CROP WALK VISITORS

Yesterday, boss Tom, boss Richard and I went on a routine crop walk. This time, however, it was a bit different because we had a rotation of company. First up were Julius and his film crew (pictured here with father and son Richard and Tom).

Later on we were joined by our 2^nd Neal’s Yard Dairy delegation in a week, this one was led by the lovely Gemma. The morning of field stomping culminated in an always delightful lunch laid-on by boss Tessa, which itself culminated in bowls of beautiful, silken roasted strawberry ice cream, made by Westcombe’s resident ice cream maker: Rob of Brickell’s ice cream. 

The main focus of our crop walk was to assess which grass to cut for a snatched 2^nd part of the 2^nd cut silage harvest, before the weather turns. There was also time spent poring over the brave new frontiers for the farming side of Westcombe Dairy and, for the most part, it was a floral scent of optimism and excitement that suffused the air, as we gazed over some of our experiments. The two-year-old herbal leys were looking good and our red clover silage leys were looking excellent and bounteous. Our organically-managed Maris Widgeon heritage wheat was looking seriously impressive and inspiring, which is just as well considering we are growing it for the seriously impressive and inspiring Westcombe sister business: Landrace Bakery of Bath. 

The Lucerne was a bit of a stain on the day and accordingly we’re finding Lucerne growing to be a great ego leveller. Nonetheless, the field looks very pretty, filled as it is with all manner of wild flowers (it is so 20^th century to refer to them as “weeds”) that have decided to spring forth and upset the Lucerne. 

We also looked at the Milton cows grazing the herbal ley in Rick field. It was Tom and Richard’s first opportunity to see this grand new experiment in action and be dazzled by my grazing management phone app (I wear a space suit when using it, to get me in the right and proper spiritual pyramid for such futuristic technologies. The more I use the app, the more I hope for the day that Tina, our cheese turning robot, will have congress with my grazing app, for the possibilities of such a union are endless). I shall write more on the strip/mob grazing at a later date, for there is much to talk about regarding that particular paradox.