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!