And just like that, in record quick time, harvest was over.  The final Spring-sown heritage wheat (April Bearded) was harvested on the afternoon of 9th August.  An incredibly plain sailing harvest – all crops coming in dry, often no dew in the morning allowing for early starts.  A strange year.  All this with what would normally be considered some frustrating breakdowns, twice with parts taking four days to come from Germany (thanks Brexit!).

April Bearded wheat.

This all leads into the biggest concern of the moment: drought.  Not only has this Summer been record-breakingly hot, but lack of rainfall has been a serious concern.  Somehow our Winter crops weren’t too badly affected (although quality is down), but our Spring-sown crops were hit badly with poor yields.  At the end of August we had received just a paltry inch of rain in the previous two months.  The farm would usually expect four and half times that.  In fact, we are on about half the annual rainfall we would expect for the year to date.

This is now not a problem for the harvest we have just collected, but is making plans tricky for the crop establishment we need to be doing.  I have a lot of temporary herbal mixes to sow, but until the ground has had a decent amount of rain, it would be a waste of money to put such expensive seed in the ground.  So I am just holding tight for the time being, assuming that it will eventually properly rain, and plants will begin to grow.

There have been a couple of nice benefits to the early harvest and somewhat being able to put my feet up.  One of my best friends, Rob, got married, and a week later Mia’s best friend also tied the knot.  It was weird to be able to comfortably go to these Weddings in August, feeling relaxed about taking the weekend off!  Plus, since Mia has decided to do a Masters degree in Sustainable Agriculture in Cirencester next year, I have enjoyed being able to have time with her before she disappears!

The benefits of an early harvest – being able to go to friends’ weddings and let your hair down.

On the Bank Holiday Monday, Mia and I drove up to Nasely in Northamptonshire to see a chap called James Fanshawe.  I have been thinking about diversifying my cow herd for a little while now, having simply fallen in love with having cows on the farm.  Whilst I adore my Red Polls, I have been looking at other breeds for some time.

The big issue when it comes to Red Polls is their health status.  Very few people test for disease in the way that I do, so I couldn’t comfortably buy more Red Polls without possibly buying in more disease.  No thanks to that!  I have had my eye on Beef Shorthorns.  These are also a native breed and will do very well on the pasture system that I operate.  They also happen to look very pretty, which works well for me.  What’s more, high herd health is pretty much mandatory within the Beef Shorthorn community, so I felt much more comfortable adding some of these to my herd.

James runs a large herd of Shorthorns.  I had originally been put off this breed by the fact they are horned (even if the horns are small!).  But since keeping cows for the last 20 or so months, this bothers me less, and there is a paste you can apply to the calves which is about 85% effective at preventing the horns from growing, so I will be trying that.  I bought 12 heifers from James.  It was super to have Mia with me choosing them.  They will come to the farm at the end of October, and should stand out very clearly from the sea of red that my herd currently is!

I completely forgot to take any photos of James’s cows.  So had to pilfer this one, showing how gorgeous beef shorthorns can look, from the society website.

I have also just kicked off organic conversion on the entire farm here in Fobbing.  Something which has been bubbling along for a few years now, and it’s so exciting to actually be doing it.  I am also going to certify my herd with the PFLA (Pasture Fed Livestock Association, more affectionately known as Pasture for Life), since pasture is the only grub mine ever eat.  Now just comes the tricky bit of marketing my animals and getting the premium for those certifications!

The brevity of this month’s blog shows how quiet the month of August has been.  A well needed bit of downtime, soon to become frenetic again, I’m sure.  This is the fourth anniversary of monthly articles that I have written, and I am very pleased to have kept up and not missed a month.  However, I am choosing to take a break for a time now.  In fact, I will soon be switching off all my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (and deleting the apps from my phone) to take a full break from all Social Media.  For a while it has felt like another job pulling on limited time resources, and I want to remember what life felt like without those apps constantly calling for my attention.  My plan at the moment will be to write articles and record podcasts more occasionally, but I’m sure I’ll get dragged back online properly in the New Year at some point.  As ever though, if you ever have any questions about what I am up to, my contact details are below: please don’t hesitate to get in touch.