Farmer Roy's Random Thoughts - I never said it was easy.

[Farmer Roy]

Which is why we do everything we can to hold onto moisture in our soil, rather than trying to drain it all away, to get us through weeks, months or even years of no rain

the last crops I grew, before this recent rain of last year, were grown on stored soil moisture from a year or two prior to that . . .

it is ALL about storing water in the soil. It literally is money in the bank

 

[Cowmansam]

Got plenty here you welcome to

 

[Farmer Roy]

I’ve been underwater ( literally -,I am on a floodplain ) more times than I’ve been drought struck.
Give me water any day - theses money in mud, none in dust . . .

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Only ever had two dogs of my own. First one found the slug pellets my dad left out, then when I replaced that dog he did it again and that dog found them.
I didn't get another dog after that.

The Labrador cross we had when I was little had 4 goes at rat bait over a few years before finally succumbing to a knackered liver.

"Food motivated" barely scratched the surface of describing her character.

She managed 4 Mars bars at once along the way as well!

 

[Karliboy]

Thankyou for you reply Roy.
I didn’t realise that there wasn’t just enough moisture after chick peas for another crop and now realise that your harvest time dictates your planting time for the next crop.

 

[hendrebc]

I’ve been underwater ( literally -,I am on a floodplain ) more times than I’ve been drought struck.
Give me water any day - theses money in mud, none in dust . . .

Water is life.

 

[hendrebc]

Found some frogspawn today too. Spring must be on the way. Excuse the stupid frog picture I sent it to my wife to show the kids like that.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Found some frogspawn today too. Spring must be on the way. Excuse the stupid frog picture I sent it to my wife to show the kids like that. View attachment 942118

Snowdrops are all coming out here.....

 

[hendrebc]

Snowdrops are all coming out here.....

Yes they are out here now too. Daffodils roughly where I'd expect them to be a few buds around the house out if the wing but only just poking through anywhere more exposed.
Don't normally see spawn till the end of the month here and it's not unusual to find it completely frozen solid a few days later.

 

[Kidds]

Found a 6 leaf clover yesterday

Clopyralid damage

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

I’ve been underwater ( literally -,I am on a floodplain ) more times than I’ve been drought struck.
Give me water any day - theses money in mud, none in dust . . .

Unless your a laser grader contractor

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Found some frogspawn today too. Spring must be on the way. Excuse the stupid frog picture I sent it to my wife to show the kids like that. View attachment 942118

First wee frost here, cracker day once that went off.

Went and did some skids

came home shifted moos

 

[Farmer Roy]

So, bearing in mind my comments about soil water, conserving it for use months or even years later, how one good flood can keep us going for a few years . . .

so, little wonder I just shake my head when I read things like this

just how broken IS the water cycle, soil structure & soil health ? ?

3 whole weeks without rain , immediately following it being “too wet” & apparently a disaster is looming

 

[Kidds]

just how broken IS the water cycle, soil structure & soil health ? ?

Jut remind me again how deep your soil is, I have good soil and it is possibly 10" in the best bits. Below that is water from October til April, the rest of the time it is dust, very hard dust.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Jut remind me again how deep your soil is, I have good soil and it is possibly 10" in the best bits. Below that is water from October til April, the rest of the time it is dust, very hard dust.

err, right on the edge of the plain ( which is effectively a wide shallow valley filled with alluvial deposits from weathered basalt ) not very deep, but yeah, 6m ? 12m ? 20m ? Depends where you are on the plain & how deep the original valley was

But, most of the wheat growing areas of Western Australia are just pure sand with less than 16” annual rainfall ( their yields reflect this, but they are very good at working with what they have )

with fairly high average temperatures . . .

Irregardless of how deep our soils are, because of the high clay content, back in the day they used to bake hard like bricks & be impossible to do anything with ( apart from waiting & “hoping” for the next rain, to repair the damage we did after the last rain ) within weeks & even days after being “too wet”, especially during our 40 + C summers. Being a heavy clay, once it was dry, it took a lot of rain to wet it. It was always "too wet" or "too dry".


we still have the same soils, we just understand them a bit better than we used to

we dont seem too have many areas of "Sunday country" ( too wet Saturday, too dry Monday ) like we used to either . . .

there is a reason none of this deep Black Country was cropped until the 1960’s, it was considered no good for anything but grazing & useless for growing crops. "Light" country was much preferred as it took much less rain to "wet" it than the black stuff when it was dry, so it responded much better to small falls of rain. In fact, if you look at how large tracts of land were split up ( especially dividing land up between the next generation, or large pastoral leases split up for soldier settler schemes after WW1 & WW2 ), the black soils blocks were always larger than the lighter soils, as it wasn’t considered as valuable or as productive . . .
The favourite son got the”good” lighter country & the less popular one got the Black Country, but more of it to compensate for it being sh!t

 

[Farmer Roy]

as for dust, ive always found it very soft

Bulldust is very common in the Australian Outback. It's formed from tiny dry particles which measure less than 2 microns and creates a choking cloud when... | By Lightforce Performance LightingFacebook

Bulldust is very common in the Australian Outback. It's formed from tiny dry particles which measure less than 2 microns and creates a choking cloud when...

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[glasshouse]

Groundwater here is generally seen as a curse.
Hence every square inch of the uk is drained.
Drainage lengthens the growing season, and the workability season .

 

[Farmer Roy]

Groundwater here is generally seen as a curse.
Hence every square inch of the uk is drained.
Drainage lengthens the growing season, and the workability season .

i understand that, what i dont understand is how it can go from too wet to travel, to "oh my God its a f@cking disaster", it such a short space of time . . .

i travelled across the Simpson desert early spring a few years ago. Desert, Sand, Central Australia. It had some rain a few weeks earlier ( a very rare event there ), it was still the cool season ( it is closed thru summer due to heat ) but daytime temps were into the 30's. Thing is, the bikes were digging up moist sand from the tyres, within say 100mm of the surface. Their was STILL moisture, under the dry sand, in a desert. With no groundcover or organic matter. With daytime temps in the 30's. But it was still moist . . .

what happens on the roadsides or "wilderness" areas if it doesnt rain for 3 weeks ? Do they suddenly become barren arid wastelands, or does life just continue . . .

before farmland was cleared, 100's or 1000's of years ago, presumably these same soils were covered in grasses, herbage, shrubs, trees ? They survived for millenia

 

[glasshouse]

i understand that, what i dont understand is how it can go from too wet to travel, to "oh my God its a f@cking disaster", it such a short space of time . . .

i travelled across the Simpson desert early spring a few years ago. Desert, Sand, Central Australia. It had some rain a few weeks earlier ( a very rare event there ), it was still the cool season ( it is closed thru summer due to heat ) but daytime temps were into the 30's. Thing is, the bikes were digging up moist sand from the tyres, within say 100mm of the surface. Their was STILL moisture, under the dry sand, in a desert. With no groundcover or organic matter. With daytime temps in the 30's. But it was still moist . . .

what happens on the roadsides or "wilderness" areas if it doesnt rain for 3 weeks ? Do they suddenly become barren arid wastelands, or does life just continue . . .

before farmland was cleared, 100's or 1000's of years ago, presumably these same soils were covered in grasses, herbage, shrubs, trees ? They survived for millenia

Its called farmer panic.
My barley was the best for years last season despite the dry spring, but i did spend a lot to get it in right.
Down the coast there were some near disasters of late germination

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Groundwater here is generally seen as a curse.
Hence every square inch of the uk is drained.
Drainage lengthens the growing season, and the workability season .

Most of our land isn't drained.

A number of local fields have big puddles lying on the surface despite us not having any significant precipitation since the 2 inches of snow 3 weeks ago. Some of them are gravel soils as well! The soil health is almost certainly dire.