Categories

My relaxation journey started way back in April of this year when @LuxuryHideaways was the custodian of the Farmers of the UK twitter account. Caroline and her husband Ross gave us a week long insight into their business and the farm they run in Angus just north of Dundee, the city of discovery. Towards the end of the week they ran a competition, simply re-tweet their tweet and a winner would be drawn at random at the end of the week. In for a penny... 

Every year seems to be different when it comes to the challenges that face our cereal crops. 2012 was a difficult year disease wise, notably for Yellow Rust, Septoria & Fusarium Ear Blight. A wheat crop showing Fusarium graminearum 2013 threw up different problems, not so much with disease but a shortened grain filling period and high temperatures. For crops to reach their full potential they need as much disease free leaf area to capture the... 

I’ve just recently returned from a family holiday to Mallorca, whilst out there I thought it would be interesting to take photos from various aspects of farming including the main products – olives, almonds, potatoes, oranges and lemons.  All these photo’s have been taken with the camera on my phone.               There are no natural rivers on the island only those from the mountains caused by rainfall. Coconuts aren’t... 

Its hard to believe its 2 months since I did my last blog the time has just flown by and in another 2 months it will be full steam ahead with harvest! Its been a very busy 2 months! The Bateman has been busy flying up and down doing fert which am now pleased to say is now finished for the 2014 season, the n-sensor performed very well as always does with no problems as well. Then t0 and t1 was to do, this was straightforward in doing for a change it... 

Well it feels like it was only last week since I did my first blog and haven’t had any one telling me to shut up so here’s my second one. February started off fairly quiet getting odd jobs done and getting things ready for the busy times, also had a n-sensor refresher course at askham bryan college. It was very interesting and good to be reminded of how the n-sensor operates and also any updates that have been made and also future developments... 

I’m sat in front of the keyboard to write my first blog and my mind is suddenly blank (cue a chorus of “no change there then”…), so maybe if I introduce myself, give you a bit of background and go from there? My name is Chris, I’m 35, married and live on the family farm in central Warwickshire. The farm is mixed, 100 acres of grass and 30 of arable. The grass is used for small bale hay production (for the horse market),... 

All in all things have gone fairly smoothly over the last few weeks. We finished the wheat harvest successfully in the dry period around the end of August. Worries about completing the OSR planting behind winter wheat were allayed when we got that all finished in the first 10 days of September with the one pass Bio drill. All 179ha is up and looking fantastic. We had to wait another three weeks for the spring rape to ripen but we then managed to pick... 

A family farm of over 1,300 ha. with a variety of enterprises plus 360 ha. which we contract farm means that there is a lot going on and, as manager for the whole farm on behalf of the family, I aim to keep the farming operations relatively simple. On the arable side we work on a 3 year rotation of Wheat, Barley, Oilseed Rape with approximately 400 ha. of each. This is managed with the help of a Foreman, a tractor driver and a couple of part timers.... 

With a little over 300 Ha. across several locations in Hampshire and Dorset my business is now largely focused on fruit and vegetables for ‘pick your own’ sites and sales through Farmers Markets. I also have farm diversifications such as various forms of accommodation (shepherd’s huts, yurts, wigwams and cabins), events (weddings, circus, shows). Here is my website www.dantanners.co.uk .  However, I still grow around 200 Ha. of cereals  and... 

I farm in a Joint Venture operation with two neighbours in Oxfordshire and we combine over 2,000 ha. crops with two Claas 770 combines. We also have rotational silage maize and grass and farm over an area stretching over 20 miles from one end to the other. Soils are generally fairly light running from gravel through chalk to heavier clay cap plus around 160 ha. of free-draining ‘fen land’. We have been extremely fortunate in having a good year... 

Oram and Sons is a family farming business on the north side of the Pewsey Vale in Wiltshire. Six partners in the business include three generations, though my Grandfather is less involved these days than he used to be. The daily running of the farm is down to my father, Philip, my uncle, Richard, cousins Nick and James and myself. In total we farm almost 1,000 Ha., including around 200 Ha. share-farmed plus bits and pieces of rented land. We have... 

Harvest 2013 is now well and truly underway with many winter barley crops now harvested and progress has been made with some spring barley and winter wheat. Winter OSR has been the most variable with some farms finished, some not started and some have the 2013 and the 2014 crops both in the ground! I have also have seen some crops of borage in Essex which have been swathed and harvested. Hyvido winter barley has provided some outstanding yields this... 

Harvest started in the southwest with blazing sun and a blaze of activity, summer showers have now slowed progress as combines wade their way through mottled crops of oilseed rape , oats and spring barley. Wheat is largely an aspiration for the middle of next week. Quality on winter barleys has been superb with our boldest Cassia sample over 70 kg/hl and a thousand grain weight of 58 grams, yields have been variable but generally good. The Pearce... 

For plant breeders this time of year draws many analogies, an expectant father waiting outside the delivery ward, a sixth former waiting for their A level results or a batsman in the nervous nineties ! After 10 years of crossing, selecting, and nurturing it is all down to a handful of trial results to decide the fate of our babies, will they get that extra 1% of yield, what will that standing power rating be, it all goes round and round until the... 

I farm at Abingdon in Oxfordshire on about 2,500 acres with 1,000 milking goats and we also fatten beef cattle. We have around 2,000 acres of arable plus grass and maize, on a range of soil types. Production is predominantly Winter Wheat (1,200 acres normally) though this year we only managed to get in around 200 acres, on the light land, so have mainly Spring crops this time. In fact we drilled an additional 150 acres of Winter Wheat at the end of... 

Welcome to the Farmers Review Blog Section, we have been working hard for the past months working on a number of updates for the website. One of which being the blogging feature which gives opinion from farmers, agronomists, industry experts as well as international perspectives relevant to the UK industry.  With the blogs registered members have the chance to respond & make comments on what they have just read. We hope this tool gets used &... 

What an amazing 2 days!  After getting everything ready in record time we managed to not only make it through the exhibition without any major glitches but also exceed our wildest expectations of new members.  It was great to finally be in an environment where we could demonstrate to all involved in farming the benefits of our site. The only downside was the weather and even then we were delighted to see our umbrellas put to good use. Just to let...