FARM WALK HOSTED BY DAVID WHITE ON 1ST NOVEMBER 2018

Posted November, 5th, 2018

Some impressive root growth on Zyatt wheat drilled on Sept 26th. Seed dressing was Manganese and Zinc.

David White of Hawk Mill Farm, Cambridgeshire hosted a BASE-UK member farm walk and writes:

“Pinch, punch, first of the month and its my BASE-UK farm walk, and its raining, and my RTK office/meeting room on the farm was double booked – not a great start but it all came together, as these things do.

Nine attendees made for a very interesting interactive group and with some travelling considerable distances from Lincolnshire in the north and Kent in the south, I felt a little pressure to make the visit worth while. A hurriedly converted garage made for a cosy meeting room for a welcoming cuppa and my old laptop and borrowed projector (thanks Camgrain) enabled me to illustrate my journey through the first three years of the Conservation Farming experience (which has been life changing) as well as the various farmer trials I undertake, to try and further my knowledge of the art of the possible.

Later drilled wheat about to emerge after rape.

I’ve done a lot of work on Integrated Pest Management of slugs with the help of AHDB and Anglian Water this autumn so, after a sandwich lunch, it was a pleasure to be able to walk across these plots with clean boots despite having had over 10mm of rain by that point.

Wheat following rape with bean companion crop.

We also walked over wheat about to emerge having been drilled on Oct 19th. This was later drilled as that field had my EFA points mix of rape barley and mustard, a knee high cover crop of linseed, phacelia, buckwheat + odds and ends and finally insecticide free rape, drilled with various companion plants.

I would thank those that attended for their free and frank exchange of experiences and urge any other members to also offer a visit to their farms from which they will benefit enormously, I know you will as I have.”

Checking on rape companions, looking like some sheep would be useful.

Thanks to David for hosting what was clearly an enjoyable day despite the weather! As he says, any member wanting to hold a farm walk can do so by contacting Rebecca on rebecca@base-uk.co.uk with a date and a few details. Simple!!