Shoreham Farming Notes – February 2012

 Hyde Park is one of London’s wonderful green spaces and at 350 acres it is one of the biggest. Apparently it was acquired in 1536 by Henry VIII from Westminster Abbey’s monks for deer hunting, with public access only being granted a century later by Charles I.  Used in recent years for ‘Concerts in the Park’, ‘Parties in the Park’ and many a ‘Rally in the Park’, in 2012 it will be used for ‘Olympics in the Park’.  But plans are currently germinating to stage ‘Farming in the Park’ – a major food and farming festival that will take centre stage in late September 2013. It is over 20 years since anything similar was organised, so a group of farmers chatting down the pub one evening thought it was about time that our industry provided a suitable showcase for the public. 

I understand that the idea is for each county to occupy one acre and stage whatever displays it wishes, no doubt promoting its own distinctive foods and highlighting local tastes and talents from its local countryside. Over a million visitors are expected and with thousands of schools near enough for a day trip, it offers a fantastic opportunity to connect inner-city children with farming and food production. The initial suggestion took root in December when over a hundred food and farming representatives met, including DEFRA Secretary Caroline Spelmann, HRH Duke of Edinburgh and TV presenter Jimmy Doherty.  So watch this space and remember that you heard it here first! 

Whilst casting around for a farming topic to write about this month, I encountered some extracts taken from letters sent to the Milk Marketing Board 50 years ago, when free milk could be claimed for babies and felt that I ought to share a few with you ..….

1.      Please give me a form for cheap milk as I am expecting mother. 

2.      Please send me a form for supply of milk for having children at reduced prices. 

3.      I posted form by mistake before my child was filled in properly. 

4.      Sorry I have been so long filling in my form, but I have been in bed for two weeks with my baby and did not know it was running out till milkman told me. 

5.      I had intended coming to the Milk Office today but have had 15 children this morning. 

6.      Will you please send me a form for cheap milk as I have a baby two months old and did not know anything about it till a friend told me.

William Alexander

16^th January 2012

Farming Notes May 2010

Over the last couple of decades or so environmental stewardship has become an integral part of farming throughout the UK. Today most farmers devote time, effort and money to help conserve and enhance wildlife habitats on their farms. Many have signed up to government schemes that provide some financial support to enable a farmer to implement a range of conservation measures. These grants are essential, particularly where land is effectively taken out of food production (cutting off all income from growing crops on those acres) and is then managed entirely for the benefit of wildlife. On my farms there are now over 90 acres that are dedicated to some form of stewardship management rather than growing food. You may have noticed grass strips, about 6 metres in width, which run around many arable fields.

These conservation margins are frequently adjacent to hedges and link up with those in the next field, thus creating a network of habitats around the farm (I call them wildlife motorways). On chalky soils these strips can be established by allowing natural regeneration from the native seeds within the soil, but more often a mixture of selected grass and flower species are sown.

Once established these margins are deliberately left unmown during the spring, so that by June or July there is a swath of grass seedheads swaying in the breeze, often with flowering species adding colour and diversity.

On my farms along these margins I have noticed an increase in the numbers of small mammals (voles, mice, etc), these in turn provides food for owls, hawks, kestrels and other predators that are able to fly and hunt along these verdant motorways. Insects also thrive, which in turn provide a fast food source for hedgerow bird species. In the autumn 3 metres of the 6 metre margin strip is mown down to encourage fresh growth next year, whilst the unmown 3 metres provides an ongoing food source and shelter for wildlife through the winter months.

Many different environmental measures can be implemented by farmers pond restoration, preventing scrub incursion, growing crops especially as a source of bird food, establishing insect nectar crops, bracken control programmes, encouraging wild flowers, special hedgerow management, etc. So do keep a look out for examples of stewardship farming on your next country walk.

William Alexander10^{th May 2010}

Farming Notes April 2010

During April, slightly later than usual, our cattle were turned out to graze in the meadows for the summer. The animals usually celebrate with exuberant running around the field, often with their tails in the air, but soon get their heads down to tuck into some fresh green grass. After a prolonged winter we have extremely limited quantities of silage feed and straw bedding remaining in our barns, so it will be essential to rebuild stocks by making lots of good quality silage in May and June. It can be tricky to judge the ideal moment to cut grass to make the best silage. Grass yields increase as the plants grow, but the nutritional quality naturally declines as plants mature, so a compromise usually needs to be struck when deciding on precisely which day to harvest. The decision is often dictated by the prevailing weather.Over recent years we have been reseeding our pure grass swards with new mixtures that include clover. Tiny nodules grow along the roots of clover plants, hosting specialised bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates, that are then utilised by the clover for growth. This beneficial symbiotic process is known as nitrogen fixation and sufficient nitrogen is produced, not only to feed the clover, but also to benefit other plants nearby (in this case grass) and enrich the soil with nitrates available for use by the later crops. Nitrogen fixation reduces the requirement to apply artificial fertilisers and is the main reason for growing leguminous plants, such as clover, peas and beans, in crop rotations.Clover-rich silage crops can be harvested over a longer period of time, have higher protein levels and are very palatable to livestock. But it is not all positive, because clover is difficult to get established, problematic when it comes to weed control and can cause bloat (a kind of potentially fatal indigestion) if too much is eaten too quickly by cattle. A detailed understanding of how best to manage clover is the key to success. Historically clover was found in most UK pastures, then lost favour but is currently witnessing a revival in popularity, with many farmers growing newly bred varieties, as a means of lowering their fertiliser costs, improving soils structure and benefiting subsequent crops. William Alexander24^th April 2010

Farming Notes March 2010

I have a great admiration for weeds all of them, whether they are thistles, couch, docks, ragwort or any one of hundreds of others. Weeds are brilliant at exploiting every opportunity to establish themselves and grow where you do not want them to grow. Perhaps the simplest definition of a weed is a plant out of place, after all a plant that is useful in one location may be a weed elsewhere – brambles are only misplaced blackberries and potatoes are seen as a weed if they emerge in a crop of, say beans. So I suppose that it isnt really weeds but plants that have my admiration.Years ago, as a college a project, I had to study a chosen species and assess what made that plant a successful weed. My weed was Capsella bursa-pastoris, which has a common name of Shepherds Purse. I discovered some of its particular characteristics namely, how it grows with a spreading rosette of basal leaves that hug the ground and thus prevent other seeds germinating nearby, it also flowers sequentially over a long period to improve the chances of seeding success when shed. Furthermore it uses a mechanism that throws its ripe seeds from the mother plant, making it more likely to land some distance away and thus be able to colonise a new location.Nature never leaves soil bare for long, as there is always some plant species or another waiting in the wings ready for the right conditions to establish. On the chalk soils so prevalent in our valley, it still amazes me when a field that has a history of growing crops for decades, if left fallow for only one year, will blush blood red with thousands of (flowering) poppies, whose seeds have lain dormant for perhaps as much as half a century. The poppy produces such an abundance of seeds that when it finally manages to flower there are so many, that some will survive for decades and be ready to germinate when the next opportunity arises.All crops whether carrots, grass, barley or Christmas trees, must have effective weed control to produce the best yields and the best quality. I spend a lot of my time and money trying to reduce or eliminate weed competition. No single approach succeeds in controlling all of my weeds all of the time. I need to be prepared to use the most appropriate control measures from a list of options that includes crop rotation, hand weeding, mechanical hoeing, plastic mulches and herbicides. For each cropping situation I need to consider which method will be the most appropriate to out smart the plant kingdom and its well equipped army of weeds. William Alexander22^nd March 2010

Farming Notes March 2010

I have a great admiration for weeds all of them, whether they are thistles, couch, docks, ragwort or any one of hundreds of others. Weeds are brilliant at exploiting every opportunity to establish themselves and grow where you do not want them to grow. Perhaps the simplest definition of a weed is a plant out of place, after all a plant that is useful in one location may be a weed elsewhere – brambles are only misplaced blackberries and potatoes are seen as a weed if they emerge in a crop of, say beans. So I suppose that it isnt really weeds but plants that have my admiration.Years ago, as a college a project, I had to study a chosen species and assess what made that plant a successful weed. My weed was Capsella bursa-pastoris, which has a common name of Shepherds Purse. I discovered some of its particular characteristics namely, how it grows with a spreading rosette of basal leaves that hug the ground and thus prevent other seeds germinating nearby, it also flowers sequentially over a long period to improve the chances of seeding success when shed. Furthermore it uses a mechanism that throws its ripe seeds from the mother plant, making it more likely to land some distance away and thus be able to colonise a new location.Nature never leaves soil bare for long, as there is always some plant species or another waiting in the wings ready for the right conditions to establish. On the chalk soils so prevalent in our valley, it still amazes me when a field that has a history of growing crops for decades, if left fallow for only one year, will blush blood red with thousands of (flowering) poppies, whose seeds have lain dormant for perhaps as much as half a century. The poppy produces such an abundance of seeds that when it finally manages to flower there are so many, that some will survive for decades and be ready to germinate when the next opportunity arises.All crops whether carrots, grass, barley or Christmas trees, must have effective weed control to produce the best yields and the best quality. I spend a lot of my time and money trying to reduce or eliminate weed competition. No single approach succeeds in controlling all of my weeds all of the time. I need to be prepared to use the most appropriate control measures from a list of options that includes crop rotation, hand weeding, mechanical hoeing, plastic mulches and herbicides. For each cropping situation I need to consider which method will be the most appropriate to out smart the plant kingdom and its well equipped army of weeds. William Alexander22^nd March 2010

Farming Notes February 2010

In February fencing was back on the farms work agenda. Firstly, there was yet more rabbit fencing to install, to prevent those furry lawnmowers from grazing acres of young wheat plants out of existence. Secondly, almost a kilometre of rusting fencing that enclosed some ancient chalk grassland had to be extracted from amongst the brambles in readiness for a replacement fence that will allow these fields to once again be grazed by cattle or sheep. Species rich swards like this one, are best maintained by grazing during the spring and autumn, but benefit from being left without stock during early summer, to allow the orchids and other native plants to flower undisturbed. Thirdly I am continuing with my programme of installing new gates or barriers across more of my field entrances, in an attempt to prevent unauthorised vehicle access, which seems to become more prevalent every year. Last month in our workshops we started to implement a range of measures to improve the efficiency of the farm lavender distillery. James & Alistair have been adding insulation jackets to the trailers that we use for steaming and I am trying to discover the best way to increase the rate of steam flow through the flowers. . I have been fortunate to be able to source some sound technical advice from a distillation expert in New Zealand, who Caroline & I met at the international lavender conference in Cambridge last September.My intention is to speed up the distillation process so that more loads of lavender can be put through the system on the specific days when the weather is favourable and the oil yield is at its peak. Meanwhile over in France, a second hand maize harvester is currently being adapted for us, to make a new lavender harvesting machine, that will hopefully be ready and over in the UK in May. William Alexander19^th February 2010

Farming Notes January 2010

Winter snow blanketing the landscape elicits different responses from different people, ranging from delight to despair. Some are joyful about the prospect of tobogganing instead of school lessons, whilst others may be unhappy at being snowed in at home. Reactions of farmers to snow is just as variable, as it brings both problems and opportunities. Maintaining supplies of fodder, bedding and water to livestock suddenly becomes a priority and can take up extra time. Achieving a continuous supply of cattle food and bedding to Dunstall Farm involved careful planning of deliveries between snowfalls and altering the normal road routes to ones that had been gritted, to enable lorries to get up the hill. (Tractors are great in deep snow but completely rubbish on slippery ice).Generally all arable crops of wheat, barley and rapeseeds are well able to withstand such a wintry spell, especially if covered in a snow blanket. In fact these crops will often benefit from reductions in pests and diseases that get killed off by freezing temperatures.Some dairy farmers found that milk tankers were unable to get in to collect milk from the herd and were compelled to pour thousands of litres away if the farms refrigerated tank became full. Unlike cattle, most sheep live outside all winter, whether in the southern lowlands or on the northern upland hills. Snow cover stops them being able to nibble the grass and water can quickly become unavailable, because the field troughs and water holes freeze easily. At best hay and water need to be carried to the animals fields daily and at worst, days are spent using prodding sticks to locate and retrieve sheep that are trapped beneath snowdrifts.On the plus side, several days of frosty weather permits tractors to get out on hard ground that would otherwise be too soft and muddy to drive across. Our hedge cutter was able to move around to trim hedges from inside the fields, without causing damage to the frozen soils or the crop. Similarly clearing manure from our cattle yards and carrying to the fields ready for spreading, was so much less messy whilst the yards and tracks were all frozen solid. Stories of using pneumatic drills to dig up turnips from frozen ground belongs to an earlier age, but in January vegetable farmers were struggling to find the extra manpower and machinery to keep the carrots and winter greens arriving onto your local supermarket shelves. Temporary shortages can quickly push up prices for both farmers and consumers. Unsurprisingly, during the snowiest days we only had a few intrepid customers arriving at The Hop Shop several walked to us, nobody actually skied in, but toboggans were spotted! William Alexander26^th January 2010

Farming Notes December 2009

My autumn sown crops have all established well this year, assisted by the fine October weather. Fortunately, we had completed all necessary tractor field work before the rain arrived, which didnt stop falling until it had delivered the highest November rainfall on record. In December we began tackling all those regular winter farm jobs hedge cutting, fencing, implement repairs, tractor maintenance and of course, tending to our livestock. Although it is a quieter time of year there always seems to be a list of jobs that needs doing.

Lately there have been times when I have felt as if I have a new role as a waste disposal contractor, such has been the number of fly tipping incidents. Landowners have a responsibility to dispose of any fly tipped materials that are dumped on their land, because the Council will not remove it. This autumn I have had to deal with old kitchen units, broken up garages, burnt out vehicles, as well as timber off cuts, plaster boarding and asbestos sheeting. And last month, I discovered an entire trailer load of plastic tubing dumped on my land that had originally been the outer sheath of large diameter telecommunication cable. Almost certainly it was stolen and the thieves must have stripped out the core of copper (which is currently very valuable) and delivered the unwanted remains to my field. After its discovery I had to collect it all, transport it to the Brasted recycling centre, where I was charged a 70 waste disposal fee for my efforts. All this is forcing me to extend my program of installing lockable barriers to my field gateways.

When I read the reports about the floods in Cumbria I could not help but feel sympathy for those farmers with flooded fields and crops lying underwater for many days. The consequences of water logging are serious, but as the floods retreated it revealed thousands of tonnes of rocks and gravel, sometimes up to 3ft deep covering many fields. One farmer said, Its bad enough losing the crop, but how do I get rid of this gravel? My field is unfarmable. He pointed out that its removal was beyond the scope of normal farm tractors and that some type of commercial mining equipment would be necessary to handle the quantities involved. The situation is further complicated as, apparently farmers could be prosecuted if they remove anything from the river and use it on their own farm, whilst the Environment Agency says that the stone cannot be put back in the river, because it is now classed as a waste material. Catch 22!

Caroline and I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year as we move into another decade.William Alexander15^th December 2009

Farming Notes November 2009

A Letter from India ..

Emerging from our sleeper train into the early morning sunshine, we had to accustom our eyes both to the bright rays and to the organised chaos of daily life that greeted us on the station platform. Booksellers, barrow boys, food vendors all competed for our attention amongst the tide of people. Ladies in colourful saris, caused sows and piglets to scatter, as they threaded their way across the network of railway lines and nobody (except us) seemed to consider it unusual to see a cow ambling along the platform, foraging in the rubbish bins.

Our travels (in celebration of a recent wedding anniversary), continued through the landscapes of Rajasthan visiting rural villages, forts, palaces and a series Hindu temples. From our open-sided jeep or during walks through the fields we encountered activities rarely, if ever, now found in England. One morning we were captivated by the sight of a line of chattering ladies, clothed in a veritable rainbow of coloured saris, gently trampling a carpet of white garlic bulbs as a method of breaking them into individual cloves. At dusk on another evening we stumbled across a family of itinerant blacksmiths beneath a spreading banyan tree. A boy flamed the charcoal with bellows and his father turned the lump of glowing iron whilst a young man and a slim girl (in bright pink sari and gold jewellery!) alternately wielded hefty sledgehammers to shape new axe heads. Simply an unforgettable image.

The fertile soils grow a diversity of crops and harvest was in progress, so teams of women were in the fields carrying bundles of soya or sorghum to threshing machines. Maize stems were being cut by hand and assembled into giant stooks, whilst elsewhere family groups gathered to pull peanut plants from the ground and pick the nuts off the roots. Flood irrigation, sensible rotations and good soil management combined to deliver two harvests every year but it was apparent that many reservoirs were short of water and the village wells were at a low level because the monsoon rains have been very light in the past few years.

Our visit coincided with the Diwali festival a time when houses are immaculately swept and redecorated, tractors are adorned with tinsel and streamers and the cattle are daubed with auspicious patterns of henna and have their horns painted bright blue. Beef is not eaten by the Hindus the male animals are used for ploughing and pulling ox-carts, the cows are kept for milk and the dung is dried for use as cooking fuel but there are cattle everywhere, lying in the streets, being herded to patches of grazing land, and wandering aimlessly the wrong way down dual carriageways! Milk is taken from the villages to the towns in large brass churns, often strapped to the sides of mopeds or bikes yet another hazard on roads already full of precariously overloaded and mechanically suspect vehicles that would never pass an MOT. And horns were blown, deafeningly, at every opportunity!

Some of the villages we passed through only saw Europeans a couple of times a year so our presence would often result in an instant massing of friendly locals desperate to invite us into their homes and offer us a cup of hot, sweet chai. By contrast, we spent evenings dining in an old forts or palaces, surrounded by the faded glory of the raj (including stuffed tigers!). If anyones interested, we travelled with Wild Frontiers on a trip called Village India in Slow Motion we can thoroughly recommend it.

William Alexander23^rd November 2009