From LEAF Farmer Duncan Farrington
December
Newsletter
The dark nights are here,
as we wrap up warm for winter and start thinking of Christmas. Children rehearse parts for Christmas plays, with budding Mary and Josephs’ raiding cupboards for tea towels and dressing gowns in homes up and down the country.
On the farm we are still drying our wet wheat from this year’s harvest, but can now see an end in sight. I am in the office attempting to make budgets and cashflows for the following year. This is proving to be a bit of a guessing game, following the volatility, agriculture and the wider economy has faced over the last 18 months. Grain prices have doubled and then halved again in a year; fuel prices have risen just as dramatically, and are coming down more slowly; interest rates have had their biggest reduction for fifty years; the pound continues to drop; and fertiliser prices are thrice their price of a couple of years ago. It is certainly a good excuse for some creative accounting if needed for the bank manager, who is himself now part banker, part civil servant.
The world of business is certainly unpredictable at the moment, but one thing I do know, is that we will have to pay a lot more for our fertiliser over the next year. Fertiliser is simply food for the plants. A wheat plant for example, requires a balanced diet of around 24 different nutrients, and just like humans, if it doesn’t get this diet it will suffer: Too little ‘plant food’ and it will grow weak and be susceptible to the environment around it; too much ‘plant food’ and it will become fat, and fall over. A plant lacking nitrogen will appear pale and yellow, and will not be able to photosynthesise efficiently. A plant lacking phosphate has purple edges to the leaves, and the roots will not develop; whilst a plant lacking Manganese, will simply look limp and sorry for itself. We have always looked closely at the crops to try and learn their individual needs. We also take samples of soil to analyse what is available or not for the plants to grow. This year however, we are taking it a step further by having the soil analysed with the aid of GPS technology to build up a very accurate grid in each field, of how the soils vary in their fertility. This will give us a very pretty map of the farm with lots of colours on it, showing exactly what the plants require for their diet towards healthy growth. We will then be able to use this with more GPS and computer wizardry to apply exactly the right amount of fertiliser in the rights parts of each field. The advantages are obvious, being that the plant will hopefully get its ideal gourmet diet, putting more fertiliser and plant minerals on where it is needed, and less or nothing on where it is not. It uses finite resources sensibly, sustainably, and with the prices as they are, economically!
With all this talk of economics, and biology, life can seem a bit serious. But hark is that the screech of children I hear practicing their Christmas carols next door in the kitchen? Luckily the school performance is not for a couple of weeks yet, and no doubt when the final production is seen, proud parents will get into the festive spirit and forget what a topsy turvey world of unpredictability we live in. In stead we can enjoy Christmas in the knowledge that at least Father Christmas can be relied on for his predictability. Happy Christmas.
