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James says he is delighted that the farm has been accepted for a one-year extension to the scheme taking it to 30 November 2022 with the hope that the Government will provide a further one year extension .
Combinable crops take up over 50 per cent of James ’ land on a variety of land type ranging from blow away sand to heavy clay . This year ’ s winter wheat harvest ran to 273 acres with the varieties Kerrin , Gleam , Gravity , Extase and Firefly . James was satisfied with the performance of the wheat after he had thought things weren ’ t looking too good earlier in the year .
‘ The yields were not looking as though they would come out well when we assessed in April but they rallied and fared reasonably well at about 4 tonnes per acre . The one problem we had was that the grain came in at 17 per cent moisture so we had quite a bit of grain drying to do , or rather my dad did .’
‘ Dad dried the grain in the yard with a mobile Master Farm Dryer that handles 16 tonnes at a time . One of the benefits we have on farm is the ability to store grain . This means we can market when we think is right . This year we have now sold about 50 per cent of the wheat for November 2021 to March 2022 movement at over £ 200 per tonne . Having a shed with ambient air underfloor is another useful factor .’
James says he is also now home saving some seed having become a member of an AHDB benchmarking group .
‘ It proved useful to me because I found that several of those involved were dressing their own seed and bringing down their overall seed costs . We have now done this with
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Firefly , Extase and Gleam for this drilling season .
Winter barley variety Kingsbarn was grown across 51 acres averaging around 3 tonnes per acre on the lighter land and spring barley variety Laureate across 105 acres at around 2.5 tonnes per acre . James says he uses more hybrid winter barley partly to suppress blackgrass but also for its yield potential . He grows spring barley for malting that goes on contract through Frontier .
James ’ other main crop is oilseed rape and this year he had 76 acres that ended up yielding very poorly , just 1 tonne per acre compared to a norm of 1.6 tonnes , due almost wholly to cabbage stem flea beetle lavae .
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‘ It had looked well , until Christmas , but frost came just before spring and cabbage stem flea beetle lavae got into the stems . The severe frost in winter had caused the larvae passageways to take in water , freeze and expand causing the top of the plant to break off which led to them breaking off leaving a withered stump in spring . We were fortunate they managed to produce more stems below .’
‘ We were very disappointed especially as it had looked a marvellous crop going into autumn and before Christmas 2020 , but we sold most of the crop in September at £ 543 per tonne , which meant a failure turned around to be profitable .’
‘ We try hard to avoid CSFB and
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believe the manure we spread before drilling the rape helps in some way , as well as providing much needed nitrogen . Also across the crop rotation it provides valuable organic matter , helps retain moisture during spring droughts and makes the soil more workable in autumn . The manure comes to us on a ‘ muck for straw ’ arrangement .
After having being hit twice on 23 September for the past two years when the weather has closed in James , like most other combinable crops farmers , was as determined as he could be to establish winter crops for the 2022 harvest as soon as he could this year .
‘ I ’ m far more nervous this time of year ( September / October ) than I am prior to harvest . Without the heroic efforts of Martin and Ed Liversidge and Alistair Bramley drilling our crops we would have had hardly anything to sell in 2020 or 2021 .
James has always been aware of the value of good soil and looking after it for the future . He ’ s also aware of the need to eliminate blackgrass as much as possible .
‘ Blackgrass is one of our biggest challenges . In the past we have drilled a cover crop – berseem clover and black oats in September in the conventional way , which helps restructure the soil over winter . This helps a quick release of nutrients in spring and also provides a seed bed for spring barley to be direct drilled .’
‘ Angus Gowthorpe of Escrick has drilled it with his JD drill which offers no disturbance to the soil , which helps avoid the blackgrass germinating . We have changed some equipment on the farm . We still undertake
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a bit of ploughing but have a Plowman Bros Omni-Til that also offers reduced disturbance with its NG legs and our contractors have a Vaderstad Rapide for direct drilling if required .’
Root crops , vining peas and an outdoor pig fattening enterprise for Anna ’ s Happy Trotters are also undertaken through various arrangements with others across 155 acres . The farm also runs to 115 acres of woodland .
James ’ wife Vicky handles the farm accounts , having previously worked professionally in agricultural accounts practices . Vicky also runs a holiday let in Bishop Wilton and supports their daughters Emily and Lucinda ’ s competitive pony interests .
James is a third-generation farmer having taken over the reins from his father Tim when he returned to Yorkshire after spending 13 years as an agricultural consultant with Lawrence Gould in Suffolk . He came back to Hayton Grange where he had a new house built as the previous building had fallen into disrepair .
‘ I ’ d enjoyed my career in consultancy in Suffolk and I had decided to carry on consulting up here , which I did for a short while with SAC , but I soon found I wanted to concentrate my efforts on the farm . I went totally full-time on the farm in 2012 .’
James is also a member of the Yorkshire Wolds & Coast Farmers Facilitation Group and recommends it to anyone in the area who is looking to share advice on stewardship and farm management . He is also a member of the CLA Yorkshire Branch Committee where he possesses an interest in the new Environmental Land Management Scheme .
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Proud to support James O ' Gram & Hayton Grange , wishing him continued success . |
Pocklington 01759 303202 pocklington @ rmenglish . co . uk |
Market Weighton 01430 871014 marketweighton @ rmenglish . co . uk |
York 01904 697900 york @ rmenglish . co . uk |