Young steers in the big Manor Field. (Photo: Colin Wootton)

Richard Fonge writes:

A dry warm autumn so far, with some fantastic early mornings. The lack of rain really is a concern for the establishment of all autumn sown crops.

The term regenerative farming is now quite widely practised, but what does it mean?  Firstly you don’t disturb the soil, so all crops are planted direct into the earth and by doing so all activity in the soil by worms and microbes are not disturbed. Therefore the carbon footprint and establishment cost are much reduced. Soil erosion is avoided and the roots of the old crop are broken down, to increase organic matter and produce a healthier soil. After the main crop is harvested, a cover crop is planted so the land is not bare over winter as can be seen on the Stuchbury footpath before a spring crop is sown for the next harvest. Another aspect of this system is to have livestock in the form of cattle or sheep to rotate round the farm, producing manure to enrich the soil, thereby saving on fertilisers.

That part is not a new concept and is called mixed farming. A way of farming that was prevalent and the accepted way of running a farming business up until the 1960’s when specialisation came about through modernisation and the drift from the land of available labour. Many farms in this area still have a livestock enterprise along with their crops, although dairy herds are rare now for the counties of the midlands. We sometimes think we have re invented the wheel, but in fact have gone back to basics.

I was horrified at the ignorance of those protesting at London fashion week against the shearing of sheep to make woollen garments. A sheep grows a thick fleece which needs removing in late spring early summer for its own welfare. Flies will strike when it gets hot and humid, producing maggots that eat into the flesh. 

This is not a condition you wish to see. Sheep are therefore shorn for their own good and not for any monetary gain. In my farming life the price of wool most years did not cover the cost of shearing.  

It’s good to see some young steers in the Big manor field. Grass fields like that look so much better when stocked. They will be housed when the weather turns more wintry for the winter.

Richard Fonge.

Chris Behan writes:

Sulgrave Church Organ concert by Ian Tracey, Internationally renowned organist and organist Liverpool Cathedral

ORGAN CO…T FORM.pdf

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Swallows. Photograph: John Sheppard.

Richard Fonge writes:

Finally the drought broke towards the end of August and within a few days the grass became green again, and started to grow rapidly. The welcome rain and humidity also put paid to my prediction that the oil seed rape would not be sown in time. Take a look at the field off Park Lane to see how quickly it germinated and grew. Nature has a.way of levelling things out. The late grass growth will be of help to the stock farmers, compensating for some of the winter feed used in the drought days of summer .

Early September sees the swallows gathering on the telephone lines on the Moreton rd.  This year on my early walk, I counted at least 80 one day, followed by a 100 plus three days later, with other smaller nos on later days.  All setting off on the long journey south to Africa.

The fields up the concrete rd have been cultivated once, and will be done again before sowing later this autumn. The machinery used today to prepare the land for planting is large and powerful, allowing the operator to get over a big acreage each day in relative comfort, but it is a lonely job as are many farm tasks today, carried out in the peace of the countryside but with little companionship. Giving plenty of time to mull over the many challenges of running a business, but keeping those thoughts private, rather than a problem shared. That is why help organisations like F.C.N (Farm Community Network) are so valuable as they can provide the advice and counselling to farmers and those that work on the land when they have a need to talk with someone about their concerns, whether financial, domestic or personal.

The first helpline of this sort was Gloucestershire farming friends, founded by a larger than life Gloucestershire farmer and staunch Methodist called Malcolm Whittaker in 1991 whom I met a couple of times through a mutual friend..  His personality and ability to connect with people enabled him to set a template for other counties to follow. The harvest event just held in Sulgrave gave support to F.C.N.

Of the many iconic sounds of the countryside, the sound of horses hoofs on tarmac takes a lot of beating, especially in the early morning. Others are the call of the pheasant, rooks in their rookery and the smell of new mown grass after a shower of rain.

Richard Fonge.

Ewes and Lambs in Sulgrave. Photo: Colin Wootton

Richard Fonge writes:

The drought continues with no end in sight. With harvest completed our local farmers have found, like the rest of the country, that yields and quality are down. This is especially true of the wheat. The lack of rain meant the grain didn’t swell and the crops died off instead of a gradual ripening. The oilseed rape was the one bright spot and yielded well, because it had good establiment last autumn and it flowers early and sets its pods in late April/May therefore the drought had less effect. Oilseed rape is a brassica and has a lengthy taproot.

When the various crops have been harvested, they leave a stubble of short stems. With the ground so hard and dry any cultivation for the next crop is not on, until the rains come. This will be a serious problem especially for oilseed rape growers as the seed needs to be planted by the end of August , to ensure good establishment by winter.  

For spring born lambs mid July is weaning time. Hence the continued bleating for two or three days, the length of time it takes to forget each other. At this age they are no longer dependent on the ewes milk, which is drying up anyway. If you reunited ewe and lamb they would go their separate ways and not recognise one another.

As a nation we are now around 55% self sufficient in food. Therefore land use has to be carefully balanced between food production, wildlife conservation and energy use. In our parish there is just that, with our farmers, in keeping with most of their kind, producing food, but at the same time looking after nature with conservation grasses, field margins and woodlands.

Finally the use of AI intelligence is very much to the fore. However to an old dairy farmer like me, when I hear the term A I said, I think of artificial insemination, used by dairy farmers to impregnate their cows from the 1950’s. “ The Bull in the bowler hat”, was the term at the time!

Richard Fonge.

Bindweed. (Photograph: Colin Wootton)

Richard Fonge writes:

The lengthy spell of hot weather continues, resulting in one of the earliest harvests ever, with the strong possibility of completion by the end of the month, a time when usually a start would be made. These tinder dry conditions across our countryside are a fire hazard, and for our farmers combining ripe corn with the dust it produces, they have to be extra vigilant. One spark can set alight not only the combine but the crop itself that it is cutting. This has happened already this year in parts of the country.

There are various plants that grow on our land that are deadly poisonous to animals. Ragwort is the most prominent one and spreading profusely across all the HS2 sites where the land has been left vacant. A great pollinator but can be fatal to livestock when eaten if cut and dried in the form of hay. Fatal to dogs if they ingest. St John’s Wort and Hemlock are two other plants that are fatal if eaten, but like Ragwort livestock usually avoid eating when green. I have seen a cow treated for St John’s wort poisoning, where the white pigmentation of her skin lifted off and also caused severe liver damage resulting in death. A plant called the thorn apple, another poisonous one, sometimes grown in our gardens but mostly found on the banks of our large rubbish tips, suddenly appeared in a field of potatoes of mine. The seeds we had believed had been carried by seagulls from a large waste tip not far away and deposited by them as they had followed the plough. The thorn apple has large pods which when ripe burst open spreading thousands of seeds. In this case a selective herbicide soon solved the problem, without harming the potato crop.

The grass verges along our lanes are only cut once a year in July, and it is noticeable how much bindweed with its white flowers there are along our lanes. When the verges were cut in May and July it didn’t get a chance to grow. Wherever it grows it strangles all other plants, so never let it in your garden or allotment.

I am not of the thinking of looking back with nostalgia of harvests past, because we are inclined to only remember the better times and not the frustrations of unreliable machinery and the hard physical work entailed in getting in the harvest, compared to today with our sophisticated machinery and ease of labour. But the end result is the same and should be celebrated, because the harvest of any crop, whether grown in field, allotment, greenhouse or garden puts food on our tables.

Richard Fonge.

Silage bale wrapped in plastic. Photo: Colin Wootton

Richard Fonge writes:

The rain and showers of the early part of June, have been very welcome for all the crops and grassland. With the corn now in ear, the rain helps to swell the grain, so making a plumper fruit. This is also applicable to all our garden and allotment fruits and vegetables. The outcome will hopefully will be a good harvest which we can celebrate as a village in September on the Castle Green.

The young yearling sheep off the Helmdon road have now been sheared. Sheep are sheared once a year, starting in mid May or when the weather is warm and dry enough. The fleece needs removing for health reasons and for the sheep’s comfort. A full fleece has grown again by winter time. Lanolin secreted from the sebaceous glands of the sheep needs to have risen to make an easy shearing of the sheep. The majority of the shearers come over from New Zealand for the season, working in gangs across the country. Wool today is of little value. The price not covering the cost hardly of removal. It was of course wool that brought great wealth to the Cotswolds in particular, but also our area of Northants, for example the Althorp estate owned by the Spencer family with their connection to the Washingtons. The Woolpack by Cynthia Harnet is a great story of fifteenth century Cotswolds, and her later book about Sulgrave Manor and the Washingtons in Queen Mary’s reign entitled “Stars of Fortune” a must read.

June was once the start of haymaking, a very busy weather dependent task. Today very little hay is made with grass being conserved as silage or haylage for winter stock feed. Both these forms of conservation require wrapping the grass in plastic in bales of up to 500 kilos. The difference in making is that the grass is dried out more for haylage and preferred by the horse people. For farmers with large numbers of stock the grass is mown, harvested by a forage harvester which chops it up finely and then clamped and sealed.

On the walk along the Stuchbury boundary the second field called Sulgrave ground is growing a fantastic crop of wheat, the next Painters a field of HS2 soil. Both are around 50 acres in size, and having farmed them both it delights me to see such a crop and saddens me to see such vandalism of a good field.

Richard Fonge

Sheep shearing in Sulgrave. May 1966. Photograph: Colin Wootton

Richard Fonge writes:

The persistent cold northerly winds and lack of rain have had a severe impact on spring grown crops and grass growth, and this can be seen in our own gardens. Late frosts will have had an effect on blossoms and any emerging potatoes if they haven’t been covered up.

The first two weeks of May I believe sees the countryside at its best (ignoring what is happening to the west of Sulgrave). The fresh light greens of the hedgerows and trees, along with the many blossoms, in particular the horse chestnut tree and the may blossom stand out. Not forgetting the Madam’s Close buttercups.

The winter wheat plant up the concrete road and on the Stuchbury footpath along with the winter barley off Park lane and oilseed rape up the Moreton Road, were well established last autumn and have a healthy look after nitrogen fertiliser feed. If the Middle East conflict is not settled soon and nitrogen fertiliser becomes scarce, there will be serious implications for our food security.

No market town has changed more than Banbury. Forty years ago the M40 was completed, bringing much more industry to a town which had the largest livestock market in Europe, four grain and cattle feed merchants and at least four agricultural engineers as I recall. But agriculture, farming was also changing rapidly with the advancement of technology and in particular machinery. The numbers of farmers declined as small acreages became uneconomical to run, and we saw the ever expanding growth of contract farming. An agreement between a farmer and another farmer whereby one contacts out to the other at an agreed price to grow his crops. This made optimum use of expensive machinery and reduced the numbers working on the land. So sadly today that strong agriculture connection is nowhere to be seen in the town.

The nearest livestock markets are at Thame and Stoneleigh (Rugby Market) and Worcester. Today’s marketing is mainly in the case of grain done over the phone with an agent. Whilst some stock goes through the live auction, most is sold through a marketing group, direct to abattoir or with a supermarket contract.

Lastly this time of year is a worrying for shepherds. Ewes have a full fleece and can get cast on their backs, and if not found in time will die from the build up of gasses pressing on the diaphragm. The shearing of sheep usually starts in late May, when the oils have risen after a warm spell.

Richard Fonge

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Richard Fonge writes:

We are experiencing a true blackthorn winter in the first part of April, with night frosts and a chill wind most of the time. The blackthorn blossom in our hedges lasts well into late April, soon to be followed by the whitethorn (May blossom). These two thorns were the predominant hedge plants to keep stock in their rightful fields in the past, before stock netting and barb wire were available to back fence the field as you see now in most pastures.

How good it is to see the fields once again stocked with cattle, and ewes and lambs after a winters break. Turning cattle out after a winter in sheds is always a welcome sight as they charge round, kicking their heels in the air before settling down to graze. To me it is the same as seeing the first swallow. Spring has arrived! As you go up the Moreton Rd have you ever wondered what the large red box in the field opposite the Bungalow is? It’s a lamb creep feeder. Lambs mostly live off their mothers milk, but by putting a high protein feed in this box that lambs can access but not the ewes, it helps their growth and takes the pressure off the reliance of milk. 

All crops sown last autumn look healthy and have responded to their first application of nitrogen fertiliser and will have had a fungicide spray applied to protect the leaf from the many diseases that affect the leaf. The greener the leaf the better photosynthesis can take place to produce a bold healthy fruit of good quality at harvest time. The oilseed rape in particular has come through the winter well, mainly I suspect because of good germination creating a denser ground covering, making the crop less susceptible to pigeon damage.

Today to scare birds off crops gas bangers are used, not scarecrows as of old. The scarecrow was mainly used to frighten the rook and pigeon. By placing a scarecrow or two made up of old clothing over a frame, it was felt it would scare off the birds. In the case of the pigeon decoys can be placed for shooting purposes. Of the corvid family the rook can do good as well as harm. They are a tight knit family bird living in their rookerys. They need pasture to live off, and can do much good by eating the leatherjackets and wireworm that can attack the roots of new sown crops. The leatherjacket is the larva of the crane fly, more prevalent in wet times. The wireworm the larva of the click beetle, usually active in a crop following grass.

We miss I think the succinct and pithy retorts of old country folk: A woodsman was turned away from a tree planting job, but asked a year later to weed them, which he refused.

Reply to agent: “It’s like this when my missus gives me rhubarb I likes a bit of custard too”

Richard Fonge