Once again Chris Lockwood has come up trumps with his latest offering, or should I say offerings as we are actually talking about 2 DVDS, with combined viewing time of 4 hours. One Farm, One Year shows the activities and the machinery used on a Suffolk farm and portrays the highs and lows during 2012. Part One covers the months January to August and Part Two follows on through to December. Although they can be purchased individually, we are offering these as 2 DVD set as a special offer – click here to order
Loose Hall Farm Ltd runs to 3,600 acres on eight farms stretching over eight miles. The manager is Kevin Easey who for 48 years has worked the heavy clay soils in the heart of Suffolk. The main crops grown are winter wheat, winter and spring barley, oilseed rape and sugar beet. A few beef cattle are also kept.
Part One follows Kevin and his staff from January to August and includes the spring drilling of barley and beet, spraying for crop protection, fertilising, hoeing the young beet, mowing grass and baling. Battling against very wet conditions, Kevin combines the winter barley and rape and by mid-August is once again drilling rape.
Part Two, August to December, starts with the wheat harvest, close on the heels of which are cultivations for next year’s crops. The new rape crop is already coming through, and so are the slugs! After a very variable summer (to put it mildly!) the wheat harvest finally ends in early September and a week later Kevin starts drilling next year’s cereals. Drilling, fertilising and spraying are the order of the day until beet lifting from the end of October, during what turned out to be one of the wettest autumns for a hundred years.
During the entire year many ancillary activities are on view including truck loading, crop-drying, drilling maize for game cover, hedge-cutting, ditching and demonstrations of new machinery.
Not surprisingly these two DVDs are proving popular in their comprehensive and entertaining portrayal of a farming year.
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