Farm Diary

We do have several hundred acres of barley straw in Hampshire, and not much of that has arrived at the farm yet. Our grass drilling operations are not possible as the drill would block up in these conditions, but it is still early enough and that will come right by the time you read this hopefully.

We have sub-soiled two fields we sprayed off, and by ripping them in both directions we can now get the seed bed worked down and drilled. We did that because they had been so badly rutted in the past, and it is far quicker and easier than ploughing this heavy weald clay.

I fully expect an 'Indian Summer' which will take us through into November; the weather always compensates, and everyone deserves a break!

We had quite a few staffing 'issues' last week (we normally do!). Sadly, one of our men from the Philippines lost his mother, suddenly; although she had been ill for a very long time.

This meant urgent arrangements for him to fly home and a fast run to Heathrow after getting him on an afternoon flight. Our new Bulgarian couple, who are both going to work on the farm, milking cows, arrived on Tuesday. They do not speak a word of English, not even 'Hello'!

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette August 27