The Year Round: Visitors see better crops after cold start

All these look much better than a fortnight previously. Our visitors also looked into the free range poultry house which is empty at the moment. Our system is being changed to produce barn eggs. The same house and tackle will be used but the pop holes will be kept closed. Though egg returns will be slightly lower, there should be a saving on feed.

Clearance of the last lot of birds ran into snags. The catchers were short of crates and left 1,500 birds for us to deal with ourselves. Fortunately, we have very competent staff on these level acres near the Ouse.

Spring has not been so cold for over 30 years. The potatoes suffered more from low temperatures than from lack of rain. Our neighbours' crops are motoring, but ours are still behind them. Sugar beet should be meeting in their rows by the longest day which is our usual standard. Wheat crops look a picture, but my greatest worry is the threat of heavy thunder-storms which could soon change the picture.

There is little sign of orange blossom aphid, which means one spray less. A few years ago we had widely spread invasions of wild oats. Though these are now conquered, black grass is much worse this year. That seems due to the spray failing to work in the very cold weather. I don't see any chance of harvest until the first week in August.

The sad report of two baby girls in London attacked by an urban fox seems worrying. Foxes here have lost their nervousness of human beings, for we had a steady flow of them into the netted free range poultry area. This problem is worsened by release of urban foxes into the countryside. My mother saw a van pulled up onto a neighbouring farm and its doors opened to allow the pests to escape.

CW 12/6/10