Farm Notes, June 2019

As usual this year's weather is proving utterly different from last year, when the Beast From The East severely delayed planting of spring crops, resulting in reduced yields and some quality. This has left one or two of last year's crops in short supply as we approach the new harvest.

This spring the weather was kind to us in March when most of our crops are planted but the long cold and dry spell that followed didn't get all off to a flying start.

It was just the sort of weather that naked barley likes and it's looking great in the field. However the slow start left the quinoa seedlings open to attack from flea beetle and some fields had to be re-drilled. This will make for a late quinoa harvest but we still hope to get a reasonable crop. We wonder why the flea beetle wants to eat our quinoa and not the weed seedlings of fat hen and red shank growing among it. 

So far the expanded trials of lentils and chick peas are looking promising. The YQ population wheat and other cereals are doing well as we develop our range of grains, flours and flaked cereals.

It's been a much better year for peas and beans but the last part of the growing season can bring the biggest challenges. Pulses like the red haricots, a variety of the Phaseolus family, are harvested much later than cereals and timing is critical to get them dry enough for harvest as the days shorten and the weather gets damper.

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