From LEAF Farmer Duncan Farrington
September Newsletter
Quick update
this month from Bottom Farm, with harvest in full swing. Progress is going well, with all the rapeseed harvested and in the shed cleaned and dry, ready to start pressing for oil. The yield was better than expected, so we are pleased with the results so far. Wheat is now fully underway, yields are average, which again we are happy with, when one remembers back to the awful conditions it was planted in last year. When you read this, hopefully the wheat harvest will be finished, and we will be finishing off the spring beans.
As well as harvesting, we are busy planting next year’s rape crop at the same time. This takes a full eleven moths to grow, and this year the soil is in good condition, we are on time, and making good progress with the planting to give it the best possible start in life.
Once complete the rape planting will be followed by cultivation of the rest of the farm in preparation for the wheat planting which will start in the middle of September. Firstly the ground will be cultivated to a depth of around 75mm, 3 inches in old money. Then it is rolled to press the ground firmly and encourage any weeds to grow, which are in turn sprayed off with a benign herbicide before we plant the crop.
This year we have bought into Britain’s largest farmer owned cooperative to store our grain. We have been busy loading lorries to send around a third of our crop to the facility, where it is conditioned, stored and marketed directly to customers. This year the cooperative have invested £10 million to construct the world’s most efficient and environmentally friendly grain store. It will save over 1000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
It is great to be a small part of such a project, as well as hopefully gaining from efficient processing and seamless farm to plate marketing. One example of such marketing is a contract between the cooperative – Camgrain; flour miller – Whitworth’s; and supermarket - Sainsbury’s, who will source all their flour for their in-store bakeries from British produced wheat from Camgrain.
This is great joined up thinking that will benefit everyone involved, from the farmer right through to the person buying the bread, which will have a little bit of flour from our wheat in it. That’s all for now, time to get out of the office, and back on the tractor.
