Tweeting brings country residents closer

COUNTRY folk have listened to the sound of birdsong for years, but thanks to Sunk Island farmer Jono Dixon they are now singing their own tune and tweeting themselves.

His fledgling #clubhectare Twitter group is one of the fastest growing rural social media operations in the UK and is a clear example of how farmers, who like to say they know nothing about such things, are rapidly embracing new communications.

“It’s been a rollercoaster,” says Jono from Patrington Farm just a short distance from the River Humber.

“From an educational point of view I guess I’ve learned more in 17 months than I have in the past 30-odd years. Social media is bringing farmers of all kinds together far more than anything else has ever done before.

“#clubhectare was actually born on the back of a direct message on Twitter from Chris Hewis who farms on the south bank of the Humber.

“We had followed each other for a few months. He’s a farm manager and requested my telephone number after we had tweeted about our concerns about poaching in autumn 2011.

“Although we are separated by the expanse of the Humber we are relatively close together and the Humberside Police helicopter is used for both banks. With our existing contacts with our own local police forces we have been able to bring a Farmwatch style approach to the problem.”

The subject matter had relevance to many farmers and country folk in the area.

“By the new year of 2012. I had quite a few Twitter farmer followers from East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire and we talked or tweeted about a get together.

“The first Tweet Meet took place at Harborough Hotel on the south bank on February 17, 2012 with 14 of us. It was like a blind date for farmers.”

There was still no #clubhectare name then but the group has now grown to about 350 who have bought green and gold merchandise such as polo shirts, badges and stickers. The group now has members in Australia and North America too.

While someone like Jono who tenant farms 568 acres, all down to winter wheat on the flat reclaimed lands of Sunk Island may not seem to have much in common with a “dog and stick” farmer in Cumbria or Wales he feels the Twitter group is a real leveller.

“Reading other farmers’ timelines on Twitter hits home about the plight that many farmers have suffered through bad weather and how that has impacted on their profitability. Sometimes it can seem as though farmers in one area have been oblivious to others but that’s where I believe social media is bringing us more together.

“What I can say is that #clubhectare members really do care and some of our members of the group have gone way beyond simply caring and are actively helping others as a result.

“One member Andrew Ward (@wheat_daddy) recently delivered free forage and straw over from the east side of the country to the west.”

Jono sees #clubhectare as much more than just a coffee shop for farmers, as it has been referred to elsewhere, but also a campaigning vehicle.

“The subject matter that has become our most popular in recent times has been over the return to stubble burning. This was outlawed in 1993.

“I can see why the general public may not want a return to it but when you get particularly high levels of blackgrass infestation it is one of the best methods of control.

“Is there a chance of getting stubble burning back? Well I don’t give up easily and farmers are allowed to burn heather and linseed. Interestingly stubble burning is still allowed in Scotland, so maybe we have a chance.”

Whilst Jono has become a Twitter diehard he hasn’t taken to Facebook and other social media quite as readily.

“I do use Facebook, but only sporadically. With Twitter I think it’s the limited use of 140 characters that helps. It means you have to get your message across quickly. My advice to all farmers and anyone using it though would be to think before you tweet. The abuse that exists on all social media from ridiculous small-minded people is obviously totally unnecessary.”

One of the questions Jono keeps getting asked is when will this year’s harvest be under way?

“I always give people the answer that it will be ready when it is ready, but I have August 19 on my calendar for us. If the weather goes our way then we try our level best to get everything harvested in 14 days. That’s approximately 1,000 acres overall as I am also involved on the arable side with my brother-in-law Chris Kirkwood who owns Kfresh Eggs. All of the wheat goes for chicken feed for egg production!

“If we can keep combining until one or two o’clock in the morning during those days then that’s what we do. If it is a dry morning we will start combining again at eight o’clock, but it has to be exceptionally dry for that.”

Four varieties of wheat are grown at Patrington Farm including JB Diego, Beluga, Oakley and Grafton. Jono is not just up-to-the-minute with social media networking, he’s also embraced precision farming technology.

“We use the N Sensor for applying fertiliser in the correct quantity across each field and over the past six months the tractors have been rigged with RTK steering. Just because we have flat level land doesn’t mean that the soil type is the same. Sunk Island is classed as heavy warp land and you can go from fairly heavy to silted land in the space of 100 yards so precision farming utilising satellite mapping is essential today in order to maximise returns.

“‘I’m a big believer in late drilling. Last year we managed to get 99 per cent of our winter wheat in the ground before the weather broke on us on October 20.”