Crops | | Crop Rotation We rotate our crops on an annual basis in order to help with weed, pest and disease control. The rotation is reviewed annually depending on weather and ground conditions but below is an example of a 5 year rotation in one field: Winter Wheat - Barley- Oil Seed Rape -
Winter Wheat - Beans In general our wheat, barley and beans are used for animal feeds but sometimes we produce milling quality wheat which is sold for human consumption in flour, biscuits or something similar. Oil Seed Rape is sold for the production of vegetable oil.
| | | | | | | | | | | 
| |
Cultivations
Most of the field operations at Manor Farm, like ploughing, combine harvesting, drilling and spraying are done by an agricultural contractor. He owns a range of different types of modern machinery which gives us more flexibility to plan cultivations based on soil conditions. In general we direct drill oil seed rape after wheat. This is done with a combination drill that prepares the seed bed and drills the seed in one pass of the field. Sometimes fields need to be ploughed and then additional cultivations are required to break down the soil so that it is suitable for drilling seed for the crop.
|  | | Chemicals
Chemicals play an important roll in crop husbandry for control of weeds, diseases and insect pests. However, we think very carefully about chemical application and only do it if it is really necessary. We regularly use herbicide to control weeds and crop volunteers from the previous crop. This is done in the autumn when the crop is becomming established and is targetted to the specific weed problem. Fungal disease can also be a problem in some years so fungicides are often applied but insecticide is applied very infrequently. We are really very fond of our insect life, bumblebees, hover flies, carabid beetles and spiders and they also work hard for us polinating crops and eating insect pests. For this reason we make every effort to ensure they are safe.
|
|
SAYA SHERIDAN
MANOR FARM
OWSTON
OAKHAM
LEICESTERSHIRE
LE15 8DH
01664 454401
07919 353352
Events |
