Open Farm Sunday

We had great fun at Cressing Lodge Farm, Braintree at Open Farm Sunday when almost four hundred people came along to find out what happens on a farm.

New things to look at ...

Old things to look at ...

Children milled wheat into flour ...

... that we made into bread.

And the sun shone the whole day.

drilling wheat

The Ley was power harrowed in early September and left for the weather to break down to create a good seedbed but an unforseen hot, dry September made the lumps of dirt even harder. So, last week the field was rolled and then power harrowed again to break down the clods and over the weekend was drilled with wheat. The temperature was an unseasonable 27C and as you can see from the photos, it was a dry and dusty job. The field was then rolled again.

Meanwhile on Sunday the contractors moved in to clear the muck heap and spread the manure on Lakes Field. This morning the field was too tempting for Morris our fox terrier and he had a long and satisfying roll. He now smells very rural.

cleaning ditches

In the gap between harvesting one crop and preparing the ground for the next, there’s time to do more tidying and clearing around the farm. I managed to pick a few blackberries from the hedge before the digger in the photo above started clearing out the ditch between our neighbour’s field and The Ley, which is the field where the bridleway links Great Slamseys Farm to the Great Notley Country Park. This ditch is particularly important as there are so many land drains running into it, taking the water out of the field and into the system of ditches and rivers. Part of this field used to be called Springfield so it would probably be very waterlogged in places if the drainage didn’t work properly. Old farm maps show that in 1849 there were three fields named Springfield, Little Leigh and Old Leigh that were amalgamated by 1895 and renamed The Ley. We always pronounce it “lay” but maybe we are wrong and it should be “lee”.

spreading slug pellets

slug pellet applicator

The oilseed rape has been sown and the fields rolled and sprayed. Today the slug pellets are being broadcast as germinating oilseed rape plants are particularly delicious to slugs.

rolling, rolling, rolling ...

rolling in Great Forest

Big Blackley, Far Blackley, Gardners and Great Forest have been sown with oilseed rape and then the fields were rolled. This conserves the moisture in the seedbed, increases the soil to seed contact and slows down the progress of the slugs.

sowing oilseed rape

 Now that this year's wheat crop has been cleared from the fields, cultivations start for next year's crop of oilseed rape. In Far Blackley the ground is broken up and seed broadcast onto the field in the same operation.

seed cleaning

Nearly all our wheat has left the farm now but we always keep some back to use as seed to plant for next year's crop and this week the mobile seed cleaner came into the yard this week to process the wheat.

The wheat is tipped from the trailer into a hopper and taken up into the machine.

 

Using screens and seperators the best seeds are selected and given an accurate application of seed treatment and then discharged into 1000kg bags to be stored in the barn until it's time for drilling.

The undersized, light or damaged seed together with chaff and other trash is rejected and transferred to this trailer.

Hedgecutting

Now that the wheat has been combined and there are no crops in the ground, it's a good chance to tidy up around the farm. Grass around the edge of the field can be cut, footpaths mown and hedges cut back. This year the hedgecutting programme is changing to encourage the fruit and nut production in the hedgerows around farm and so the best blackthorn, elder, bramble and hazel have been mapped out so they can be managed accordingly. Of course we still have to cut back the hedges by the public footpaths otherwise they'd grow out too far and block the path.  

 

Hedgecutting a video by anne.wheaton on Flickr.

Hedgecutting around Lakes Field where the branches were beginning to hang over the footpath.

wheat harvest has finished

A dodgy video clip that may make you feel slightly seasick as the camerawork is very shaky. In my defence, I took this when I realised I’d just lost my specs somewhere in the stubble and was trying to film the combine, look for my glasses and keep out of the way of the tractor and trailer. No, I didn’t find them. No doubt they’ll either get smashed to pieces under a tractor wheel never to be seen again or they’ll get buried in the dirt and someone with a metal detector will uncover them in a few years time.

 

The last of the wheat was combined on Saturday evening and carted back in the trailers to the grain store in the yard. We were lucky to get the wheat harvested quickly as we didn’t get held up by rain many days though the combine zipped along through the crop as the dry weather earlier this year reduced the yields by about 25%. 

Some of the wheat has been kept back as next year’s seed, but the rest has been loaded onto lorries and been taken away and the barn swept clean, using this high tech equipment, ready for the beans.

Rain before seven, fine by eleven?

 

Well, not yesterday when it started to rain at 6.30 am and stayed wet all day. After a good start to harvest at the weekend, work has now stopped as we wait for sunshine to dry out the crops. 

Combine harvester cutting Batallion wheat in Gardners Field

working late

On Wednesday evening it started to rain steadily, there was an enormous flash of lightning and we lost our electricity supply in the house and yard for half an hour. Surprisingly, there was no rain two fields away where the combine was working and they harvested until the early hours of the morning.