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Back on the farm

Over the past few weeks, we have been away more than we have been around, for three reasons, unforeseen commitment, the off-season and finally Jennifer.  The point of having a farm manager is for her to take over the day-to-day management of the farm.  In the past few weeks, she has hired an assistant, because otherwise she doesn't get out of the office.  The way of managing a farm is to be present, available and an observer.  If something looks to be done wrong, question, ascertain and then suggest a plan to change the procedure to something more efficient.   

There are too many variables on a farm, so even old farmers are always trying something new, moreover, there are so many technical improvements that it's worth the effort.  We spent almost £ 20,000 to test the soil on the new farm.  We knew where the soil was good, where it was nutrient-rich, where there was too much or too little moisture.  We knew it generally, now we know it exactly and there are remedial solutions in most cases.  It may sound amazing that a land that has been under tiller for 1,000 years can still be improved.  Yet that is exactly what our chemical tests revealed, they showed were the residues from our biodigesters were falling short of what we needed.  

We were incredibly lucky to be part of this study on Poly4 because that stuff was like magic, but not everywhere, that is why this spring we hired a specialized company that has a computer-controlled fertilizer spreader that varies its output almost every meter...Jennifer told me that it cost about £ 750,000, we needed it for two days, and that because we have several fields, at 1,200 acres farm is small for the newer large farm equipment.  

In other news more chickens arrived today, and also some ducks and geese, who are very good at protecting the flock.   This is for the meat chicken (and duck too), the geese are aggressive and will eat eggs.  But for forest-grown chickens, they are perfect against daytime flying predators.   

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