Irrigation at dusk
It Is the first week of August, and after a week of slightly less hot weather, we are now back into real heat, this next week and 30 degrees plus for the next 5 days. The entire farm looks like the Gobi Desert, cows are all on winter rations with subdued milk yields, not enough to fill the cheese vat. There are a few little oasis of green, the sweet corn has had 3 inches of water across the entire area, and that is not enough, see picture. In doing so we have used thousands of litres of stupidly priced fuel, thank you Donald we needed that. The green beans are green, but disappointing, the runner beans like most gardeners will tell you, are a complete disaster. They cannot cope with this heat and don’t even pollinate. Runners need a typical English summer, a little bit of sun and a little bit of rain, this is why you don’t find Runners in France and Spain, it is generally just too hot. The pumpkin are a mixed result, some have coped and some have failed, but in doing so have consumed thousands of litres of water, and the reservoir is down to its last 25% and will be empty, and that will be 25 million litres.
Our resevoir rapily emptying.
The only crop just jogging along are the courgette, they are coping but yields are not that exiting. So, the next question is if you don’t grow these conventional crops, along with all that water and cost, what do you grow, may be water melon? I still think this is not as dry as 1976 but may be hotter. There is talk from government about more reservoirs being dug and filled, but the red tape will drive you around the bend and the costs are huge, we are told that the average cost to get just the permissions to dig a new resevoir is £45,000, before you have even put a spade in the ground and this all has to be paid for. Neither government, supermarkets and consumers have any appetite for paying any more than they have to for food, and so inevitably the sums don’t add up. We also have government ministers demanding that prices for food should be capped or reduced, which further confirms they have not the remotest idea as to what they are doing. Veg availability for this winter does not look good, especially where reservoirs have been emptied and river licences have been suspended. Winter veg are on a knife edge.
Answers on a post card please to Lyburn farm, cheese@lyburnfarm.co.uk
