From LEAF Farmer Duncan Farrington
March Newsletter
As the days pass by,
the hint of spring should be showing signs, but as of yet these do not seem obvious as snow flurries continue, with frosts and general cold days. We are still waiting for the conditions to improve so that we can get on and plant our spring beans, which are at the moment safer in the bag rather than attempting to put them in the ground.
Now I know I do prattle on about the weather at times, but it shapes our daily routines and habits way beyond what happens on the farm. Talking to friends in retail, the cold weather has affected many businesses as we alter our normal buying habits. Back in January, shops were struggling as the three weeks of snow stopped people going out unnecessarily. For example, cut flower sales ground to a halt: people stopped visiting family and friends and thus there was no need for a bunch of flowers to give loved ones. Alternatively, the cold weather has seen an increase in the sale of eggs, bacon and sausages as people have been cooking more traditional breakfasts to start the day off. Likewise sales of cough and cold remedies have been very popular over the last couple of months.
The cold weather also affects how we are able to produce our rapeseed oil. As the term suggests, cold pressed rapeseed oil is pressed from the seed without the use of any heating. It is a simple, natural and ancient process for extracting oils from seeds. However, in winter condtions, the oil becomes more viscous, and as well as it being pressed cold, it is filtered cold by simply passing the crude oil through sheets of blotting paper-like material to remove sediment. Trying the filter cold viscous oil like this causes great problems each winter, and really slows the whole process up. It means that Rob and James are constantly having to change filter sheets, and keep a trained eye on the whole process, as verry high pressure and constant tweaking is required to literally force the oil through the filter, without firing oily jets across the other side of the room!
So as we continue to wait, more time is spent in the farm workshop getting through the list of winter maintenance jobs. The work is almost complete, and we will be soon looking around for something to do as we wait for the sun to warm things up a little.
We have also been looking again at improvements to the way we grow the crops, to give sustainable returns both financially and environmentally. A visit to a neighbouring farmer was in order, to look at their crops, kick soil around and dig holes studying plant roots and worms. This is the great thing about farming; as we are not in direct competition with each other, it is always a pleasure to talk with other farmers, swapping ideas and banter on how best to do things. As a result of these recent discussions, we will hopefully be improving what we do with slight changes in equipment used. I will keep you updated on this once things get going. Hopefully, by my next missive, those bean seeds will be planted in the fields and not still waiting in a bag.
