The first week of February saw me kicking off my springtime work, sowing grass in the newly prepared area beyond the farmyard…
…This had the interesting effect of removing the residual weeds that the ploughing had left in situ! So now we have a pristine grass field😎 I then gave my Barley its second dose of fertilizer…
…before going off to the dealer to buy a roller. Then I used my new tool to roll the freshly sown grass area…
Last task of that first week was sowing the Oilseed Radish in field 3…
…and that was the work completed for February. With no contracts for other farmers, we returned to background tasks like vehicle maintenance for the rest of the month.
The beginning of March and I was able to grab a cultivating contract for a nearby neighbour. In my own fields, the grass and the oilseed radish were both growing nicely. In the case of the radish, it was time to cultivate that crop back into the soil and thus fertilize field 3 ready for the next crop…
…The Roe Deer were in the field when I arrived and braved the presence of the tractor until I got too close, then they were off😅 This field is now ready for the Soya Beans that I plan to sow in April. Now that I know the germination time, I decided that I would also sow oilseed radish in field 1. I’ve also had a rethink about the crop I will sow there – I’m now thinking Sorghum and I can put Canola in field 2 when the Barley has been harvested.
The remainder of March was quiet but rest assured, things will kick off in April – I hope 🤞😅 In the meantime, since the last of the ploughing tasks was completed, all the work has fallen to the 1980’s vintage Zetor 6245. It’s proving to be a good machine. We still need a more powerful 4×4 to handle the ploughing more effectively but getting a better harvester remains the priority. I’ll be back with the tale of April soon👍
Images from Finchley 