Let’s take a look back at the last couple of weeks with Tom, P.X. Farms Farm Manager:

I probably sound like a stuck record, but it’s still very wet here, and we’ve not really had a short spell of dry weather since my last update. We’re still waiting for the prolonged period of dry to get on with the bulk of our spring work. Our team has put in a great effort in what has been a very challenging spring so far. We’re making the most of the opportunities to get out and have some spraying done and fertiliser applied in the short-weather windows.

All our crops have had their first initial dose of nitrogen, and we are in the process of topping them up with their final dose. Crops, on the whole, look good. Some crops on the heavier land have had a tougher time with all the wet weather. The oil seed rape is in flower and starting to brighten up the countryside, which is always nice and a bit of reward for the challenges it presents chasing pigeons off it! It’s a real achievement to have got it to this stage so all the team have done well to do that.

Simon continues to be busy in the workshop, getting all the drills ready for the spring season when, if ever, it does appear. Aside from the spraying and fertilising, we’ve continued with ditch-digging work and a lot of community work.

We need to keep water moving so that fields and tracks are as dry as they can be without the very unhelpful and unnecessary amounts of rain we keep getting. While it’s been wet in the fields, the Grain Storage and Haulage team have been busy:

https://twitter.com/pxfarmsGrain/status/1776195085316551036

https://twitter.com/pxfarmsGrain/status/1774002254455939519

One thing that’s been a major headache this past fortnight is we’ve been struck by quite a lot of rural crime, that’s an ever-increasing problem:

  • tree shear we were using on our 360 diggers stolen

  • copious amounts of fly-tipping of loft insulation, building aggregate, and dumpy bags

  • I caught thieves in the act of stealing diesel out of the electric board generator. They drove all across our field, making a real mess with how wet the fields are
  • then at our new farm at Gravely, we had both sets of double gates stolen

It is a real problem. We’ve reported all incidents to the police, but the response has been that they’ll review them and see if they’ve got an officer in the area. The only thing we’ve had back has been an incident number, and I’ve not had any follow-up calls from the police, which is really disappointing because this is costing the rural community thousands and thousands of pounds and is such an inconvenience when we’re just trying to go about our daily business.

The good news is we’ve been able to get some spring oat drilling underway, and we’ve got about half our area of spring oats in the ground. Fingers crossed that we don’t have all this forecasted rain, and we can get them finished off.

Next, we’ve got peas, which we’re growing for Waitrose, and mustard for Coleman’s, and some spring malting barley. All machines are ready and waiting, and when we do get the opportunity, we can really go hard to get the farm fully drilled up.

Until next time…

Published by Louise Peck