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Not a rant, just incredulity.


JDog
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One of my farms is 600 acres in size and is in a good area for pigeons. The farm is owner occupied and there will almost certainly be no charges against the farm itself as it was inherited but here may be borrowings against machinery. This should put the following into context.

Whilst every other farmer in the area has been madly drilling, this farmer, who has some very light land, is hedge trimming. I am well aware that there is a time window for hedge trimming but he only started this week. He is half way through dealing with the hedges.

He is a very affable fellow and I disturbed his work this morning (he told me it was a welcome break) and we had a fifteen minute chin wag. He still has getting on for 200 acres to drill and this will include several fields of beans, spring barley and peas. All good stuff for a pigeon shooter.

This is an early spring (so far) but surely he should have made a start on preparing the ground for drilling? He is a one man band and he therefore has to plough, cultivate, prepare and drill all of this land this spring on his own. Which is more important, having the place look tidy or sowing the seed for financial gain?

 

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Yes, and modern machinery can change the landscape so quickly these days. I'm pretty sure he knows what he is doing and has his plan.  The ONE BIG problem with anyhting to do with agriculture is WEATHER and the next 5-6 days looks prfect for tilling/sowing the ground but three or four days of rain promised for next weekend.  Long gone are the days of towing a two furrow plough and some 8ft discharrows(big in my day).  I borrowed a 3 furrow conventional plough from our neighbour and thought I was the bees knees, now they are pushing seven and towing ten or more.  Just look forward to him putting in those beans:yes:

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We have a selection of scruffy farms and others that are like show homes. I have two farms next to each other and the one farmer complains that his neighbours rape is better than his and the pigeons don't bother with it. His neighbour harvests and prepares the next crop all in one week the seed is in early and gets established he has Twenty to gas guns hence no pigeons also the rape is always very tall and lush and the pigeons will not land in it. 

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You also mentioned light land Jdog the farmer on my perm always says we mostly get the same amount of rain in a 12 month period, possible if he gets it in too early and it gets too much rain it could cap the land. Also Barley doesn't like its feet in water and will rot, so may be a possibility with some of the other seeds mentioned.

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I had a trip up to one of my farms today, and they had just started putting the beans in 😀. it`s a good few weeks earlier this year than last, due to the good weather we`ve been having. The farmer said the whole lot will be in and disc rolled in 3 days, so i`ll be back up on Friday, and hopefully will get some decent shooting at last (fingers crossed)

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