June 2020 Virtual Farm Walk

[@nicksmith8898]

Some very impressive achievements. Excellent work. Very interesting even for the non farmer.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you!

[@duncanross5809]

Excellent video, very inspiring. The point about the pesticides really hit home for me, just taken on management of my family’s mixed farm and I am shocked at the amount of pesticide usage. Since the neonicitinoid seed treatments have been banned for this season I have noticed a huge increase in insects and birds on our cereal crops, particularly ladybirds. Well done on the Carbon negative status, not using nitrogen fertiliser must make a big difference. I’d love to come for a visit and see the farm for myself as converting our farm to organic is a long term goal of mine.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you Duncan for your kind words. Yes, please do come and see us. If you Google Shimpling Park Farm our contact details should come up. You are very welcome. Very best. John

[@victorleforestier]

Great video, I enjoyed it, it's quite professional !

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Hey, thank you Victor!

[@OllysFarmLtd]

Interesting farming operation, thanks for sharing it with us

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you Olly

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Just subscribed to your channel. Really excellent!

[@Dan.Whiteford]

One of the best videos John I have ever seen on the topic of pretty large scale commercial organic farming in the UK, sincere congratulations. Many other commercial farmers will no doubt be genuinely interested and I can imagine you will be increasingly overrun with visitors when we have more "normal times" than is currently the case. The outline you have given about seeking to become Carbon neutral if carbon negative sustainably in the future was fascinating. Well done to you and all concerned.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you so much Dan and really good to hear from you again. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. It took a whole week to film and put together but it was really fun doing it. Do come and see us one day if you can. Very best. John

[@gillwest1155]

Hi John, just watched your farm walk video. Very impressed with your farming methods. Andy Adams.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you so much. Really good to hear from you too!

[@danielrolfsmeyer]

Hi John! Brilliant Video again. Very nice how you show the essential Points for succesful organic farming 👌

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you so much!

[@paulfreeman2259]

Very interesting video John

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you very much Paul

[@gunton21]

Lovely tour. 👍

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you so much Peter!! 👍👍

[@hansgrehoner9847]

Interesting walk arround!

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you Hans!

[@johnhennebry3205]

Very good tour John. Good luck with this year’s crops.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you John. With all the sun we are having in June I am more hopeful for harvest 2020 than I was a couple of months ago!

[@woodyscst]

Thank you for taking the time to make the video and sharing your insights.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you Simon!

[@heartofworship2]

Thanks for the in depth walkthrough John, I've been watching for a number of years. Your farm is very inspiring. Regards.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you so much and thank you for continuing to watch!

[@goodmorning1476]

👍👍

[@jonathanhodgson3815]

Very interesting tour John. I've been looking how we can introduce livestock into the rotation. Great insight thank you

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you Jonathan. The NZ Romneys have done very well for us.

[@gilesblackie]

Great video! Thanks

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you so much Giles!

[@Tommy-vh7xj]

Very interesting thank you

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you!

[@GeigerFarm]

Thank you for the tour! We have very different systems. Yours imitates my friends from northern Canada with your predominance of cereal grain. Thanks again 🙂. Very interesting carbon calculation. I do a mental calculation...that my oil crop (soybeans) should supply my diesel needs annually if I pressed the soybeans and used the biodiesel 🙂.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you so much. I'm really enjoying your videos too!

[@GeigerFarm]

@@JohnPawseySPF I love my cattle! Their winter feeding area is where I get my manure for specific application to "troubled" areas. Use of the farm straw in their bedding is priceless. They can consume a portion of the ley crop, thus bringing revenue above the sequestration benefit. I do think that they will make the carbon calculation more complex ;). You might have to find a young cowman though as all livestock are labor intensive!!

[@JohnPawseySPF]

@@GeigerFarm Yes, I am keen to get some cattle! I agree, I need to find an enthusiastic young stock person. If I find that person it will probably help that decision on a bit!

[@NielsvdBoom]

A very interesting video. Thank you for explaining it all. I’ve been lucky enough to have had a wonderful private farm tour of SPF already but would love to be back some day. Btw: very impressive SOM increases!

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you Niels and please do come back!

[@NielsvdBoom]

John Pawsey Thank you. I will take you up on that!

[@harrybowen3285]

Hi John 👋🏼 do you remember reasons why Italian ryegrass wasn’t suitable in your crop rotation? I’m thinking it could be easier to terminate than perennial ryegrass, trying to reduce tillage depth/frequency.. Best, Harry

[@JohnPawseySPF]

I can't remember Harry but I know that there is a good reason......

[@Jt-rz1nl]

Brilliant work, fascinating video. Can I ask what cultivation methods you favour?

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you! My preferred cultivation is primarily with our Gregoire Besson Discordon at between 3 to 4 inches and then 2 passes with a light cultivator to deal with weeds pre-sowing.

[@keitharmitage1801]

Good video John, thanks. How do you intend to cut diesel use?

[@JohnPawseySPF]

At the moment buy continuing to lower horse power but hopefully through switching to strip tillage and using a living mulch. We have a trial in the ground on a 20ha field that we are attempting strip till organic this autumn. If it works it should halve our diesel usage. Early days though!

[@Erikv058]

Very interesting can you please make a machinery tour video?

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Yes, leave that with me. It might take a while as it would be best to do one when things are working in the field.

[@nigelwhyte4953]

Hello John, I have watched your videos with great interest, how do you cope with disease in your crops, have you heard of Teagasc? It is the Irish agri research centre, they have found some very interesting results with disease pressure with wide row spacing in untreated crops, could be useful

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Hi Nigel and thank you for your comment. Dealing with disease is like in all things organic, bringing as much diversity into the system as possible. Drilling date, row width, blending varieties, making sure that you have enough soil nutrition to grow healthy crops, growing lost of different crops to lessen the impact of one crop succumbing badly to a particular disease, appropriate plant populations, picking disease resistant varieties....the list goes on! I have heard of Teagasc but thanks to your suggestion I am going to explore their work more - it sounds really interesting. Thank you again!

[@ivartje1]

Thanks a lot for showing us around! Just wondering... Did you build up most of that soil organic matter without adding animal manure? Do you then work the cereal straw into the soil? Great Content, thanks for sharing!!

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Yes, we built it up by bringing leys back into the system and before we had sheep we just cut and mulched the leys and then cultivated that organic matter back into the soil. Yes, we don't sell any straw off the fields and just put that back in the soil as well.

[@stephensullivan7853]

Great video John, I am in Australia and really enjoy your insights. With the sheep, how do you handle parasites ?

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Good question. It boils down to animal health and so we are allowed organically to treat the ewes with something against fly strike other than that we haven't had any other problems. To minimise treatment we do shear twice a year and crutch and clip them around the backside pre-lambing.

[@stephensullivan7853]

Thanks John, no issues with worms ? I like the look of the Romney. Your’s are impressive looking animals and are obviously thriving. We don’t see many Romneys here, I am inspired to seek some out.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

They have pretty good resistance to worms Stephen. We have had to worm the lambs on occasion but only really if we have left them on a field for too long.

[@lottedouglas-hughes8434]

it henry williams , hello jeans son john!

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Hello Henry Williams!!!

[@farmerstephen]

What is a lay?

[@JohnPawseySPF]

It is a break from cash crops and is usually used for grazing. It’s usually a mix of grass and clover. Sorry, should have explained that!

[@nickymurray1777]

When do you have your first electric tractor?. Would that make things even better.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

As soon as one is available!

[@henryhitchcock1251]

Brilliant video. Organic arable farming is something I would love to get involved in, or at least learn more about. Out of curiosity, How much of an impact does introducing the sheep have to the general business health? would you be able to function with a sustainable turnover without them? Thus having an entirely arable system.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you Henry. As I said in the video, it's a bit early to really pin down what the sheep are adding financially but I hope to do that over the next 2 years. On our contract farms we don't have any livestock and they are still doing well organically on a single year of building fertility. So yes, an entirely arable system on a clay soil is perfectly possible.

[@umwhatthistime]

Great video . Thanks.

[@JohnPawseySPF]

Thank you Julius!