management and conservation have now become regular topics of discussion by farmers.  One environmentally acceptable approach now being encouraged, is to create new reservoirs that are filled from rivers when surplus water flows are available during wet winter months and store it for use as irrigation water during the dry summer months. Water is such a valuable resource and I like to think that it will be more effectively conserved in future, so perhaps we can learn from those traditional water management systems?  Who knows, we may even see the return of watermen!

 William Alexander

16^th December 2011

Shoreham Farming Notes - December 2011

 “What am I bid for this old cultivator, complete with original three-point linkage and a box of genuine spare points?  Please note how the rust adds an antique patina where the paint has peeled?  Do I hear £70?  £50 then?  Ok, lets get started, who’ll give me £40?  Thank you sir, £30 bid – just to get on!  £40 at the back.  £50 on my left with the cap.  £60 anywhere?   No?  Ah, thank you madam, £60 – new money from the lady.  £70.  £80.  Sir, surely you cannot let it go now?  Thank you £90 bid.  Madam? I’ll take £5, if it helps – a machine such as this is a collectable item and later this morning you can buy a tractor to go with it!  Selling then at £90.  For the first time…For the second time….SOLD.… to the scrap merchant at the back!”    

Now,   onto Lot 56.  Whose got £150 for these splendid hay feed racks? 

Public auctions remain a popular and transparent process for establishing market prices in agriculture. Patter similar to that above can be heard when machinery is sold – often these days when a farmer retires or perhaps downsizes his business. Anything can, and often does appear – from tables to tractors, computers to combines, wellies to welders and I’ve even seen several kitchen sinks come under the hammer! 

At dispersal sales the many lots are distributed across a suitable field, arranged in regimental rows, ready for inspection and a fair bit of prodding and poking, by the potential bidders. Sale days provide the farming community with a rare opportunity for a social gathering and chat. Clusters of farmers collect, mutter about the weather, complain about prices and try to look uninterested when the lot they want to buy is about to be auctioned.  Everyone is on the look out for a bargain, including an increasing number of non-farmers who attend these days – easily spotted, wearing the ‘wrong’ colour of Wellington boots! 

Auctions always offer a little bit of drama and excitement as you need to quickly decide whether to place another bid with a nod or a wink. I recently bought a second hand hop sprayer at a sale in the Weald of Kent, saving a lot compared to buying from a machinery dealer.  But it is not only secondhand machinery that is priced by auction. Every day livestock markets sell thousands of cattle, sheep and pigs, with the auctioneer’s patter adding verbal colour to the occasion, as he rattles through the bids made and lots sold. Also auctions remain the favoured method for selling farmland, everything from small paddocks, to whole farms, to entire estates. 

Back on the farm we have all been enjoying the sunny weather, whilst secretly hoping for it to rain and start topping up our soil moisture deficits. In the shop Christmas cards, meats, treats and gifts are attracting those who seek a relaxed Christmas shopping experience. And if the concept of a tractor driving chicken appeals to you, then pop in to pick up your very own copy of The Hop Shop Calendar 2012, photographed by Thomas ……check out September. 

Have a great Christmas.

William Alexander

21^st  November 2011

Shoreham Farming Notes – November 2011

 The ‘Indian Summer’ we have been experiencing has enabled a relatively straightforward sowing season, with soils neither too wet nor too dry, to permit timely cultivation and seed drilling.  Soil temperatures have remained warm, encouraging prompt germination of wheat and barley seeds, which have quickly greened the arable fields once again. To me, one of those small farming pleasures is walking out one morning to a field that was brown and bare the previous day, to discover rows of tiny, green shoots emerging into the autumn sunshine. 

Less pleasurable, one morning a couple of months ago, I discovered a field gatepost uprooted, a section of fence torn down and areas of my nearly ripe barley crop laid flat. Initially it all seemed fairly inexplicable, but a little detective work revealed a scenario involving a long cord of telecommunication cable being dragged along the A225, then into Castle Farm Road and finally into my field. It would appear that the thieves considered this location as suitable for chopping the cable into manageable lengths, before (presumably) hot-footing it to the nearest scrap metal dealer. Beneath some barley straw I discovered a short length of mislaid cable – it was incredibly heavy, made of over a hundred copper wires encased in a lead sheath – and no doubt previously employed somewhere in the locality to carry thousands of phone conversations and internet connections. 

Talking of phone conversations…..the collaboration or merging of various mobile phone companies has resulted in the national networks of phone masts being rationalized. Common sense is prevailing and they have concluded that more masts can be shared, so less of them are needed.  This month 3G have decommissioned one such mast at Castle Farm, removing all the equipment above and below ground and returning the site to agriculture.

William Alexander

24 October 2011

Shoreham Farming Notes - October 2011

 This year we have a huge crop of apples – all due to that beautiful April weather at pollination time. We wanted to spread the word about what a fantastic apple the Norfolk Royal is, so we decided to ‘paint’ a huge picture of an apple using green or red apples. The result has attracted lots of smiles and favourable comments so, if you have not seen this unique artwork, come over to Castle Farm as soon as possible or watch Thomas’s time-lapse video of its creation on YouTube http://bit.ly/pqyUzY  or follow the link from our website. Interestingly, the apples that were originally green, having grown in the shade, have been rapidly turning pink with exposure to the sun. Remember the PYO orchard closes for the season on Sunday 9^th October. 

The pumpkin crop is also a good one this year with some interesting bright orange ‘onion squashes’ as well as the little green ‘gem’ squashes (which seem to be particularly popular with South African customers in the shop), and also the grey ‘Crown Prince’ (which New Zealanders are pouncing on with delight, claiming that they can’t get them anywhere else!).

Our autumn fieldwork is progressing well, aided by a favourable run of weather. September and October are always busy months on arable farms – finishing harvesting, preparing the new ground and immediately sowing the next crop all in good time to enable germination and seedling development before soil temperatures fall and growth is shut down until spring. As I write, the only crop remaining to be harvested is maize, for preservation as silage for cattle feed. 

Crops of beans and oilseed rape have the haulm (all the plant material left after removing the seeds) chopped and spread across the ground by the combine, as part of the harvesting process. Shallow cultivations speedily follow to mix the soil and plant material together, thus enabling the myriad of worms, bacteria and fungi to get to work breaking it down as organic matter. These cultivations also encourage any spilt grains or weed seeds to germinate. A couple of weeks later these can then be eliminated by further cultivations or spraying, thus preventing them from contaminating the subsequent crop. 

In the major cereal growing regions of eastern England, wheat and barley straw is usually treated in the same way, by being incorporated into the soil. But wherever cattle are housed the straw is more valuable either as a feed or as bedding so is invariably baled and stored – as we do here. Ultimately, of course, this straw is also returned to the soil – as good old farmyard manure. 

Following on from all the straw removal, cultivations and weed control, it is time to get out the plough and then the seed drill to start sowing next year’s crops. It’s always helpful to have dry weather over this period so that all this tractor work doesn’t damage the soil structure. Hopefully final field of wheat will have been drilled by mid October. 

 William Alexander

25 September 2011

Shoreham Farming Notes - September 2011 

Just as it got dark yesterday evening, Saturday 20^th August, David finished combining our last field of barley and Alistair tipped the final trailer load into the grainstore.  This afternoon, I completed the drying of all the grain and switched off the grain drier for the last time this season – with a sense of relief and release, after many hours spent drying virtually every ton harvested.  The first swathe of oilseed rape had been clipped exactly 4 weeks earlier and since then the whole team had been working long hours, whenever the weather was favourable, gathering in the harvest. 

What a strange growing season it has proved to be!  The exceptionally dry spring was followed by lots of rain in June, then by cloudy, sometimes damp days through July and August. Although there were days when rain prevented both lavender cutting and cereal combining, which was frustrating at the time but we had no extended holdups this year. With everything safely gathered in those all important crop yields can now be calculated. Different crops have fared very differently this year and I list a summary of my own results:- 

• Lavender oil – down on last year, but nevertheless a reasonable yield.
• Oilseed Rape – variable field to field but generally very good yields.
• Grass Seeds – dreadfully poor, worst yield for years.
• Wheat (on moisture retentive soils)  – much better than expected with above average grain yields and decent bread making quality.
• Wheat (on thinner, chalky soils) – very different, with low grain weights and straw yields.
• Beans – terrible result, best forgotten.
• Barley – a decent quantity and great malting quality. 

Today has been wonderfully sunny so I felt that I should write these notes in relaxed mode in the garden, but it is merely an intermission because tomorrow we start cutting hop bines for decorative selling and plan to sow the first field of oilseed rape for 2013 harvest.  

Looking ahead, our Norfolk Royal apple trees are carrying a big crop, which is now ‘colouring up’ and developing that distinctive taste and bite.  They will certainly be ready to pick from 9^th September onwards.  (We keep wondering if we should rename this now rare, old vintage variety, “Kent Royal Apples” as we understand that we maintain the only remaining commercial orchard). 

William Alexander

24 August 2011

Shoreham Farming Notes – July 2011 

June is such a revealing month in the fields. 

By June, wheat and barley ears have emerged, transforming leafy fields to the more familiar cereal crops ready to ripen for the approaching harvest.  Then suddenly, from within this sea of corn, weeds reveal themselves – wild oats, mayweed, couch grass or poppies pop up defiantly above the crop.  Poppies declare themselves with a glorious red blaze, sometimes causing a touch of embarrassment to the grower, whose farming neighbours might question his agronomic skills.  I take comfort in the fact that almost everyone else considers poppies to be a stunning, beautiful and dramatic enhancement to the landscape, not least in providing many a photogenic opportunity.  Of course, we farmers can claim (often truthfully) that the crimson sea is a deliberate result of our conservation policy! 

June also reveals the slightest inadequacies in soil structure, with thin, short or stressed crop areas providing an indicator of problems that require further investigation.  Poor rooting is often the consequence of localised soil compaction requiring remedial deep cultivations, but this year the extremely low spring rainfalls meant that any problems showed up more quickly and dramatically than normal.  

(By the way, the drought thankfully broke on 5^th June, when I recorded over 2” rain in 24 hours – twice as much as we had had during the preceding 3 months!)  

A brief warning about Chinese Sky Lanterns – the tissue paper ‘balloons’ that are carried aloft by flaming fuel blocks.  They can be pretty and spectacular, but before being tempted to release one, please consider the dangers they pose. There are now several instances of cornfields being set on fire by lanterns landing whilst still alight. Furthermore the resultant debris, randomly littering our countryside has the potential to gruesomely injure or even kill animals, which have a tendancy to eat the fine wires used in the lantern’s construction.

Amazingly our Lavender Festival weekends have come around once more.  We are again celebrating all things lavender, with our distillery tours and Aromatherapy Massages in the fields.   The Hopshop team have also organised a couple of extra events – ‘An Art Day’, including a lavender lunch on Tuesday 12^th July and ‘A Lavender Heart Wreath Making Afternoon’, including a lavender tea on Wednesday 13^th July.  (Booking essential 01959 523219).

Have a great summer everyone.

William Alexander

24 June 2011

Shoreham Farming Notes – June 2011 

In April I wrote about the implications for farmers of this year’s low spring rainfall. Well, a month later, there has been no respite and now a rainless forecast runs into June. What was then mildly concerning has developed into a serious worry. Already silage yields have proved to be half of normal, with one field having so little growth that it was not even worth cutting. Despite the landscape continuing to appear green and normal, all crops are suffering and many are quite desperate for water. Without decent rain very soon, crop failures on a scale not experienced since 1976 are only a few weeks away. 

But I promised to write about lavender planting. Our current lavender fields were established between 10 and 12 years ago, with a life expectancy (predicted by our French informants) of 10 to 12 years. However, with appropriate pruning and husbandry I am hoping to extend their lifespan to more like 15 to 20 years, but clearly a replacement strategy is essential if I am to continue growing lavender for the long term. 

So, 2 years ago, I took woody cuttings from my lavender bushes and sent them to a specialist nursery to establish ‘mother stock plants’. In time, a new generation of 100,000 cuttings were taken from these ‘mothers’ and rooted into plug trays, ready for me to plant out this spring. Unfortunately the extreme cold temperatures in December 2010 killed over half of these cuttings in the nursery glasshouses, so the planting programme had to be delayed several months while replacement plants were being raised.  One consequence of planting being delayed until June rather than March has been the difficulty of getting them rooted without any rain to help. 

Fortunately I decided upon a technique of establishment that uses narrow plastic strips, laid down in advance across the field (Park Field, adjacent to Lullingstone Park).  The tiny plants are planted by hand through holes in the plastic, which provides long-term weed suppression and helps to retain soil moisture.  Nevertheless I have had to develop a watering system – one that enables delivery of ¼ litre of water, to each plant, every 19”, along a series of rows which total 30 miles in length. My homemade system – involving a tractor, trailer, three large water tanks, 5 hose-pipes and six people – enables us to water over 5,000 plants an hour.  Even so it takes 3 days to water the whole area and recently we have sometimes been doing this once a week. It would be a lot less costly if it rained!

William Alexander

21 May 2011