1) You do not have a sense of humour
2) Think all wild animals wear country gent costumes and talk to each other when we ‘humans’ aren’t watching
3) Are a vegetarian person
You will find it offensive.
Ok so it’s Christmas and a credit crunch one at that. In the next 12 blog entries, in fact each day leading up to Christmas I will give you an idea how you, the humble farmer, can control the vermin on your land and cook up a tasty dish… for free!! Please enjoy, share your own recipes of your ‘Farmers Foe Fayre’. Feel free to send in pictures of your finished dishes.
Farmers Foe Christmas Fayre No 5:
Rabbit:
Bane of many cereal farmers, rabbits dig holes in fields, hedges, walls and will graze large areas of fields to nothing if uncontrolled. They’re so bad myxamatosis was developed in the 1950’s to control them, but unfortunately they’re getting resistant to that now and are back up to 1950’s population numbers.
Time to strike back, here’s a recipe from Craig Farm Organics.
Please do not read if :-
1) You do not have a sense of humour
2) Think all wild animals wear country gent costumes and talk to each other when we ‘humans’ aren’t watching
3) Are a vegetarian person
You will find it offensive.
Ok so it’s Christmas and a credit crunch one at that. In the next 12 blog entries, in fact each day leading up to Christmas I will give you an idea how you, the humble farmer, can control the vermin on your land and cook up a tasty dish… for free!! Please enjoy, share your own recipes of your ‘Farmers Foe Fayre’. Feel free to send in pictures of your finished dishes.
Farmers Foe Christmas Fayre No 4:
Rat:
They’re everywhere, get in everything from food to seed, spread disease and are crafty critters. On top of this, they are becoming resistant to some popular rat baits used to control them, making them even harder to control! Any good ‘ratters’ are farmers friends.
Please do not read if :-
1) You do not have a sense of humour
2) Think all wild animals wear country gent costumes and talk to each other when we ‘humans’ aren’t watching
3) Are a vegetarian person
You will find it offensive.
Ok so it’s Christmas and a credit crunch one at that. In the next 12 blog entries, in fact each day leading up to Christmas I will give you an idea how you, the humble farmer, can control the vermin on your land and cook up a tasty dish… for free!! Please enjoy, share your own recipes of your ‘Farmers Foe Fayre’. Feel free to send in pictures of your finished dishes.
Farmers Foe Christmas Fayre No 3:
Pidgeon
Pidgeons are the bane of any Oilseed Rape, or cereals grower, often referred to as ‘rats with wings’, a feral pidgeon can consume about 30kgs of food per year. Considering there is an estimated 18 million feral pidgeons in the UK, that’s about 540,000 TONS of food! The UK spends an average of £15 million a year clearing up pigeon poop!
Save the taxpayer a fortune by encouraging your friends with this tasty dish. Not so much feed the birds, but feed on the birds!
1) You do not have a sense of humour
2) Think all wild animals wear country gent costumes and talk to each other when we ‘humans’ aren’t watching
3) Are a vegetarian person
You will find it offensive.
Ok so it’s Christmas and a credit crunch one at that. In the next 12 blog entries, in fact each day leading up to Christmas I will give you an idea how you, the humble farmer, can control the vermin on your land and cook up a tasty dish… for free!! Please enjoy, share your own recipes of your ‘Farmers Foe Fayre’. Feel free to send in pictures of your finished dishes.
I don’t think there is a single livestock farmer in the Westcountry who has not been exposed to the problem of TB in his cattle, or knows someone who has. It has lead to the destruction of over 25,000 cattle last year (2009) and cost Taxpayers £63million! That’s £63 million that could be going into public health, or education!
1) You do not have a sense of humour
2) Think all wild animals wear country gent costumes and talk to each other when we ‘humans’ aren’t watching
3) Are a vegetarian person You will find it offensive.
Ok so it’s Christmas and a credit crunch one at that. In the next 12 blog entries, in fact each day leading up to Christmas I will give you an idea how you, the humble farmer, can control the vermin on your land and cook up a tasty dish… for free!! Please enjoy, share your own recipes of your ‘Farmers Foe Fayre’. Feel free to send in pictures of your finished dishes.
Photo by: John Harding (c)
Why Crows and Rooks are a farmers foe:
Besides being incredibly intelligent and learning farm routines so they can avoid flying lead and traps, these birds are very adept at killing small chicks (if you have ducks and chickens). They are a nightmare in wet years when corn has lodged, they can pick big areas clean robbing the farmer of these grains. When farmers plant crops, they will land in the fields again, going along the rows of freshly planted seed picking it all out and eating it, even once the seed has sprouted and emerged leading to bear patches and poor stands.
Here’s a tasty way of getting your own back on the little blighters!
Gibberella Ear Rot occurs in maize during cool wet periods of weather following silking in the late summer. 2010 has been ideal in climatic terms to enhance the growth of the fungus.
Gibberella ear rot is caused by the fungus Gibberella zeae, also known as Fusarium graminearum. It is usually identified by a pinkish mould on the clamp face. This is often noticed just below the “salt line” at the top. These fungal infections once in the clamp can go on to generate high levels of micotoxins and can cause issues when feeding. Cows scouring or possibly just loose are all common symptoms.
There is no varietal resistance to this infection as such but it has been suggested that cobs which produce a “snouting” (where the ear extends beyond the leaf sheath) are more susceptible than others.
Farmers who have had a micotoxin analysis completed may find levels of vomitoxin or perhaps zearalenone in particular in the silage. Levels of 0.4+ ppm are cause for concern and may need various binders and yeasts to be fed alongside the maize.
For the first time in many years, quite possible for the first time in Cornwall, I have put in two wheat variety demonstration plots to show farmers what these different varieties will do 'in their back yard' so to speak.
Nickersons has had a trial site just north of Exeter for many years, near Silverton, where a whole range of varieties from the recommended list(RL) are trialed to measure performance in the 'west'. This is all part of the recommended list certification process and the main site for septoria screening. It is also where all the new pre RL material is tested too, somewhere in the region of 300 new upcoming variety lines.The site features treated and non-treated trials to see what plants in-bred genetic resistance levels are to a range common fungal deseases.
There is normally an open day that is run by Masstock, with whom we share the site under the 'we do the land prep, plant it and harvest it, you spray it' arrangement. The site is on free draining, fertile red soils that aren't really representative of the heavy clays and shales found in Cornwall and Devon south and west of Exeter, nor does it have the disease pressure from 60 inches of rain found elsewhere. After hearing the feedback from numerous farmers in Cornwall and North Devon about these non comparative issues, I have found two farmers who were prepared to undertake these demonstration plots.
The North Devon site is near Holsworthy, heavy wet clays, not the best ground in the parish, but representative of soils farmers are trying to grow wheat in and here is a short video of what they look like at the end of November.
The Cornish trial site is near Tregony, on the Roseland peninsular, not far from St Austell. There is a lot of wheat grown in Cornwall, mainly for stock feed, so this site is ideal to show local growers the strengths and weaknesses of these varieties. Both sites will have an untreated strip through them too so we can see what Septoria resistance there is, as well as demonstrating to those organic growers what they too can expect. This site has 5 more varieties than the other too which is an added bonus. There will be open days at both sites in the new year and a proper open day event as well at both just after the Cereals Event. Dates will be announced.
