Ian's Chit Chat

I’m undertaking my biggest challenge to date, to carry out a global RTK Network Survey. This is because I’ve been asked so many times, ‘how many RTK networks are available to farmers’, ‘how many farmers use RTK networks in Europe’ and ‘How does the UK compare for RTK usage in comparison to the rest of the world’? So I’m going to undertake a survey on the number of RTK networks are available to farmers and growers across the UK and then the world.

The survey is simple to complete, it’s online and can be found at RTKnetworkSurvey.com. Please complete the survey if you are part of an RTK Network or forward the link to anyone who is.

I’ll gather the results together and post them on this website once I’ve analysed them and worked out what it all means! Appreciate your time in completing the survey.

I delivered the morning session, which was a Be Precise training course and I was ably assisted by Philip Chamberlain who owns the farm. He was able to provide real practical input of what he’s doing on the farm during the classroom session before we all moved outside to see tractors in action.

Then everyone had a ride on either a Cat tractor or the JCB Fasttrac, both equipped with RTK steering systems to demonstrate the steering systems and how they work in reality.

Overall a great day for everyone and huge smiles on everyone’s face after they had been on the tractors and the steering demonstrations. Thanks to Philip and his team at Crowmarsh for the use of their facilities.

The HGCA Be PRECISE campaign is still attracting interest from farmers, growers and agronomy groups. Sharing the fundamentals of Precision Farming still holds strong even with many people saying precision farming has been ‘done’, my feeling is it hasn’t and there is still many farmers who have to take full advantage of what precision farming has to offer.

I’ve been lucky enough to deliver presentations to almost 1000 farmers and agronomists since the start of the year at 12 events. Thanks to Bayer, Syngenta, Hutchinsons, Agrii, Muntons, Velcourt and United Oilseeds for inviting me to speak at your events. And I had some very kind feedback from David Neale at Agrii who said – May I thank you on behalf of the business for a most excellent presentation and delivery at Newark. We all felt your slides, understanding and content was spot on for the mixed audience we have on this subject. So that feedback was really appreciated. on

HGCA has a stand at the Precision Farming event on the 7th March, so visit the stand and ask any questions you may have on Precision Farming.

It’s one of those sites, even on a photograph, that make you go WOW. The photograph shows a NH T9060 pulling a 120ft wide drill across the plains of Walgett, North Western NSW . It must have been a stunning sight seeing this machine at work, I only saw the photos, but chatted to the NH staff who helped install the tractor and PF kit. The tractor and drill was working in a field that is 2km in length, the use of guidance technology is a no brainer to farmers across Australia. I learnt about this unit via Dan Halliday, the Precision Farming expert within NH Australia.

I spent a week training the new support company for the NH precision farming software SGS, on how to use the NH Desktop software and that’s when you learn about what Aussie farmers are up to and where they want to go with their PF operations.

I felt that the best UK farmers would match the best Aussie farmers when it comes down to looking at their fields in the detail required to maximise yields and inputs. Very different drivers to managing their fields, but maximising inputs and maximising outputs is what both want to do. As to the rest of farmers the variability in skills is similar, many wanting to learn about precision farming but don’t know where to start.

It was the last day of term for the Landbased Diploma students today – 5th April – and for the last 3 week they have immersed themselves in lambing at Hill Farm, run by Roly & Camilla Puzey. They have been given the opportunity through the Earth Trusts farm start programme. Roly has been such a great advocate of sharing the beauties of farming with a wider audience since his days at LEAF. this has very much continued at Hill Farm.

Our students have immersed themselves in lambing – not just the glamorous jobs of helping give birth, but the less exciting but equally vital jobs of sweeping up, bedding down, cleaning out pens and moving ewes and lambs.

To complete the term, which was all based on animal production and the linkages with food production, we visted a local butcher – Gary Smith Butchers, in Wallingford.

Here Terry cut up one of the lambs and showed the students how it was done and why it was so important to handle the lambs carefully during the grading process. We’d actually been grading lambs the week before at Roly’s farm, but unfortunately we weren’t able to see Roly’s lambs. An added bonus to the visit for the Diploma Students was the opportunity to progress – Scott, terry’s apprentice had previously done a Countryside Stewardship course at Northmoor Trust and had progressed to butchery and is currently studying an NVQ in butchery.

Finally we thought it would be a good idea to round the day off with a trip to the local Waitrose store to compare prices of the 3 suppliers – Roly, Gary Smith Butchers and Waitrose. The most noticeable, and not surprisingly was the availability of New Zealand lamb in Waitrose over local lamb. Pricewise there wasn’t much to choose between them all, which was slightly surprisingly, but the general feeling was that supporting local producers was a good thing to do.

Overall a great last day before half term and the review of lambing and the production process is high on the agenda for the first day back on the 26th may.

The path of the proposed road to the north of the Serengeti and the alternative to the south

One of the wonders of the world has to be the migration of the Wildebeest Migration in East Africa. Some people have been lucky enough to see this amazing natural phenomenon, most of us haven’t. Before long none of us will have the opportunity to see it due to a major highway crossing the path of migration. Industrialisation and wealth generation is one thing, but should protecting one of the last great world migrations be protected?

Alternative routes are available to the Tanzanian government, but will they take they to preserve this incredible natural wonder? Tourism is important to Tanzania, but the wealth generation of mining would make tourism insignificant in real terms.

Wildebeest Migration

The proposed road cuts straight through the migration path the alternative road, which is designed to increased business opportunities across East Africa, has an alternative southern route. UNESCO are pitching in to the debate as are other organisations such as Serengeti Watch to help ensure the Southern route is chosen rather than the northern route.

So what’s the reason for the road? Commercial interests obviously and an article in the Tanzanian News would suggest this. Where’s the money coming from – probably China, due to the huge natural resources in and around Tanzania. The road would only be 40 miles in length, but it would be the end of the road for the Great Migration in a similar way to the Bison migrations in North America. At one time over 70miliion Bison roamed the Great Plains of North America, they are now down to 15,000 to 30,000 and how many people really care about that – this blog makes an interesting read.

What will it mean? The loss of  The Great Serengeti? Who knows, but all animals in the delecate ecosystem is worth saving too!

The Great Serengeti (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) A song to help save the Serengeti by: Mayuka Thaïs

There’s been many articles written about the shortage of skilled people wanting to work in the agricultural industry, either as a farmer or in the allied industries. One of the best ways to encourage others is to share some of the jobs of people already involved in the industry.

If you have a story to tell then you can be part of a great new campaign, due to be launched later in November. If you have a story to tell and have 5 minuets to spare would you be willing to share your story – if so, give me a call on 07967 637 985, download a form from here and email it back to me.

I’ll share more with you later in the month, but the ingredients are there for a stunning campaign.

Has anyone seen a piece of technology like this? An unmanned aerial vehicles which could be used by farmers / growers to  monitor their crops or anything else they want to. Not sure of the price, but it seems very interesting for crop and / or livestock monitoring.

Called the Swinglet CAM, this smart flying camera “can be operated by almost anybody, and can take autonomously high-quality pictures of 1,000 acres in less than 30 minutes,” says Andrea Hilldebrand, co-founder of the company.

"The feedback to our product has been very positive," says Hilldebrand. "People loved the possibility to get aerial imagery on the spot, and the ease of operation exceeded their expectations."

The camera-toting UAV can be used for a variety of ag applications, including crop monitoring, imagery, land management, remote sensing, and mapping. IT features a 12 megapixel camera, a 32-inch wingspan, flies 18 to 31 miles per hour, and weighs a bit more than a pound. Its wireless capability allows data linking up to a mile away.

A US-based contact for information and purchasing is being added, but in the meantime the unit can be purchased directly from the company in Switzerland. For more information visit www.sensefly.com

Week 3 of the Diploma. We spent time with some ‘Twitchers’ monitoring the bird life down at the Northmoor Trust ponds. I’m not sure who was more impressed with the work Mike and his team did, my impression of ‘twitching’ has changed as a result of spending some time with passionate twitchers! An ex RAF pilot, his passion is birds – whatever you want to know and he’s the man to ask!

And his passion for the subject shone though as he explained why it is important for bird surveys to be done. With approx. 150 native breeds of birds in the UK, another 150 breeds pass through at different times of the year. Knowing the movement of both local and foreign birds gives and indication of climate change, feeding patterns and migration trends both in the UK and abroad.

The process is fairly straight forward. A bird is caught in a net similar in style to a badminton net, but made of very fine material. Every 20 – 30 mins Mike and his team of volunteers checked the 5 sets of nets in the woods. After carefully unpinning them from the nets and carrying them back to their portable lab.

In the lab the birds will be tagged with a small leg ring, if they haven’t got one already. Their weight, wing span and eye colour will be measured and recorded. The whole process takes about 5 minutes per bird. All the information is sent to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

Only qualified volunteers can carry out the ringing and monitoring of the birds and Mike has been through various BTO courses to be in a position to do this work with his volunteer colleagues.

Overall a fascinating morning for the whole group.

Thanks Mike

1 week to go before the teaching starts. Yikes…Pond survey here we come!

Week 4 is where I start as lead teacher and the topic is Landscapes. We’re planning to take a tour of a number of farms in South Oxfordshire, where is the best place to do? Is a vineyard suitable to 14 year olds?

The intention of the tour is for the youngsters to understand why soils are so important to growing food. The plan is to take some soil samples, look at soil sampling maps and why crops like certain aspects and direction of the sun in comparison to others. Have to get the important stuff across at an early stage.