Jake Freestone N.Sch Farm Manager - Overbury Enterprises www.twitter.com/no1farmerjake www.farmerjakef.blogspot.com www.youtube.com/no1farmerjake www.overburyfarms.co.uk ..read more

Jake Freestone N.Sch Farm Manager - Overbury Enterprises www.twitter.com/no1farmerjake www.farmerjakef.blogspot.com www.youtube.com/no1farmerjake www.overburyfarms.co.uk ..read more

Ewes Grazing Cover Crops Farming never ceases to amaze me! This time last year we were gripped in the clutches of the 'Beast from the East' and this year, (at the moment) it feels like the 20th April not the 20th February. Soil conditions are lovely and the first doses of fertiliser are being applied on smooth dry fields. Under the surface the soil has benefited form the dry summer and dry winter, with increasingly good structure being observed every time we dig a hole. The ewes in mid pregnancy now are jumping about like spring lambs every time they are moved from cover crop to cover ..read more

Catchment Sensitive Farmers Meeting I had a really fascinating day in Dorset today, exploring the use of cover crops to capture nutrients, (mainly nitrates) and stop them being washed through the soil profile and into ground water. The day was organised by Wessex Water and the Catchment Sensitive Farming organisation. Fellow Nuffield Scholar Tim Stephens and his team have put together a matrix of different cover crop species and seeding rates to look at establishment, nutrient capture and suitability within the field. The catchment also has porous dotted around the fields a ..read more

Inter-cropping Sprayed Off Back when we planted the oilseed rape crops in August we also planted their companion crops. This year we used 10Kg of vetch and 2kg of  Berseem clover/per hectare. These companions have grown very successfully through the autumn and into the winter. During the winter we sprayed a weed killer on most of the crop to remove the companion crops as well as weeds like sow thistle, mayweed, brome and black-grass. This herbicide does not affect the oilseed rape crop. Both of these legume crops are able to host soil bacteria to make plant available nitrogen fro ..read more

Red Poll Cattle Grazing Old Grassland This winter we have an exciting new project on the summit of Bredon Hill. At about 950ft above sea level we have some very thin soil which has been growing enough grass for our sheep since about 1990 when it was converted from crop production. All of the grasses and wild flowers have naturally appeared from the soil seed bank or from birds bringing them in.  The grassland has become quite old and matted so a change in grazing technique was required. As we have cattle of our own we have very kindly adopted, for a few weeks, some young heifer ..read more

Wheat Drilled into Oat Stubbles I think this could have possibly been one of the best autumns for establishing winter crops I can remember for quite some time. After the very dry summer months we started to get rain at just about the right time. This rain enabled weeds to germinate in the stubble's and cover crops before the main crops were planted. We had enough rain over the planting period to make sure that the seeds we planted germinated rapidly and emerged very quickly. This year we have only used seed dressings with Zinc and Manganese on them to kick start the growth of the youn ..read more

Well what a trying autumn it has been for our oilseed rape crops! 2 years ago the EU restricted the use of, and has subsequently banned neonicotinoid seed dressing on our crops. These insecticide seed dressings were a valuable tool in terms of getting crops established when dealing with a tricky pest called Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle. The insecticide was applied to the seed and when the plant grew the chemical was taken in by the plant. This meant that when the beetle took a bite out of the plant leaves it received a dose of insecticide and died. This meant that we didn't have to spray for th ..read more

Harvest 2018 was a very interesting time with some very strange results, although probably not surprising considering the weather that has been thrown at the crops this year. The weather went from a very late cold spring (snow ploughing at the start of March), through to a warm spell at the end of April and then straight into summer. We had some rain at the end of May and then into a very hot and dry June (3.8mm) and July (36mm). The winter crops didn't fair too badly on the whole and grain quality was fantastic. The milling wheat averaged about 10% down from our rolling average and proteins ..read more

At the Cereals Event Tom Bradshaw, (National Farmers Union - Crops Board Chairman) launched a campaign to highlight the importance of the arable sector; raising awareness of its importance to many other sectors of UK Agriculture. Much of the grain we produce goes to feed poultry, pigs, cattle and sheep, in addition to supplying us with bread, beer and proteins. Without a profitable and vibrant arable sector this could open the door to cheaper imports, produced to lower standards, using chemicals and products that are not registered or licensed in the UK. Grain is probably one of the easiest c ..read more