Saxlingham – A Time for Thought

Winter this year proved to be a quiet time in the Saxlingham area. I set out at the beginning of December to apply lime to my fields that are awaiting spring sowing. I started on field 48 and had it mostly completed when the snow arrived…

…It wasn’t settling so I was able to continue. I would have to put the other fields on hold though as I wouldn’t be able to refill the spreader before working them. The good news was field 48 didn’t need as much lime as I thought so it was all done with less than a single load.

Back at the farm I checked prices and was surprised to see that the Biogas Plant was paying a good price for Silage – £127 per 1000ltrs. I decided to take advantage of the situation and loaded up the trailer…

…before heading to the plant…

…where I loaded them into the silage tank…

…I understand the plant removes non-animal/vegetable matter so the wrap doesn’t matter. Not sure why the price was high – perhaps they were running low and needed to boost production of electricity and biomethane with winter coming on? Anyway, those 24 bales made me £19882 – A good result in the first week of December. Night was falling when I got back to the farm and that was my work done for the week. I still have a good stock of Silage bales, so if the price peaks again, I’ll sell another trailer load. The price should peak again around April as farmers will want Digestate to fertilize their fields.

The second week of December began with a contract to plough a field. Normally I would probably hire a worker to do this but with plenty of time on my hands I decided I should keep my hand in and do the job myself…

Then I spent the rest of the week liming fields 2 and 7…

…I have seriously overestimated the quantity of Lime I needed this year, so I now have quite a lot stored in the big barn. Fortunately it’ll keep as long as it’s kept dry so I can use it after harvesting next Autumn. In the fields above you can see lots of dead weeds – They sprang up quickly after the harvest only to be killed by the first frosts of Winter.

And that was it – The farming community shut down and the work dried up. It was like all of nature had gone into hibernation until Spring. The land becomes a lonely place under a big sky where very little moves. A period of introspection led me to wonder about the farm labourers without income for around 3 months. It feels like the vestiges of a feudal tradition in the modern world where the farmers are the Yeomen and the labourers are Serfs – discarded until needed.

Scratching around for chores to do – I periodically went out to check on my crops…

…and also to see what my neighbours are growing…

…That looks to be a good crop of Sugar Beet.

It was a mild Winter overall – The last week of January saw the first settled snow of the season…

Having time on my hands is a recipe for dangerous thoughts and rash decisions – I took a serious look at how much it would cost me to get into Sugar Beet. I’d need a Defoliator and Harvester…

…That’s £275k – Maybe in the future… A long time in the future!!! 😅 An easier road would be to add a Corn Header to my tools so that I can start growing Corn – That seems a much more viable road to take at present.

I also looked at possibly starting market gardening. Remember that patch of land beside field 48? Well, I could build a Mushroom shed there…

…or Greenhouses…

…That’s how it might look if I did so. There’s a second access point to the field where I can attach a harvester header, so I can put this area to market garden use without compromising the field. I did take one decision – I paid off the outstanding loans on the Valtra and the Roller. No more end of month payments. That’s left me with around £65k in the bank and I’m well set up for supplies of seeds.

Winter decided to go out with a bang – The last week of February saw heavy snow that carpeted the fields and lanes…

…It made the land feel more empty than ever – Just Massey and me under a threating sky. Is there more snow to fall and will it hang on into the Spring? We shall find out in the next post – See you then 😎👍