twenty minute land

Combining is finally finished; hooray! However the difficulties this season’s weather has produced are far from over. The very best description for the current soil conditions here at Prosperous Farm that I have come across was on the British Farming Forum, where a member called essexpeasant  posted* that: “a herd of elephants in stilettos would not give me the seeds to soil contact I now desire ….”

 Itis the same here “ a herd of elephants in stilettos” or even a division of Challenger tanks would not work miracles on this hard, hard land.

Jethro describes the land here as a “twenty minute farm”, which means it goes from very wet to very hard in no time at all. There are endless discussions as to which machine to try next and which field to leave ’til last, and today we have four tractors working:  two ploughs, one cultivator and one set of discs working this hard ground down. There is a good 3 weeks flat out land work to try to get next year’s crop in the ground. The fields will now have to be worked over several times, the cost of which, even if he had the time, Jethro dares not even speculate.

 *[post number 50]