JB Diego
By Peter Lundgren, The Farmer
The wheat seed has been ordered and is in the barn ready for drilling hopefully on the 1st of October. Along with Ruth and Anne Marie I had to make a decision on a suitable wheat variety for the project and we settled on JB Diego as a feed variety (animal feed) that is also suitable for artisan breadmaking. The seed has been ordered with a single purpose seed dressing that protects it against seed and soil borne disease but the seed has not been treated with a neonicotinoid insecticide. Again I’m sure we will discuss neonicotinoids in more detail at a future date but I have maintained a voluntary ban on neonicotinoids on this farm for the last three years. I’ve grown this variety of wheat before and am reasonably confident that it will grow well and give the collective a good chance of seeing an economic return on its investment. There is more information on the variety on the HGCA website.
On the rest of the farm I drilled the oilseed rape last weekend and with the recent damp weather (frustrating for those with fields still to combine) I expect the crop to germinate quickly. The fields going in barley have been scuffed and the volunteers and weeds have been ploughed in. I’m just waiting for any weeds and blackgrass to germinate and I’ll drill the barley around the 20th of September.