28) farmingGeorge’s Fobbing Farm Update: Hard Slog

 farmingGeorge’s Fobbing Farm UpdateHard slogTen years ago I recall speaking to a good friend (20 years my senior and with an high up management position in a bank) about stress.  He told me that the more advanced in your career you progress, the more stress you must deal with.  But you get better at dealing with that stress.The past few years of running the farm have demonstrated that I have become personally much more able to deal with that increase in stress, as I add complexity and richness to this farm in Fobbing.  However, the one word to describe how I have felt over the past few weeks is harried.  And given my relative current adeptness at coping with stress, I hope that gives some idea of the level I am dealing with lately!A good deal of this is self-inflicted.  What right minded individual would decide to start a flour milling business concurrently with a massive tree planting campaign, whilst attempting to still keep up with the day-to-day running of a commercial yard and farming operation (oh, and adding in a herd of cows too.  More on that later).  Well, resting on my laurels doesn’t sit well with me.  So, whilst 2020 has been a rubbish year for most of the population, I don’t see that as a reason to wallow.The mill project is progressing.  Just slower than I had intended.  First fix electrics are happening over the next couple of weekends.  And once I finish the build (fingers crossed that the week between Christmas and New Year will enable me to do a lot of that) we can get temporary second fix in, and I can start milling.  The reason I say temporary is due to needing to get set up in order to work out all the kinks before I lock in the final position of certain items.  I am as ever excited to get the mill turning though, and can’t wait for everyone to try my flour.When I wrote last month, we had barely got any wheat in the ground.  But on the last Saturday of December George Simon from Simtech brought out a demonstration seed-drill to the farm for us to trial.  This is genuinely the simplest drill I have ever seen.  No hydraulics.  No electrics (save the road lights).  Just a simple rear roller linked to a gearbox to meter out the correct rate of seed.  And gravity to drop the seed through the pipe to the seeding boot and into the ground.George Simon riding on the back of the demo Simtech seed-drillOur main seeder, the Cross Slot drill, is a disc seeder:  a disc runs in the ground and the seed is placed next to it.  Disc drills struggle in the wet, and ours is also afflicted by weight.  The machine itself is heavy, as too is the tractor required to pull it.  The Simtech on the other hand requires less horsepower to pull, so consequently a tractor of one third the weight (whilst the seeder is a fifth of the weight of our Cross Slot).  And this drill works in the wet!I was so pleased with the trial, where we got a few of my heritage wheat varieties established, that the following Monday found Dad & I near Royston, Cambridge, checking over a second-hand machine which I subsequently purchased.  It arrived on farm the next day.  Unfortunately Paul (who works for me) was off ill that week, so it was up to me to set the drill up and then seed thirteen varying areas of trial wheat crops.  All before the expected downpour the next day.  I managed it…just!  I am most excited by a couple of trials inter-cropping wheat with winter peas.  The idea behind this is two-fold: providing better weed suppression with the peas in the bottom of the crop (as well as the peas being able to use the wheat as a scaffold to grow up), and also the nitrogen-fixing leguminous peas working symbiotically with the wheat to provide more fertility to the cereal, and hopefully increase the protein level in the grain. The logistics of seeding multiple varieties…  The generator and industrial hoover were critical to cleaning the seeder out between different varietiesMy new ‘second’ drill – for those times when it is just too wet!Since this trial field of lots of wheat varieties has gone in, it has really rained.  And I’m getting a little concerned now.  The field is sitting very wet, and if we don’t get a bit of a dry spell I am concerned that the wheat I worked so hard to put in the ground will just rot.  It is far too early to make that call, and I have my fingers firmly crossed for a good outcome.  The opposite would be soul-destroying, since the entire produce from this field is destined to go through my mill.The Red Poll cattle herd which I so excitedly wrote of previously have been genuinely lovely, and their ecological impact (even in the winter months) can already be felt, with a plethora of additional flies visible on their dung (all the higher ecological chains will follow in the coming years – birds, small mammals, etc).  However, it has by no means been plain sailing.Two and a half weeks after they arrived here, Dad and I went out to move the herd to a new paddock (they are moved every couple of days onto fresh ground in a system known as mob grazing).  It was then that we realised one of the cows had aborted.Horrid as it was, as I approached the cow she left her deceased calf to rejoin the herd (this is actually a very natural response) and I took the foetus away.  Hearing the cow lowing for her dead offspring over the next couple of days was very upsetting.The next day, Mia from Westpoint Vets came out.  We looked at the herd, and she had no worries about my husbandry.  It was likely just “one of those things”.  She took a dung sample to check for worms (which subsequently came back clear), and left me a vial to obtain a milk sample for testing.The next day.  Another cow slipped her calf:  two out of eleven aborted.  This is some of the reality of keeping livestock.  But obviously the devastating reality.  I got the vet out again (Ian this time) and he took bloods from both cows.  The foetuses have since been cremated with the knackerman, and APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency) have been informed about the abortions (necessary protocol).Just a couple of hours before typing this, the results have come though.  The most frustrating result possible.  I had hoped it was simply delayed travel-stress which caused the cows to abort:  unlikely but possible.  However, the milk sample from the first cow has come back as neosporosis; which likely means the same is true of the second cow.  I don’t know a whole lot about neosporosis, but it is spread by infected dogs through their faeces, and causes cows to abort.  This is likely due to the cows coming from Hatfield forest with lots of dog walkers.  But it really hammers home to me the importance to dog owners of picking up after their pooches.  It is not a just a public inconvenience, but a genuine potential health hazard for dog poo to be left about.I am very concerned about the health of the rest of the herd.  So in the New Year I will run bloods on the entire herd to determine how many are infected.  Unfortunately those which are will not be able to enter my milking herd, but instead will be destined for the meat market.  There is a chance they will successfully calve this year, but will likely abort in following years, and that is not a risk I can take.  When starting out on a new exciting venture this is exceptionally saddening, but I am beginning to see a path though the current strait to a future with a clean, healthy herd.So…quite a lot of stress to deal with in the month that contains Christmas!  But I chose to add to it by starting my agroforestry project (belts of trees in arable fields – my YouTube, @farmingGeorge has a good six-minute explanation of my plans viewable here).  The big tree planting initiative has been in the works for close on five years now.  It’s funny how long it takes for some projects to come to fruition!  I am glad it has taken this time though, since it has vastly increased in complexity and consequently its outcomes should be that much more exciting.Some of the trees arriving!  I began feeling a little sick at the scope of the task ahead of me right about now…The scale of the project has really made itself clear of late.  Whilst it has been this wet, marking out for the tree positions has been considerably more time consuming and exhausting.  And my average daily distance travelled on foot has increased from 7km to 15km!  However, it is really happening!  Quinces, plums, apples, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines, damsons, medlars, mirabelles, gages, cherrys, cobnuts, blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants, blackberries, gooseberries, mulberries, tayberries, juneberries, plus a whole host of timber species.  Willow are going in after Christmas, and persimmon, Szechuan pepper, almond, pomegranate, walnut and a few other species will be planted at some point in the next twelve months!  The effect is going to be stellar.  I really hope I can borrow a drone for an ariel shot!Tomorrow (Saturday 12th, December) a gang of four workers arrive (plus a couple of students from Writtle) to assist with the planting.  But today Mum, Dad and I planted 11 quinces (with Paul running ahead with an auger on the digger, drilling holes in which to plant the trees); just to make sure we knew what we were doing!Mum & Dad posing with the quince treesI know we have a super tough week coming up with a tonne of hard work – both physical and mental.  But the seismic visual change to the field in question (let alone the ecological and environmental changes) will be quite something to behold.  I’m sure the effort will be worthwhile in the long run, and I can’t wait for everyone to see it!I genuinely can’t wait to share the pictures next month.  This is just a tiny glimpse of how magnificent this field will lookHopefully this article will be published in the Church Magazine in time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a stupendous New Year.  2020 has been such a dreadful year for so many reasons.  But I am buoyed by the possibilities of 2021.  I am certain it will be a super year.  And I look forward as ever to sharing the ongoing changes to my farm in Fobbing, with improved ecology as the central value, with you all.Contact details:George Young07792 508 611George@FobbingFarms.co.uk@farmingGeorge