DHF News: December 2023
As farmers all we can really talk about this Autumn is the wet!
By mid October despite difficult conditions , we thought that we were doing well with three quarters of the sugar beet lifted and drilled with wheat and all the winter wheat , barley and oil seed rape drilled. This should have just left the ploughing and the winter beans. But the intensity of the rain on October 20th was extraordinary and while not having buildings flooded the land has become totally saturated. The seed has rotted on a number of headlands and all the crops looked stressed. We have managed to catch up most of the ploughing in the frost when we also spread and harrowed in the beans and just hope that they grow!
But farming is all about coping and we were glad to help to rescue people from floods and get people home on October 20th.
Now we look to 2024 with Rob Harvey’s sheep grazing the wild farmed fields along the Severalls Road which will be planted in the spring with a mix of beans and wheat for a special premium market. When the fields eventually dry , we will also have Spring Barley and Spring Oats to drill along with the Sugar Beet.
It has been a joy to see the flocks of finches feeding on the wild bird mix patches on the farm and we are hoping to join an Upper Alde and Ore Cluster Group. The hope is that this will encourage support from industry and government for farmers to work together to create wider environmental benefits. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
In February the Suffolk Agricultural Association which recently was awarded a King’s Award for Voluntary Service, will be holding its “Tractors into Schools” when we hope many farmers will visit their local school to explain some aspect of farming life.