Sounds a bit like your normal British cold; that's why we moan about it even though its barely freezing. Best thing about it is coming in afterwards to a hot cup of tea and a warm fire. But a few years back I was in Lincolnshire and we had freakishly cold weather straight from Siberia - this was in the late 1980s - and heavy snow; and it was crisp, invigorating, dry cold; absolutely lovely to be out in. Not so good for getting the milk tanker through, though.
Farmer Roy's Random Thoughts - I never said it was easy.
- Thread starter Farmer Roy
- Start date
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
we will see what happens.
it was planted with no moisture, purely for soil health reasons. I had bare ground ( which is an anathema to me ) that I needed to get a cover on. We always retain stubble & groundcover, it is the basis of our whole farming systems, predominately to conserve soil moisture, but there are other benefits such as reducing soil temps ( on a 35 C day, bare black soil may have a surface temp of 50 C or more. ) & being good for soil biology. Howeveer, this was following dryland cotton, which once picked & the bushes mulched, leaves very little residue. The plan was to plant oats & vetch immediately after the cotton for a green manure / cover or forage crop, but the season didn't allow that. Very common to plant wheat or barley double cropped after cotton, just to get some groundcover again, even if yield expectations will be very low ( due to lack of soil moisture )
anyway, coming into summer, with high temps & high evaporation, we weren't able to capture & hold any rainfall with bare soil. 30 mm of rain just evaporates away quickly, the subsoil is so dry & the surface so exposed, it just disappears & is completely ineffective. We talk about "effective" rainfall as being distinct from actual rainfall.
Plus, hot dry bare soil isn't much good for soil life & microbes
we were starting to get a few small falls, but as above, completely ineffective
so, I just wanted to plant anything that was relatively cheap & would provide cover. If it grew & then died, at least it was providing some protection to the soil, pumping a bit of carbon during that period & hopefully encouraging the microbes
if it rained a bit more & kept growing, all the better.
if it kept growing & I harvest it, that's a bonus
there is still no moisture under it, it is only growing on some rainfall events, so realistically, I don't expect it to have enough moisture to carry it through to grain production.
but, while its growing, its pumping carbon, feeding biology & utilising what moisture is available, which would otherwise just evaporate
millet is very quick maturing ( hence doesn't require as much water as longer season plants ) & would be harvested around Feb / March if it survives
from a cash crop point of view, the next crop here would be a "winter" crop ( wheat, barley, chickpeas or canola ) planted around June
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- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Yeah, you need some sort of blanket to protect the soil from that sort of heat.
Here, it's from rain and wind more, but stability counts for so much in the soil - "they" like predictability rather than rapid changes, especially when it comes to temperature, just like the rest of us I guess.
Here, it's from rain and wind more, but stability counts for so much in the soil - "they" like predictability rather than rapid changes, especially when it comes to temperature, just like the rest of us I guess.
- Location
- Cornwall
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I wasn't allowed to read the article without signing up to FWThose pesky New Zealanders.
And I'll be fecked if those cretins are getting my details, they'd halve my IQ while I slept
I love the language they use, "Project Fear" at it's finest - they'll have y'all hating kiwi sheep farmers if they keep it up
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
just more unfair advantages
like higher interest rates
like higher interest rates
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Tariffs imposed on the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit would make it hard for British farmers to export sheepmeat to Europe, he warned.
This would depress the UK’s domestic sheepmeat market.
Not wanting to further depress prices by further shipments into an oversupplied UK market, New Zealand would likely switch more shipments to continental Europe, said Mr Grant.
Why would NZ want to help mitigate the oversupply in the UK? It's not their problem!
texas pete
Member
- Location
- East Mids
To be fair NZ lamb would be off the shelves in a flash with a no deal Brexit as they would be selling it at a hefty loss due to the collapse in the UK farmgate price.
It’s just economics not policy.
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
All over the news today how coopers has seen a big drop in sales/profits for the first timeBig contracting job today
Planting 20 ha of forage Sorghum
With a 12 m machine,
just think how bad it would be without @Farmer Roy doin his bit
Getting some lime on my sisters place 2 miles from home. 30 tonne tipped so a few trips with the spreader.
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
Just to stir the pot in regards to "unfair advantages", animal welfare & regulations
- Location
- Cornwall
The horror!
But if it’s tidied away and burnt in a timely fashion, that means the “welfare” is better, right? It’s still f**king dead, but the “welfare” is better because Mrs Miggins can’t see it whilst out walking her cat!
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- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
Looks like Mrs Miggins cat has had a fair feed off it
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
Deerefarmer
Member
- Location
- USA
- Location
- Cornwall
Looks like Mrs Miggins cat has had a fair feed off it
Not much chance of “unscrupulous farmers” putting its meat into the food chain that’s for sure!
same hereI wasn't allowed to read the article without signing up to FW
And I'll be fecked if those cretins are getting my details, they'd halve my IQ while I slept
I love the language they use, "Project Fear" at it's finest - they'll have y'all hating kiwi sheep farmers if they keep it up