From LEAF Farmer Duncan Farrington
March Newsletter
At last in February
we had some more normal seasonal weather, with cold nights and lovely bright sunny days. This allowed us to get much of the tree and hedge maintenance work completed.
February is the month when we start thinking about work on the land again. This starts with planting of spring beans, traditionally the first of the spring crops to be sown in this part of the country. The ground dried enough for us to plant them, after two attempts, due to rain. They are all now safely in the ground in ideal conditions and ready to grow. Next towards the end of the month, it is time to start feeding the crops after their long winter, as they wake up, and prepare for spring, hormones in their leaves telling them they want to grow, and in need of a bit of sustenance. This is the time we start applying fertiliser to fulfil their needs.
I have been involved in a pilot project of farmers to asses our carbon footprint. It is early days on this research, and very much depends on how figures are measured; what is put in, and what is left out. Hence it is very interesting to be involved, with the aim to formulate a recognised benchmark for carbon auditing. We looked at the farm and Farrington Oils together, and with the initial results just back it makes interesting reading.
First the good news, our whole farming and oil producing operation absorbs more CO2 than we produce. This is great news, and is testament to our philosophy of farming to LEAF principles, by looking at the whole system. If I stopped there, I could claim we are wonderful, and everyone would be happy (I have heard other businesses make such claims to suit their needs). However life is never that simple, as because we grow crops which require nitrogen, the figures show us to be net producers of nitrous oxides which are also greenhouse gasses.
Taking wheat for example, it requires around 300kg of Nitrogen on every hectare to grow a healthy crop. It gets around half this naturally from the soil and atmosphere. The other half we feed to it; whether natural organic manures and composts, or manmade fertiliser, they all cause greenhouse gasses. And it is a proven fact that the farming methods we follow are the least polluting of any in this respect. Besides, anyone remember the nitrogen cycle? As I said, it depends what figures you count. If you are confused don’t worry, you’re not the only one, it’s not easy explaining in one paragraph.
So what is the answer? Well we could plant the whole farm with legume crops like our spring beans. However, despite the fact that this alone is not sustainable, causing other problems, I certainly would get a bit bored just eating bean soup and the like. So while humans want to eat a healthy balanced diet (vegetables, cereals, meats, dairy, eggs etc), we can work with projects such as the one we are involved in; take notice, and strive to improve systems further.
