Blog

As many of you know,  I work 9 days a week as a Business/Supply Chain consultant for HSO and the other day I spend at the farm planning the next few weeks and looking for future opportunities.

I haven’t posted for the last few weeks as nothing significant has happened.   We simply move on with the heartbeat of farming life.  We’re fortunate that most of next year’s crop is in the ground (and disappointed that one of our rape fields needed resowing), that most of our cereal crop has been sold and that the rest of the new seasons crop grows well.   Geoff and his team are now watching the plants grow and supporting them as much as they can.

So for me yesterday was more about maintenance and future thinking than “doing”.  I’ll talk you through it,  let me know if it’s worth a similar fortnightly (ish) update.

Met with Paul from Olivers to load and despatch our old fertiliser spreader, we also talked about a potential new “zero turn” mower for the new season.  Let’s see if the prices are right…

Dad’s car is also struggling,  well it was struggling when Alison and I gave it to him about 8 years ago,  it’s now got 200,000 miles and needs changing, so,  we went car (window) shopping.   We think we have a plan for the winter now… if anyone has feedback on a 4xe jeep avenger I’d love to hear it.

Then it’s about thinking about next summer.  I’ve promised I’d clear an old storeshed/chickenshed/logshed before Easter so got stuck in.   Still lots to do and was surprised to find my old scalextrix and lego train buried in there.   Sadly now too late for my son to use it.

Now into the afternoon i had a great chat with Geoff (farm contractor) about how we’re going to reorganise the farmyard, welcome a landscaper to site, to get rid of old farm scrap and equipment and clear an area around the old hay/straw barns to enable a conversation to offices/shop/holiday lets.  It’s a long term plan but good to start the journey.

Finally a catch up with Steve and Tobi about what to do with our new containers, the Farrmyard event next weekend etc.

I ended up leaving at about 7.  A long day and I hope one that will see some real changes in the next few weeks.

I think that’s it… Next visit brings Alistair back to the farm and we’ll need to talk all things http://www.northhemel.co.uk and our own planning.

I hope you find this as entertaining as I did.

Currently at the farm and this ballet of telehandlers put on a show for me.   Clearly the wagon needed loading with wheat quickly but do you think that it’s quicker with two?

As part of the forthcoming housing our partners are performing a preliminary investigation of the archeology of the area.   It’s intriguing to Dad and I as we know there is an abandoned medieval village in our parkland and we occasionally find coins etc.   We await the results with interest!

About 300 tons of barley has already left the farm, about half the wheat is in the shed and the team are hugely active.

It really is the busiest time of year but also one of the most rewarding, you can see progress as you work across a field and have a sense of achievement with every little milestone.

If you’re reading or watching this, please do give the next tractor you see a little wave.  They are likely working long hours and what’s in the back of their trailer could be on your kitchen table soon.

Already?!?

I’ve never seen harvest this early and even Dad noted that it was rare (3 times in 70 years) for it to have started on my grandfathers birthday – 18th July.

We have some interesting challenges in terms of grain storage this year.  Because the brewery are now installed we don’t have use of our major grain store at all.  That means we will need to sell this barley “off the combine” meaning that just like Clarksons farm it will go into a temporary outdoor heap and be bucketed up into HGV’s as quickly as we can organise them.  We will need that area clear for the wheat (30% sold “off the combine”, the rest stored) and then finally the beans.  We’re expecting a really early harvest this year with the potential of even the Beans being harvested in July (usually early September).  So if you want to see the combines working locally you need to get out there soon.

In other news, we’ve had conversations about removing some legacy grain handling equipment and are in discussions about a regular coffee van at the farm.  More news soon I hope.

Sometimes nothing happens then sometimes everything happens.  It’s the nature of farming and I remember my late Grandfather (repeating his grandfather) saying “a good farmer can do 6 days work in 3 and 3 days work in 6”, meaning that you flex your effort and energy based on what needs doing not an arbitrary 8 hours…  The advantage of arable farming of course is that you do – occasionally – get the breaks.

Anyway, it’s harvest time so that means while thinking of the next few weeks of activity we also need to plan what will be sown when.  We need to organise not only the combine but also the primary cultivation and sowing and for oilseed rape this all needs to happen before the middle of August.

That means I have next year’s cropping plan.  It’s quite heavily influenced by the performance of last year’s crops, the market predictions, the needs of the soil and this year the impact of the housing development.

The yellow areas will be Oilseed rape, harvested in the next week or so and, some digestate applied (known to farmers as rocket fuel as it’s that good nutritionally) then primary cultivation and sowing.

The cropping map is once again available on the front page if you want to refer to it.

So the team will be busy, if you see them working give them a wave and a smile.  Even better take pics and share them.  It’s an exciting and rewarding time of year for us (even though we’re tired) so we appreciate a wave.

So this is it, it’s out there in the public domain (www.northhemel.co.uk).  Dad and I had no prior knowledge of this going out and feel rather blindsided by its publication.  It is however the direction of travel for our farmland.

There are a few reasons for going down this path, the first is that we saw it as inevitable.  Back in the 1960’s my grandfather had a nervous breakdown as he saw his award winning farm (for wartime productivity) compulsory purchased for Hemel New Town.  He then had to endure watching the cookie-cutter houses of Woodhall farm and Grove hill erected, had to see the history that he and his predecessors had nurtured destroyed.  For his 200 acres he received less money than the local scrapyard received for 1/2 an acre leaving him feeling cheated and devastated.

The next reason is farm profitability.  We farm about 550 acres and the average profit for the last 10 years (I did the calculations yesterday) was £114.  That’s it, not a misprint.  That’s all the profit to share as wages between the business owners.  It’s not even enough to buy newspapers.

Given these two factors almost 5 years ago we looked for a way to progress and engaged an Lincolnshire agency to help us. We had two very clear criteria for the whole process:

1. Be excellent.  Meaning have a quality output with exceptional standards.  Reflect the local architectural standards and be complimentary to the natural environment
2. Be sympathetic to our neighbours, let’s try to have the maximum positive impact to those that have lived on and around this area for years.

We looked for various partners and agreed a way forward with Bloor Homes.  It’s a long term partnership and one that we believe will deliver against these values.  As you can see we’ve specifically tried to protect the Redbourn valley from development.

This “progress” will likely happen over a years long timeframe and I’m quite wary of the effect it will have on Dad.  I hope you can see that given our history it’s not about “selling out” but is about protecting the history and legacy of the Stanbridge Family as much as we can.  Is about protecting the mental health of my 75 year old Father.  In our perfect world we would remain farming this land (which 7 generations of my ancestors have nurtured) for many years to come however circumstances don’t allow it.

We look to move on positively, hope to diversify the farm so more can enjoy it and look to shape this development with road names etc so that the history of the area is respected.

Please do come and visit, do talk to Dad, do enjoy our Glamping, camping, onsite brewery (www.farrbrew.co.uk), Dog training (HT training) with more to come.

What a transformation (and likely a shock to the system for Dad).  The campsite was fully booked with a group of friends booking the whole site.

Some great feedback from the guests and they have already said that as a group they may return next year.

A great success and really validates the huge amount of work put in by the entire Stanbridge Farms team (but mostly Steve and Tobi).

• Temporary Grain store prepared?
• Sales and storage strategy agreed?
• Long term storage cleaned?
• Combine serviced and ready
• Grain trailers prepared and ready?
• Tractors Ready?
• Staff trained and available?
• Crops ripe and dry?

Harvest 2025 is almost ready.  It’s such an early harvest this year due to the dry weather.  It means the preparation is a little rushed (we usually have 2 weeks more time) but we have a plan and expect the combine to role into our fields within the next week.

The dry weather has had a major impact on some critical growth stages and we’re quite wary of yields this summer.   The growth of all our crops has been restricted by the dry weather but the recent (last week) sunshine will hopefully help the seeds fill out.   Simply due to weather a very good result will be an “average” yield.  This alongside the currently very depressed grain prices mean that we expect another challenging financial year.

Hopefully when we get some yield results (from the combine yield meter) I will be able to report back with better news. 

For now though, all systems are go and we’re waiting for the crops to reach their harvest criteria.