Springtime in Norfolk: Some late sowing to be done through March & April as well as some fertilizing. I have my head down and I’m working hard towards getting all my crops sown and also to fit in as many jobs as possible for other farmers in order to earn the money I need to buy that larger tractor.
March is the only opportunity to sow spring Wheat, so the first job was to fill the John Deere 1590 with seeds…
…and then drive over to field 14 where I set a worker the task of sowing the crop. In the interim I picked up a big fertilizing job on another farm which brought in some cash. Then I got another and earnt some more money…
…By the time I had finished, my worker had completed the sowing of field 14. Time to change the seeds and replace them with Grass seed – I’m off to sow the Triangle field…
…This will more than double the grass yield on the farm.
With night falling early, that was the last work for the first week of March. The second week kicked off with some more fertilizing work on other farms for which I was able to use my own equipment…
…After earning some money, I turned my attention to rolling the freshly sown fields…
…An essential final step to prevent soil erosion and give the seeds a good starting point for growth. In theory this can add 2% to the harvest. It also helps with our environmental score and thus improves the price we get for our crops. That was the last work I could do in March – the contracts dried up and my planned crop for fields 1 and 41 can’t be sown until April.
The first week of April saw me making as much money as I could and trying my hand at sowing Carrots for a fellow farmer…
…This was useful experience for me as I hope to get into Carrots, Parsnips and Beetroot in future. Then it was back to fertilizing on other farms and on my freshly sprouting Wheat and the Triangle grass field…
The second week of April began with sowing Soya Beans in field 42…
…after which I swapped to the roller to complete my tasks in this field. The rains set in for the rest of the week and no further progress was made. On the 3rd week, which was also rain affected, I shared sowing field 1 with a worker to ease the task. I have taken the risky decision of planting Soya in this field too – Soya is still a bit of an experimental crop in the UK, so planting it in my largest field is a gamble!
IRL, Recent advances in plant breeding have produced easy to harvest soybean varieties suitable for the UK’s cold, wet climate – overcoming what were the main barriers to take up by farmers. Climate change is also expected to improve Soybean potential. Home produced Soya could replace some of that imported from the Americas and currently used to feed livestock. There is also a growing human market for Soya in Vegetarian and Vegan products. A side benefit would be reduced fertilizer requirements for subsequent crops as Soybeans fix Nitrogen in the soil.
Sowing the beans took up all of the week with rain interrupting progress. During the final week of April, I once more set out with the roller to complete the sowing tasks. It was a big job but quicker than sowing the crop…
…With the work completed, I took the equipment down to the dealer to get it serviced. While there I took a look at the second hand items…
…That Case Harvester was really very interesting – I could’ve sold my current one and bought that to improve the speed of harvesting! But I realised that it was going to delay my tractor purchase which is a higher priority. However, the Kubota TE6060 was worth buying as I will need that to make Hay – something I should be doing in June. I also bought an old-school windrower which will do for my current fields. Then it was back to the farm with all our work up to date…
With all the fields now sown, rolled and most of them fertilized, my environment score has improved to beyond the halfway mark and now stands at 51…
…This means that I will not be penalised when I sell my crops. If things continue to improve, I could even be getting a bonus!
That concludes early spring on the farm. May promises to be a good month for earnings with the grass harvests kicking in. I will hope to be close to the amount of money I need to buy that tractor once it is all over! Tell you all about it in the next post from Saxthorpe.
Images from Finchley 