Saxlingham – April Graft

This month was going to be a very busy one on my farm so I wouldn’t be doing much work for my neighbours. First up was Corn planting in field 2. Unlike the Bednar seeder, the Horsch Maestro planter cannot direct drill, so first I had to cultivate the field…

…The Valtra and Kuhn Prolander taking out the weeds at the same time. Then I positioned the truck to the field with fertilizer and seeds in case a refill was needed during planting…

…Here’s a shot from behind the 8S and Horsch Maestro as I pass up and down the field…

…You can see from the gauges on the left that I’m having to put in a lot of fertilizer, so I’m glad I had the foresight to bring some up in the truck!

Working field 2 took up most of my week but I found time at the end to fire up the Massey Ferguson 6S and hoe the weeds growing in my Wheat crop in field 7…

…The tramlines once more coming in handy as I can’t see the weeds for the crop!

Field 7 wasn’t alone in having weeds – My Wheat in Field 48 was similarly afflicted so I began the second week of the month hoeing there…

…Weeds have a tendency to spread so it was no surprise that my neighbours fields 46 & 47 should also need hoeing – You can see them to the north of field 48 which I’ve cleaned out…

…As I was in the area I decided to take those jobs to earn some money on the side…

…Both these fields have good Sandy Loam soil so I’m beginning to think they could be good additions to field 48 on this side of the valley. More forward dreaming / planning 😅 Heading back to the farm I passed a couple of young ladies out for a stroll…

…I often pass people on this lane. I think they’re estate workers on their break. They’d better not hang around rain’s expected in the middle of the day!

The rain, when it came, was actually hail – Not what I need with young crops in the field 😎 I had planned my activities around this inclement weather – time to sell some more Silage bales…

…On this occasion I took them to the Animal dealer where 24 bales earnt £18326 with an Eco-Friendly bonus of £1437.

Once the hail cleared I calculated that I had enough time to harvest and bale the grass in fields 29 and 30 provided I employed a worker to do the mowing…

…One of the rare times you see the 8S and Valtra working together in the same field 😅 We got it all done by the end of the week – Wrapping will wait until next week.

The 3rd week of April and I began with the 6S by wrapping my grass bales so they turn to Silage. Then I came back with the 8S and Arcusin trailer to collect them…

…The number of bales was 33 – down from 34 in the autumn – a deficit of 6000ltrs on which more shortly. Back to the fields with the 6S and Dalbo roller to prepare the grass again…

…and now we can see the reason for the reduction in harvest in both fields! Normal rolling preparation isn’t going to fix that. Mounted on the Dalbo, I have an Einbock seeder unit – Which I’ve never used before 😂 I decided that as it was an untested item I’d only try doing a repair in field 30 for now…

…If that works out ok I’ll do the same in field 29. If it doesn’t then I’ll apply the ultimate sanction at the end of the growing season – plough and reseed like my neighbour David has done in field 31…

Last week of April and with only a short list of tasks left for my own farm, I decided to take a huge hoeing job over in field 37…

…This is one of those fields dotted with islands of trees that have to be worked around. Some might wonder why they haven’t been removed to improve the efficiency of working the field. In many cases these are Tumuli – Barrows if you will – housing the long dead who worked the land as far back as neolithic times. Farmers, normally pragmatic, can be superstitious about such things. Besides, tampering with such sites is likely to incur the wrath of English Heritage and result in significant fines! So I skirted carefully around each one 👍 When the job was complete I was able to collect a significant payout…

…Which leaves me in a good position to purchase a Corn Header come harvest time with a sufficient amount of working capital left in the bank.

Last tasks for the month on my farm – Check the oat crop which has incurred a small amount of damage…

…and roll the freshly sown Corn…

…The 6S has had a very busy month – It’s the smallest but it’s definitely the most used of my tractors at this time of the year! On we go to May where hopefully I can earn some cash off my neighbours…

…as I continue to plot world domination 😂