1 week down - Lessons learnt so far

Have spent the last couple of days looking at farms in the Hertford/Cambridge region. Not a lot of stock around here, mostly 'arable farms' as they call it. Had an interesting visit this morning with Robert Law. Not from a farming background, he started as a apprentice, then manager, then sharefarmer and now owner of a very impressive business. Just goes to show that hard work and dedication can pay off. He now runs 2500 ewes and 1200 ha of cropping growing wheat, peas, sugar beet, oats and barley.

He also grows forage rape seed. Just like growing canola, he windrows and harvests it, then the crop grows back and he has a lush green paddock of forage rape to put his ewes onto for joining. This provides them with a protein flush resulting in more twins and triplets. Rob has a few different markets, including supplying a few of the local butchers with a number of carcasses each week. This is some of his ewes and lambs.

Robs farm was very environmentally friendly. He has planted lots of hedges and birdcover over the years, and fenced of the steep, lighter soils on the hillsides. These areas have been planted to native grasses instead of continuously cropping as they normally were. This is some sugar beet growing with some bird-cover and native wildflowers on the side of the field.

This is a crop I know nothing about. Hemp - not wacky tabacky. Used for clothing and pharmaceuticals I think.

There are a lot of similarities to our production systems at home in oz but some things that have stood out are;

• Imagine lambing 2500 ewes, scanned at over 200%, indoors, 24hrs a day for a couple of months.
• They get the same amount of rainfall we do yet get twice the yields.
• You have to put up with people walking through your paddocks on public walkways whenever they want.

• Every possible bit of land is used. I dont think will will ever be growing wheat right in the middle of towns. Literally the middle - a school on one side of the hedge and houses across the road.
• If you own a shed, it is worth lots of money. With such a big population in such a small area, lots of farms are able to rent out sheds to other businesses or do them up into office complexes. Very profitable although the rates here are extremely high.