I am learning to be a part time farmer aged 62. I got fed up with trying to be a management consultant and decided - since my kids had left home - to sell up and try something new.
That was 3 years ago. After some scratching around, I bought a small bungalow in West Norfolk (in the UK rather than East Coast USA!) where I managed to buy a few acres of land. Regrettably the land isn't by the bungalow so I use a trailer to take whatever I need to my field when I go off there for a day's work.
The soil there is light sandy loam with little clay in it over chalk. The area comprises low rolling hills. The result is that it is very well drained with the chalk acting as a reservoir of water unless there is a long dry spell. Anyone who knows West Norfolk would be familiar with the Fenland when Norfolk meets Cambridgeshire. My land is just east of that area where the land starts to rise.
The field had been set-aside land for several years before I bought it. I got a local farmer to go over it with a plough to break up the soil before I started. This means that, by avoiding heavy equipment, I have fairly well drained, easy working soil. My tractor is a strange little 20hp 4 wheel drive beast of a type known as an 'Alpine tractor'. It has an air-cooled 2 cylinder diesel engine and is very noisy. The main benefits of this type of machine are that it is stable with a low centre of gravity, wide low pressure tyres and it only weight 600kg. It has a category 1 three point linkage so I can use a fairly wide range of implements with it. This currently extends to disc and chain harrows, keeping the weeds down with a topper and (mostly) carting stuff around the field using a transporter box on the back.
Living a few miles from my field isn't ideal as the trailer limits what I can take at any one time. However, I now have a shipping container on the field where I can shelter from the weather, make a cup of tea and store a few basic bits. I can't keep anything of value there as it is away from civilisation and I can't get any insurance there for my equipment.
My main activity to date has been to plant seedling trees for a project I am involved in with my wife. This has meant using the disc harrow to break up an area for cultivation, removing as many of the weeds as possible. Then planting the seedlings in plastic protectors to try to keep rabbits and deer at bay.
I have also set aside a small area for fruit trees and some fruit bushes. These are primarily for myself rather than for sale - the fruit that is.
I started this with no farming experience and have had to learn by trial and error. This can be an expensive method! However, I have managed to get the hang of the tractor and the implements I am using currently. I don't have a lot of money to spend on more machinery or buying in services so I am going to have to make the most of what I have.
Having found this web site, I hope to share ideas and advice. I look forward to contributing what little experience I have gained and benefiting from the advice of you all.
NN
Topic: New Boy (Read 5065 times)
