IN YOUR FIELD

Rodney Down: A wait for vital salt and enduring squeaky seats

18 March 2010

In our onging series charting the ups and downs of seven farmers around the country, RODNEY DOWN this week tells us what’s been happening on-farm in Somerset.

The silly season has arrived and we now wish we had more tractors to get over the work.

Only having three, with one being the loader tractor, has put strain on us all, especially me as I was left with the scraper tractor this week to go rolling.

It’s relatively new with a fancy radio, but why does every scraper tractor have an annoying squeaky seat?

A walk over all the grass this week made me realise the plate meter will be in the cupboard for another week or two as grass covers are non-existent with the cold wind meaning it’s ideal conditions under foot, but nothing much more than 1,200-1,500kg of DM/ha (485-607kg of DM/acre) of cover on top.

Nitrogen and sulphur compound has been added at 123kg/ha (50kg/acre) to liven things up a bit. Salt will also be added, but due to the massive demand from the cold winter and road gritters, we are still awaiting the delivery.

The trouble is, this needs to be spread virtually when it arrives as it has a tendency to go solid. So a dry few days at delivery is essential.

Winter well

The wheat has come out of the winter well and has made me realise seed rates can be trimmed even further as we have too many tillers on most of the crops. Fertiliser on the second wheats won’t go on for another few weeks.

Herbicide hasn’t been applied yet as it is still too cold and nothing is growing. I am told we can’t put the T0 and herbicide in the tank together, so we will not save any passes with the sprayer either.

An interesting scenario occurred last week when I tried to swap one tonne of wheat for one tonne of straw, but I couldn’t find a single taker. The problem of our impending shortage has seen us travel to the depths of Kent to get a competitive supply.

The spring price negotiations are now not far away for our milk, but rising fertiliser and fuel prices and a stubborn feed price has meant there has not been much of a margin lately.

Coupled with a late turnout, I am really hoping Tesco and, more importantly, the other processors dragging a long way behind, are kind to us this spring.

RODNEY DOWN

Farms at Higher Wrantage Farm, near Taunton, Somerset, with 125ha (307 acres) on a farm business tenancy and 180ha (443 acres) rented. He milks 220 Holsteins, and runs 300 beef cattle and followers. The farm includes 81ha (200 acres)