The secret to Cams success

The secret to Cams success is partly his green manuring and good use of legumes and livestock but also his compost operation. The star running the show is Blair a young lady with a bright future. Blair has been working with Cam since march and Cam sent her on the YLAD compost course whcih Blair has absorbed and run with. They use a mixture of free waste products such as horse, poultry and cattle manure mixed with straw and hay bales with innoculum to produce good quality biologically active compost. Blair explained to me the fine line between turning too much and not enough, demonstrated how the readings of moisture, Carbon Dioxide and temperature were taken and decisions on the heaps made accordingly. The heaps are covered with a special green tarp which is breathable and blocks the UV rays. The turning is slow and the tarps very heavy, add the heat and it's quite a tough job. - Don't think our HSE would think too much to it!The turning offers the opportunity to add water and possibly liquid trace elements.

A cyclone is forcast here in a few days so everyone is flat out trying to get on the land to deal with the ruined chickpea crop, plant soybeans, fertilise and where neccessary spray and combine still.

A very big school day

Today Cam introduced me to John, a neighbouring farmer and 1999 Nuffield whose aim is to cut down on the amount of 'stuff coming in through the gate' to maximise his profitability, reduce his exposure to the unpredictable weather and to complete his succession plan. John is in the process of reverting much of his 10,000 acres into grass and leguminous pastures that can eventually be recolonised by native grasses and legumes. John uses a mixture of chicory, clover, fescues and lucerne to give the soil biology and nutrient base a natural kick start and then manages his stocking with an impressively simple but comprehensive grazing system to utilise the grassland. HE runs both cattle and sheep but needs more of both - prices to buy in are hampering progress but a hell for leather breeding programme is trying to address this. John is not organic, he still drenches the sheep etc he just uses as little as possible - the pastures certainly don't recieve any extras and through good choice of species and careful balance of rates the pastures only need the livestock to mnage them.

John runs Dorper sheep as these will lamb every 6 months for him, so although there price at market may be a little lower - although this is changing, yield is king. John had to review his farm or sell it - the old cropping system during the drought just didn't pay. Since the U turn John has been able to pay off the old farm debts, his parents and his sisters. His farm also had literally thousands of tonnes of feedstock in reserve compared to his neighbours paddocks and even after the severe rainfall the area has seen, very little run off and soil erosion from Johns farm.

I have now smelt a lot of soil around the world and it is a full proof method of assessing soil health and microbial activity and for sure Cam has the best condition and smelling arable soils I have ever seen topped only by Johns soils - a truely lovely yummy sweet smell. The only additions John gives his pastures are two biodynamic preparations flown on one in Winter, one in Summer. -Jury's still out for me.

My reading has led me to believe I need a Brix meter - to measure plant sugars so today John and Cam demonstrated it to me - it seems a really good agronomists tool to monitor the crop to help decide when leaf tissues should be carried out.

Today was a very big school day.

Christmas finally came!

Caroline Stocks (also Nuffield orphan stranded in Sydney for xmas) and I had a make shift Christmas on Bondi Beach where we were surprised by the lack of Christmas. So here we are with our Christmas breakfast and having a coffee with Rudloph, Santa, Christmas pud and a Christmas tree - what more could we want. We also added to the festivities with Champagne, strawberries, smoked salmon, mince pies and panetonne but without decorations and carols and a Christmas dinner (which we couldn't believe no one was supplying) it didn't feel like Christmas!

Christmas did however finally come this week courtesy of Rocky McKellar - not only have I been feasting on all the lovely Christmas left overs such as cold ham and turkey, Christmas pud and 'hard sauce' - brandy butter etc but Rocky cooked me Roast Lamb with roasties, crackers, the lot! How lucky am I?

1 part conventional, 2 parts biological and a dash of biodynamics

Today I arrived at the wonderfully warm home of Cam and Rocky McKellar's - a suggestion by a fellow Nuffield Lindsay Hargreaves, and what a great one. Cam and Rocky farm in New South Wales, cropping corn, chickpeas, wheat, sunflowers and cattle. Cam and Rocky also have a large farm scale compost operation. Cam uses a mixture of 'conventional', biological and is now experimenting with biodynamic farming methods.

Cam makes good use of the cattle to strip graze forages and stubbles as part of the weed attack, cultivation and nutrient cycling.

Cam adds some bulky solid nutrients such as lime into the compost which is spread at around 3t/ha with a conventional muck spreader. Cam makes his own liquid nutrient blend to apply through a sprayer +/- any pesticides as necessary as the crop requires it. Based on leaf tissue analysis and brix meter readings.

They're also using kelp and zinc treated seed for an initial crop boost and fulvic and humic acids in with roundup and fertiliser application. Organic matters have been rising and soil life building whilst inorganic inputs have been diminishing.

Cam also showed me the old wool shed and shearers accomodation - unused for around 20 years, it was really interesting to see some of the areas farming history still alive on farm.

Culture and Cartoons

Due to flight scheduling I have been in Rio for the last few days adn have taken the opportunity to read some more soil books on the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches in the morning and begin writing my report when the sun gets too hot in the afternoon. It also gets very humid here which makes things a bit uncomfortable - orchids happily grow on trees here it's so hot and humid. Anyway, we had Lukes last day covering the cultural scene. Lapa steps Christ the Redeemer statue, and Sugar Loaf Mountain.

The Lapa Steps were created by an artist who couldn't sell his work because he lived in a dangerous part of town. He decided to create something to bring tourists to the area to buy his work. He started to tile the steps outside his studio and has been at it ever since. There are tiles from all over the world. There are even tiles with the beetles, a red telephone box and the simpsons on.

Christ the Redeemer was just as you'd imagine, a big statue on the top of a very hot rock. He has the best views of the city from the top of his mountain and it's a very steep journey up to him. He was built by the church to show any visitors they are a Catholic country, which many Brazilians dispute as they are a very cultural melting pot.

Sugar Loaf Mountain is not the biggest mountain in the Rio bay by any means but the cable car project was always planned for this one - Christ didn't bag his hill 'till much later, but any way, it's a two cable car hop and was the third cable car in the world. It has been running since 1912 and the mayor only finally granted planning permission on the premise that it would only count if the project was going in 100 years time! An impressive feet of engineering - the first mountain can be hiked up but the second, the true sugar loaf has to be climbed, it's faces are incredibly steep and not a single man (was recorded) to have died on this project.

So off now to Australia...

A crash by any other name just ain't the same!

Heading up through Paraguay towards Filadelphia and the Mennonite farming colonies the road threats have changed a little, no longer just pots holes, great chunks of road missing and cows not teathered by the road, lose along side / in the road - all made for a pretty interesting 450kms - which only started after a girl ran into the back of our hire Mitsubishi 4x4 in here Suzuki Swift. It's strange having a car accident in a hire car with all the drama being acted out in another language - you don't really feel part of it!

The Mennonites are a peaceful religious group from all over the world. Those that settled in the 'Chaco' (northern Paraguay, known as the thorny dessert) were largely from Canada and Germany hoping to escape conscription and compulsory service in the 1970's they were offered the chance to colonize a new promised farmland to protect the area from Bolivian invaision. In return they were aloud to set up their own communities and laws (still today they don't have to pay taxes). Obviously the first settlers had to build an awful lot, from houses to farm machinery to railroads -largely out of planks of wood - saw anyone?

The area is hot, windy and dry. Rains do come but unpredictably and bush fires and frequent. The soil is sandy which compounds the problems further, however the mennonites have been determined to succeed and in 40 years have established prosperous towns and businesses, large dairy co-ops and grow a mirriad of crops and raise a range of animals including dairy & beef cattle, goats and pigs. The crops are largely grass for grazing and forage, soyabeans, cotton, cassava and some maize / sorghum -as a visiting agronomist it amazed me they could grow anything and all without irrigation.

Wind and water erosion are big problems, shelter belts of trees have been and still are being planted to help alleviate the issue, however the evidence suggests they're only contributing a small amount. On the other hand their is no topsoil to blow away as there never has been any!

On the way home we stopped in at the Pecurray pig rehab project - the sound these guys make with their jaws is like hearing a man trap snap shut - scarry stuff - they handle them with a small scale cattle coural system. can't balme them either!

And purely for your entertainment - a sign from a toilet door at the Mennonite museum!

Gears 2, 4 and window glass need not apply

Today was a simple task: travel on abus from Puerto Iguazu to Asuncion. We got to the bus station with plenty of time, let them know we were there and enquired 'will the bus wait for us to get our passports stamped?' A strange look came over the tellers face -'hold on', rapid phonecall in frantic spanish = 'a car will come and get you, the border is very busy today and the bus will not wait'. OK. The car came, we got to the Argentine border, que, stamp, continue. Over the bridge, que some more, stamp - brazilian border. Pull up at the Brazilian bus station, driver points at the empty booth for his bus company and disappears.

We ascertain that the booth will be manned from 3pm post siesta, about 45 mins time. 3.15pm (not bad) man with no english appears - I convey the issue and task left to complete, he understands, more frantic spanish phone calls - 'follow me' grab bags, bundle (with him) into a taxi, head to??? -Ah Brazilian exit border. Exit taxi, power walk in 40 degrees with all luggage across the traffic lanes (who don't stop) to the border, stamp = out of brazil. Our friend jumps on a bus, we follow, standing with the huge bags of domestic traffic waiting to be filled with cheap electricals duty free in Paraguay - huge stocking density and virtually not moving for half an hour over the bridge.

Get off the bus, cross back over the steadily moving (still not stopping) traffic lanes laden with bags at high speed to the Paraguay border -strict rule here - Jolly foreigner will wait, all locals will be given priority! Eventually our friend appears and things speed up - stamp = into Paraguay. Back across the road, into moving taxi??? (decided a policy of throwing my bag in and jumping in behind it swiftly followed by Lukes bag and then him was best).

This taxi was unreal -safe to say it would've been scrapped on UK roads back in the late 80's. The area we are now in is crazy - proper South America. This city is billed as the duty free electrical goods capital of south america and is crammed full of taxi bikes, buses, children, rubbish, stalls, beeping horns and smoggy traffic.

We finally get to the bus station and our friend leaves us propped up against boxes of chicken sweating in the sun, bags of sugar and flasks stacked up waiting to be shipped on a bus. He assures us not long and disappears - 'our hope of reaching Asuncion with him' I'm beginning to wonder? But no, a bus arrives and we climb aboard reaching Asuncion just shy of 1.5hrs later than we first thought - not bad considering.

The night was topped off by our taxi ride from the bus station to the hotel - our taxi (well, it's probably quicker tpo mention what it DID have) found gears 1,3 and 5 unnecceassary, equally un necessary are glass in the windows, door handles, window switches, door liners, boot liner, outside door handle, hand brake - two gears and brakes were fine by me by that point - a little glass to keep the street kids out would've been nice but that's probably me being a hoity toity western woman!

So now, goodnight after one of the most taxing journeys I 've ever made.

Soil Erosion on a truely MASSIVE scale

Today was a day off farm touring as we head from Arable Argentina to Paraguay - we were under strict instructions from Dan Simms to go to the Iguazu falls. The largest falls in the world - they create the border from Brazil to Argentina. You can view them from either side but the Argentinian one is supposed to be the most spectacular - and it certainly lived up to it. 100% humidity and 45 degrees but well worth it -we were both after the lastest new diet craze and this is sure to do it having walked about 5km's in these 'juicy' conditions - in long clothes and swamped in mozzi repellant and sun cream - painting a nice picture eh?

This was all topped off on our way home by our first tropical storm which cleared the air nicely. -Got a little bit exciting though when the bus drivers windscreen wipers stopped working - he wasn't worried, just went a bit faster.

The water at the falls was once clear -now it is reddy brown like all the water we have seen in South America - why? since they have been clearing the rainforest in Brazil all the water flowing from their has picked up soil along the way -soil which used to be held by the forest cover and is now washed away every time there is rainfall, washing it's way through the continent, silting and clouding up every water way it passes through. -Soil erosion on a truly MASSIVE scale.

There was plenty of wildlife to see at the falls, from the swallows flying through the sheets of water to the spectacular aray of butterflies and lizards, even two inch long ants - fancy those in your pants?

The north of Argentina (where we are now) is very tropical, growing all sorts of fruits -mangoes, limes, pineapples, olives, tomatoes etc. It has a very warm and humid climate and makes booking a hostel with a swimming pool a necessity! We head for Paraquay tommorrow, another long bus journey to the capital - Asuncion and from there out to the Mennonite farming colonies - a group of farmers who have successfully tammed some of the harshest farmland on earth.

Farming next to the big boys

Two days, two farms. The largest first ‘El Descanso’ 12,000 acres - a mere minnow compared to it’s neighbour ‘La Catalina’ a 100,000 acre farm. These land masses all in one lump are so hard to get your head around – ‘’it goes on for 10km in that direction, and 5 in that’’ I won’t even try!

El Descanso has the few (250) suckler cattle that the farm owns. All the land would once have been cattle land, the fund have removed all the fences on the farms – the only signs remaining of the cattle are the massive water tanks and troughs that stand at the corner of four fields. The boundaries are now dictated by soil type and rotations by what crops they can grow on the soil types.

At the main holding we saw a contractor waiting to start soyabean seeding. A 10m drill with only a 220hp tractor on the front – such a low requirement because of both the topography and the extremely shallow depth the machine is working at.

Neither of these farms had irrigation with El Descanso receiving 950mm of rain a year.
The farms don’t have tramlines as they stop running through the crop at any early stage (because of the roundup and few fungicides programme). The contractors use GPS for the early spray and fertiliser applications and the crop can close back over and compensate later. Wheat is the exception –non GM and sprayed later so tram lining may come in here in time.

GM soyabean is the key to the system here. It is a legume – so fixing N. It’s roundup ready – so cleans weeds out. It’s a short growing season – so 3 crops in 2 years. It’ll grow in very poor soil types. In rotation with conventional wheat, and triple stacked GM corn and the possibilities of sunflower, linseed, lucerne… the system –the rotation works. Crops that encourage plenty of soil life and trash return that acts as moisture saving mulch, crops with excellent financial returns (without yields like ours).

Argentina has turned my perspective on GM – a bit. The system the US are using is frightening and extremely unsustainable – here in Argentina it is a well placed tool. If we could just have roundup ready OSR my god life would be different. Just one total cleaning crop, in conjunction with conventional cropping to ‘save’ the soil life.

We have been extremley fortunate during our stay to sample the beef from the farm on both nights. The first cooked for us by their Gaucho on a traditional barbeque and the second with a simple pasta dish which was absolutely to die for - bigger clothes are going to be needed all round! We can't establish what they do to their beef over here but it is by far the best I have ever tasted in the world - accompanied off course by copious amounts of Malbec red wine.

We've learnt so many things over these three days about so many aspects of farming and business I can't begin to list them all. The main themes, people, education and drive. I know this trip will have a huge effect on me and the way I farm / run my business. So about 1400km's later, a ridiculous number of empty bottles, copious mossy bites and three road kill dogs (observed), it's back to Buenos Aires now and reality -firstly in the shape of a youth hostel, secondly in the shape of burger and chips for tea, thirdly in the shape of booking a 20hour bus journey!

All aboard RyanAir

Today saw the culmination of a trip I have been planning for over eight months -to Jim McCarthy's farm. We are not being lucky enough just to see one farm however! Last niht before Jim flew he rung us to say, guys hire a car -so we did, well we tried when we turned up it transpired my hiring on a Spanish website hadn't gone so well, hey ho it was OK. We have by now met up with Julian Hughes an Irish scholar and his partner Val, so we packed the four of us and all of our luggage into a Peugot 207 -at least we had air con this time!

(above - rice in the newly contoured fields)

We got to Jims office in Buenos Aires and sitting on the step had to be an Aussie - shades on, tanned and brown R. M. Wiliams. - Murray, and he was to join us with Jim. 5 minutes later a very pastey looking gentleman approaches who Julian immediately greets - Thomas an irish Nuffield, also joining the tour, and last but by no means least a taxi arrives and out jumps the ever charismatic irishman, Mr Jim McCarthy.

Quick change of clothes for Jim, tour of his office for us and on the road to farm number one. We will be visiting 3 in 3 days, several hundred miles apart. The farm is 3000ha and immaculate. Growing soyabeans, maize, wheat and now rice in rotation the farm has recently been contoured (gently graded with the natural slopes) to allow water management primarily for the rice but also the soyabeans. The maize is mostly centre point irrigated. No livestock which is unusual for Argentina. They are generally achieving three crops every two years with warmth, sunshine and adequate water this place appears to be 'the' perfect farm. Jim has an excellent manager - Hogey who's job it is to organise the running of the farm. They own only two tractors -all operations are carried out by specialist contractors. A central database allows information to move between Buenos aires, the investors and the farms.

The soil was fantastic. About 1.5m of topsoil, a little phosphate deficient with about 3% OM. Everything (Julian and I check out the rooting)

was direct drilled to combat wind and water erosion

(when it rains it really lets rip) and in fairness we didn't see and signs of compaction except for the occasional headland. GM maize and soyabean in the rotation is obviously a help for now but we will see how it affects them in the future. -This is a very much more sustainable use of GM than I saw in the states.

South Ameri Belli

Top tip whenst travelling South America –don’t eat it unless a) it’s been cooked, b) you were really looking to lose weight on a god awful diet or c) you have a constitution to match my very fortunate husbands! Enough said on that subject today except to say that looking round farms in the sun didn’t help –to pass out or not to pass out that was the question!

Anyway, we have seen plenty of gaucho’s now –Luke doesn’t have to stop to look at everyone anymore and we’ve even seen a lady gaucho –not sure of the correct terminology? We’ve visited a feed mill, where the grain from the south is bagged for cattle feed for the centre of the country.
The north is largely sustainable forests which are used to feed their industry. -They seem to have a very sustainable set up where internal trade is key. The arable lands of the south rotate around wheat which is min tilled in -quite mixed really, soyabeans, drilled direct into wheat stubbles and maize where cattle feature, there are also oats and barley grown in some localities as beer and whiskey are big!

The arable farmers biggest problems are wild oats and flooding -which can cause some significant soil erosion. Spraying here is a relaxed affair! -this pick up is full of full maize fungicide and starane just filling up at the pumps!

We have seen trials of a Dow wild oat product out here which has resulted in clean wheat fields -they seem to wait for the roundup in the rotation to deal with them.

Farming is clearly important to this country, over breakfast yesterday there was a TV channel on dedicated to showing footage of the cattle lots to go through the market. There is also an agri TV channel-which I know many countries have and the best communitcation system I have left till last!

Yes that is a car battery

he is sitting on! Only wish we knew what he was saying!

We return our independance tomorow (non air con'd, non power steering, non central locking, not even a clock!) basic and reliable car and return to Buenos Aires to meet a 'fixer' for some more farm visits and hopefully Mr McCarthy.

p.s. sorry to hear it's so cold at home, 30 today! (won't be laughing in Brasil I feel!).

Montevideo, Uruguay... or is it?

We decided to take a trip over to Uruguay for a few days to see some agriculture -it's close to Buenos Aires -just a ferry ride away and the roads are good so hiring a car and having a drive round seemed a good idea. Task 1, check out of hotel without them finding out Luke washed his feet in the sink, the whole thing fell off the wall and water had been flooding throught the room since last night -accomplished -I did sugest to the Hotelier in my pigeon spanish that 'the sink is leaking' which may have been a slight underestimation! Task 2- find ferry port -accomplished, un-eventful. Task 3 -get ferry tickets, get on ferry, arrive in Montevideo - accomplised. Task 4- hire car... all seemed to be going well, we had the keys in our hands and then on parting we said so we're returning it to Colonia? 10 minutes more dodgy and confused Spanglish later and we discovered we were in Colonia already, not Montevideo where we thought we were! (?) -and we thought the language barrier had not been too bad -how wrong we were!

No harm done, they're not too far apart so we set off on the left, no the right, no left, no definitly right side of the road. We have driven about 200kms to Trinidad, passing 'Fray Bentos' and 'Mercedes' on the way (I wonder if they dreamed these place names up whilst watching only fools and horses?). We've had a few good stops on the way, one with a 'second'? hand machinery dealer who is kean for us to help him export old tractors from the UK and the second with a farmer who had just started cutting his wheat at 'tooth breaking %'.

There's been lots of dairy farming, various herd sizes from 2-200, a lot of wheat and oats grown, some barley and plenty of forage. Soyabeans just going in to the wheat stubbles and we've just started to come through beef cattle country. We hope to head up to obne of the worlds largest hydrodam's tomorrow.

I've saved the best for last -we've seen real life Gaucho's along the road, complete with thick sheep skin rugs on their saddles and some really beautiful horses! -very exciting.

Bag? - check!, Luke?..erm... Luke?

When I was packing I was careful to follow Aussie Nuffields advice and mix the bags up a bit so if one got lost on route Luke and I would still have some clothes etc each. What I didn’t bank on was my bag coming through to Buenos Aires… but not my husband! –I had to book him a last minute flight after my original travel partner dropped out at last minute –so Luke was flying via Frankfurt to Buenos Aires, however a delayed flight at Heathrow set it all into a spin.

So my main reason for wanting to arrive in South America with someone went down the pan and I found myself at Buenos Aires airport with no money, hotel, transport etc after all. However my concerns were unjustified – if you’ve landed in Johannesburg, Buenos Aires looks like toy town – no hawkers, no whistling, no staring, just an empty cash machine and some very helpful, welcoming people.

So I found a hotel the ‘Grand Hotel Espana’ and headed off on the random bus system (maybe makes more sense if you speak Spanish?) into town and then sat about at the bus station waiting for the ‘conductor of operations’ to forward me on to my chosen hotel. So two and a half hours after arriving I check into my hotel which reminds me of the hotel we stayed in on our school trip to the Isle of Wight in 1991, but it’s clean and quite spacious.

After freshening up (16hours on a plane) I ventured into town, very cautiously –following all the travel guide, friends and families advice –no flashy jewellery, no phone or camera (that’s in Lukes bag) on show, virtually no money on me and my cash card (still in need or Argentinian bargaining currency) wedged in my pocket, firmly under my hand –I decided the long list of rules about carrying bags meant it was simplest not to bother.

Trip 1-Ok on the whole, checking into the secure bank area to use the cash machine was daunting, had a lovely meal where the waiters were very friendly –eating out on your own seems perfectly normal here, even on a Saturday - the only phasing bit was the group of youths sitting drinking in a pile of cardboard boxes –I crossed the street – probably just being a wimp but I did have £80 -400 pesos wedged down my bra by this point! –Surely when you get mugged that’s a safe place? Anyway didn’t stay out late as I was already brimming with that self pride you get when you’ve negotiated basic everyday tasks in a language you don’t speak and the travelling had left me very sleepy.

354 days of sweating

Just got back at the weekend from the Nuffield 2010 conference in Edinburgh to check out the 2009 scholars making their presentations of their papers and wow the standard was high - spent the whole two days panicking about the dogs dinner I'm going to make of mine next year -but I'll be Ok I've been promised by my BOGS sponsors -they'll be there with 'we're sponsoring Jo' T-shirts and score cards so nothing to worry about there then!

A mostly varied conference -bar the first day which was 'dairy day' - I stopped being able to find useful, transferable messages after about the third milkman to address us - with the best will in the world death by dairy is nothing but slow and boring. -Sorry dairy boys you're going to have to work harder than that to keep the audience awake. The variety included a paper on the effect of cropping on the moon - not the first time I have come across this phenomenon, however a lack of real farm data let this scholar down. The winner of bestest presentation went to a thoroughly deserved wind turbine enthusiast -if he can convince a whole community to get on board with a turbine then a room full of scholars must have been a walk in the park!

So back home to the wild winds and rain -not a very inspiring week, however plenty to do as a pick up was stolen two nights ago, we have a new employee start today, grain flying out the door, dad on holiday for two weeks, a whole company to change trading title, flights to book, injections to get to mention a few -all so I can depart in three weeks - really only three weeks S**t better get going!

Are we wasting 2% of our input costs???

Field walking allows plenty of time for comtemplation, especially when the field are clean or the decisions easy! so the thought for today is... why are we treating the tram lines with expensive fertilisers and pesticides???

-Spinning fert on granted no option. But with anything applied through a sprayer (so liquid fert included) could be blocked off - why bother, well my fag packet calculations suggest it would save about 2%, or put another way it accounts for 10ha for every 500ha farmed - not a massive area but consider the £200 ish we spend on inputs /ha...I make that £2000 for every 500ha farmed -just for using right angled nozzles or blocking a few off and my assumptions we made on 25cm wide tramlines which can easily be wider by the end of the season.

Is it worth bothering? well if it's not then you won't mind donating the £2000 to someone else - perhaps the chancellor? I don't mind taking it!

I know, I know it's not perfect but it's an idea! -Maybe we should take a leaf out of Tesco's book -every little helps!

Drowning Diggers

Sorry it's been a while, it's been a drilling frenzy here with frequent breaks for rain - bringing high depression levels sweeping in from the south west resulting in bad moods and sulks all round. Better weather last week saw tempraments improve and a break through of sunshine across the east caused some late nights with thousands of acres drilled, rolled and sprayed. The outlook for this week is scattered moods depending on the location of showers with a good amount of work being achieved and most folks drilled up by the end of the week bringing the shooting season into focus for many (myself included). -The colder weather is slowing the spread from the south of slugs in the wheat and phoma in the OSR and few signs of blackgrass make one happy agronomist/farmer! - is that a new crop?

Prices have also been cheering me up with the volatility bringing the usual head scratching into the game. I attended on ODA grain marketing meeting the other day - an excellent half day, I will be doing one of their training courses in Feb - I came away with the impression that I don't sell our grain too badly as far as cash selling goes over the last few years, however with the volatility here to stay (I believe) it's time to understand options, futures and hedging better to make sure I'm brave enough to have a go when the time comes!

Things continue to march on on the farm with a new employee due to start in a couple of weeks who's firmly set to whip us all into shape -I can feel a few comfort zones being nudged! The Health and safety folder is slowly being bulked out and our new grain store nearly ordered.

I did receive some pictures from Aus that may make you glad to be this side of the world!

Although I am a competitive person this is one competition I do not want to enter!

My Dickey John

It's been too long especially with the cliff hanger of the health and safety visit I left you on! Well, no I wasn't carted away we scored well with nothing too major to attend to - just LOTS of little things and the biggest folder of paperwork you can imagine - so that's my excuse -I have been stodging my way through it of an evening with the highlight of last week being my husand suggesting a night off to go to the cinema, my over-the-top reaction suggested i should take a few more evenings off form filling!

Today marks a very exciting day - the second week anniversary of my new gadget - I have become the proud owner of a 'dickey john' penetrometer ....clear your filthy mind - it's a soil compaction meter! Early findings have suggested blackgrass seems to thrive in soils of over 200lbs pressure in the top 3-6 inches. So now it's just a question of how to prevent these conditions forming???

Which is poinient for the clod bashing competition we've been taking part in which has now become a race against the rain (seem familiar?). So first wheats drilled and pre em'd, OSR racing away and seem to have passed the slug and flea beetle threats (famous last words). Loads of wheat left the farm in the past few weeks with £163 /t on the contract whoop whoop! -won't feel so excited in may when my load at £109 leaves -still the average is looking likely to be in the 140's which I can live with. I've also dipped my toe in the water with 2011 OSR at £300/t and added to my 2011 wheat at £130.

On the Nuffield score I have booked the Edinburgh conference in November and had more Aussies to visit-resulting in a rough school night on some truely dodgy liquers. I've had loads more soils and compost samples under the microscope and my first COMPLETLY dead soil not even a bacterial presence which is pretty worrying - the sample came from one of the worst blackgrass fields in the area. The better the microbiology the better the blackgrass situation.

To bring you bang up to date, today i went to an ODA breakfast meeting on grain market information and training - I feel a course coming on. They are a totally independant market information service, so bring on the futures bank account and the puts and calls!

Right, GPS variable rate maps to produce so will update you soon. -happy drilling.

They're going to get it warts and all!

Why o' why when your sitting back at the end of August feeling smug and thinking everything's in hand and 'I think I can make the Aylsham show' do the alarm bells not ring out with defening thunder and remind you such feelings at that time of year are fleeting and should not be trusted! -with my back turned rains threatened and everything kicked off, both round and square balers couldn't decide which way to turn first, the combine faired better and we got finished on Friday but some long nights and slightly re-shaped sheds were the price, with fields clear my services for GPS soil sampling were under high demand, coupled with the usual August cash flow uneasiness and trying to catch the wheat market as it flys eratically around meant my grand plan of a day off had a serious backlash resulting in me missing the Nuffield 2010 gathering.

After a manic week things look a little quieter this week as the rains come - saying that I was chasing seed in Nottingham this morning at 6am - clearly long enough ago for me to have forgotten it! Most of our rape is in and sprayed -about 10ha to go, no sign of slug or beetle to our relief! This weeks biggest threat could come tommorrow when we have our first ever health and safety review - the local jury is out on good idea to cover one's self and stupid plan that will result in a hell hole of form filling and safety gear shopping opening up to swallow us! -watch this space for the verdict. It was one of those things we thought we ought to do with increasing numbers of employees.... one day and then I rung the NFU and they said 'oh we'll come out in october' -enough time to cancel it I thought, then I get a phone call today 'I'm afraid we're booked up until December' - I go to brazil, argentina, aus and NZ then, ermmm, 'but I have a cancellation tommorrow' -some other bugger nicked my very plan! so stupidly I agree, in hindsight I should have booked up December and let Dad fend for himself!

Should be interesting to see what they say about our burn't out baler in the yard -but that's another story! Anyway, they're going to get it warts and all rightly or wrongly! This may be my last post as tommorrow I may be dragged away by the HSE!

Still a lovely blackgrass flush in both stale seedbeds and stubbles and our V140 leaving the farm at £10,000/load are something to celebrate -shame there's no contract for next year, ah well, new grainstore got planning permission -anyway, must go and check down the back of the sofa for the deposit!

Dee Ef Dub-a-ya

Dee Ef Dub-a-ya or Dallas Fort Worth or Dogs Fly Worldwide – I have never seen a dog at the airport before, perhaps you have –today I have seen 5 in the last hour, mostly the rat dog type, but sitting here at the airport – a bit lonely I am wondering why I didn’t bring mans best friend with me –my little jack Russell would’ve taught these scrawny lap dogs a thing or two and provided me with both entertainment and company! Speaking of Jack, I am currently accompanied by my good friends Johnny, Jack and Jim –it’s Ok the coke’s diet! But my burger, chips and ben and jerrys wasn’t and I can highly recommend a new flavour to me anyway – ‘whirled peace’ du get it? –the irony, in America!

Oh no, the woman squeezed into jeans 2 sizes too small with a cling film t-shirt and bad skin, complete with rat dog under one arm (that she’s been ‘kissing’ for the last ½ hour) is off to the toilet, sorry, bairthroom –that’s put me right off –her or the dog, or both I wonder-I haven’t seen any doggy toilets after all.

So just a note before i leave on the US throwaway nation, I can’t wait to get home to use a china plate and silver (or cheaper metal replacement) cutlery. I only drunk from a vessel I didn’t throw away at the pub, all other drinks have been served in cardboard, foam or plastic cups or bottles (some overwrapped in more plastic). The little cutlery I have been offered (never knives and usually it’s assumed you’ll just use your hands) has been pressed out of various ‘biodegradeable’ materials – I can’t help but think time team might still be digging these up next century, this morning I ate my fruit salad and yoghurt with such a spoon and a cardboard bowl which had the effect or nails down a blackboard on my nerve endings. There were about 30 people on my course this week, all pretty organic world conscious types and every time ‘toxic chemicals’ were mentioned I had to laugh inside as they all sipped from the petrochemical drinks containers, finished and tossed another in the trash – beautiful! It amazed me how much rubbish we generated in a day all to save someone the effort of washing up or stacking the dishwasher in the fully equipped kitchen 2 metres away. I also can’t pass up the opportunity to hint that my colleagues on this course happily sipped coffee – about the most carcinogenic material the human body comes into contact with –I’d rather drink my toxic chemicals thank you, at least they’ve been tested.

The TV is enough to frighten the life out of you, about 20 channels last night, 4 with sport, 2 shopping, 5 about police, prisons and murders, 4 medical dramas, 1 film, 2 cartoon and 1 comedy –does this seem balanced to you, I’ve never seen so many guns on TV and real dead bodies, they can’t show naked people but murdered, dead people’s Ok? – scary stuff, especially when you think you recognise your motel. My constitutions is not being eased now either as the D-part-ment for homeland security patrolling complete with tasar, mace, baton, cuffs, mobile and handgun attached to their belts – any more inventions and they’ll all have to put on another stone to fit it on!

...and in case you were wondering about the pictures - these were some neat things I saw at the Oregon Garden -just to brighten it up!

Chimney Sweep English

Sorry it's been a few days but my head's been hurting with information overload -the course if officially over now so time for a little reflection. Two more translations: R't = root, biscuit = savory buttery scone like thing and karm-post = compost. I spent tuesday learning the fine details of how to produce top quality karm-post and karm-post tea (tea brewing vessel pictured below) and I can tell you it's a world away from that s**t the waste companies churn out.

Wednesday was a field trip to a vermiculture plant (worm castings for karm-post) they used shitaki mushroom growth medium blocks for the base -I can't even begin to describe the smell, gut wrenching doesn't come close. Above is a mexican painstakingly shovelling each batch through the worm seperated.

Today has been a microscope class (pictured at the bottom), a fast pace reminder of A level and Uni microbiology plus all the details for me to analyse soils for their likely bacteria, fungi, nematode and protozoa counts and distinction between the good guys and the bad. - I will be testing you all on this!

Tommorrow I meet with the business and technical team here to find out if we can utilise some of these products in the UK and if I make the grade to become one of their affiliated advisors. Maybe a big night out before the microscope class wasn't such a great idea?

Saying goodbye to my new set of friends today was hard as ever - I don't think you could've tried to fill a room with a more diverse group of people, as ever I did my best not to pre judge anyone on first glance (I have learnt this approach alienates far too quickly when you are the minority) and keep an open mind -determined to learn something from everyone. So what did they teach me?

There is plenty of mid ground between organic and conventional farming even if neither side wishes to admit it. I have Mark to thank for education on hop growing, beer brewing and attempts at English and sounding like the perfect chimney sweep from Mary poppins. I'd like to thank GoGee (pictured below) the organic medicinal marajuana grower for (no not that) the positive energy he channelled to me and an insight into a whole nother world. Rebecca for the political update -quite the contrary to the farmers in Missouri. Construction Mark for the mainstream 'Frat' type view of the world and intense production agriculture. Kathleen (pictured below) for showing me Canadians do have a sense of humour (!) and the whole group of socialites who mercilessly 'took the mick' out of my accent for 5 hours - all in their best cockney chimney sweep!

It's been another great trip -again made by the folks I met and Earthfort, Soil Foodweb and Sustainable studies and greatfully I have found a piece of America to love -Oregon: enthusiastic home brewers, wine makers, fruit and veg eaters, joggers (yes movement), generally more travelled and more rounded (not physically) people.

Very few 'toxic chemical farmers'

Arrived at Benton County Fairground today -5mins late - really struggling with US signage and my sat nav isn't taking zip codes - great because driving on the wrong side isn't hard enough, trying to navigate between a naff map, a sat nav map with only major roads and filling in the gaps with the one road name I wrote down last night! Anyway, mission accomplished eventually.

I was a bit surprised when I walked in in turned up jeans and a shirt -I did have my flip flops on so partially fitted in with the majority organic producers - nuff said?

Anyway a fair diversity of people, very few conventional toxic chemial farmers let alone devil worshipping advisers like myself so they all looked on with a definite air of contempt and perhaps a little hostilaty - they'll warm to me I'll make sure of that!

A fungi consuming a harmful nematode

So what did I learn? Dairy Queen rules (Oreo brownie blizzard - heaven) erm, soil wise some 'pretty cool' stuff that ties in nicely with everything else I've been reading and learning lately it's just a bit mind blowing trying to fit it all together. Highlights: protozoa eat bacteria which releases the soil nutrients. Nematodes are the most prolific organisms on the planet, the largest nematode live in the blue whale and is 8ft long. The theory of ecological succession and the need to match your bacteria : fungi ratio to the plant types you're trying to grow - for instance Brome grasses are a 'low level' plant type and require only a low microbe count to thrive - hence we're seeing more brome in the UK these days. Frass is the name for insect poo. In a thriving soil there could be enough microbial cycling of Nitrogen NOT TO REQUIRE ANY FURTHER N to grow a high yielding wheat crop -just think about it.

Anyway, tommorrow is compost and teas - so watch this space....