Clarkson’s Farm

[thatsprettyshady]

nicanary said:

WrekinCrew said:

nicanary said:

Apropos episode 2 and the Andy Cato theory of mixed wheat and beans - how the hell do you harvest the result? The wheat combine will lop off the beans and a bean harvester will demolish the standing wheat. Answers on a postcard.........

Beans don't put nitrogen into the soil. The bacteria in the root nodules create "available" nitrogen compounds while the plant is growing, and the plant uses virtually all of that to produce its bean seeds.

Somebody (Charlie I think) said you have to kill the bean plant before the seeds start forming - presumably with a selective weedkiller. By the time you harvest the wheat I guess a combine copes with the dead bean "straw".

Aahh - shows I misunderstood what was occurring.......

I was a bit confused by the whole thing to be honest, so the wheat/beans are planted in the ground, they are harvested and they somehow get premium prices for this stuff for....reasons. Does it really work like that or is there some investment money being spent on these subsidies to get if off the ground? Surely the added costs of doing it this way (separation etc) would negate the premium prices paid to the farmer?

[Smollet]

CLK-GTR said:

All the farmers around me love the show for the spotlight it puts on British farming and the issues they face. Can't get higher praise than that.

Iirc it's won anaward from the NFU or some such body that represents them

[WrekinCrew]

thatsprettyshady said:

nicanary said:

WrekinCrew said:

nicanary said:

Apropos episode 2 and the Andy Cato theory of mixed wheat and beans - how the hell do you harvest the result? The wheat combine will lop off the beans and a bean harvester will demolish the standing wheat. Answers on a postcard.........

Beans don't put nitrogen into the soil. The bacteria in the root nodules create "available" nitrogen compounds while the plant is growing, and the plant uses virtually all of that to produce its bean seeds.

Somebody (Charlie I think) said you have to kill the bean plant before the seeds start forming - presumably with a selective weedkiller. By the time you harvest the wheat I guess a combine copes with the dead bean "straw".

Aahh - shows I misunderstood what was occurring.......

I was a bit confused by the whole thing to be honest, so the wheat/beans are planted in the ground, they are harvested and they somehow get premium prices for this stuff for....reasons. Does it really work like that or is there some investment money being spent on these subsidies to get if off the ground? Surely the added costs of doing it this way (separation etc) would negate the premium prices paid to the farmer?

Well I've searched on "intercropping" and now I'm confused too, as that says you let both mature and harvest the lot together as animal food.
But I don't see how the wheat benefits from the beans' fixed nitrogen. And I'm pretty sure Charlie mentioned killing the beans.

[Evanivitch]

WrekinCrew said:

Well I've searched on "intercropping" and now I'm confused too, as that says you let both mature and harvest the lot together as animal food.
But I don't see how the wheat benefits from the beans' fixed nitrogen. And I'm pretty sure Charlie mentioned killing the beans.

This isn't about instant results, remember how much they stressed this isn't about ultimate yield. It's regenerative year and year on Improvements in soil health, so this year's crop won't necessarily benefit, but the next crop will (and with reduced nitrogen inputs) and you haven't lost a whole year to a field bean (i.e. break crop) crop, nor has there been another year of monoculture farming.

It's the kind of long term farming practice that has only recently started to enter the mainstream of farming (e.g. no plough, direct drill manure, companion crops).

[Evanivitch]

Venisonpie said:

Yeah, doesn't surprise me at all - clearly an educated and experienced professional.

I think the scenes on regenerative farming are the most showing that he's playing his part in the drama (bad cop), you see him crack at least once, if not twice.

He also appears genuinely supportive of the big farming (minus the fencing) and goes easy on JC in that regard (IMO).

[FiF]

WrekinCrew said:

thatsprettyshady said:

nicanary said:

WrekinCrew said:

nicanary said:

Apropos episode 2 and the Andy Cato theory of mixed wheat and beans - how the hell do you harvest the result? The wheat combine will lop off the beans and a bean harvester will demolish the standing wheat. Answers on a postcard.........

Beans don't put nitrogen into the soil. The bacteria in the root nodules create "available" nitrogen compounds while the plant is growing, and the plant uses virtually all of that to produce its bean seeds.

Somebody (Charlie I think) said you have to kill the bean plant before the seeds start forming - presumably with a selective weedkiller. By the time you harvest the wheat I guess a combine copes with the dead bean "straw".

Aahh - shows I misunderstood what was occurring.......

I was a bit confused by the whole thing to be honest, so the wheat/beans are planted in the ground, they are harvested and they somehow get premium prices for this stuff for....reasons. Does it really work like that or is there some investment money being spent on these subsidies to get if off the ground? Surely the added costs of doing it this way (separation etc) would negate the premium prices paid to the farmer?

Well I've searched on "intercropping" and now I'm confused too, as that says you let both mature and harvest the lot together as animal food.
But I don't see how the wheat benefits from the beans' fixed nitrogen. And I'm pretty sure Charlie mentioned killing the beans.

Haven't seen that episode yet but my thoughts are that the beans suppress weed and volunteer growth which would have to be sprayed anyway. Also harvesting together for animal feed or alternatively separated in seed dressing equipment both having a cost consideration.

That's assuming both crops are ready for harvest together. Winter wheat /soy bean intercrop is different.

[WrekinCrew]

Evanivitch said:

WrekinCrew said:

Well I've searched on "intercropping" and now I'm confused too, as that says you let both mature and harvest the lot together as animal food.
But I don't see how the wheat benefits from the beans' fixed nitrogen. And I'm pretty sure Charlie mentioned killing the beans.

This isn't about instant results, remember how much they stressed this isn't about ultimate yield. It's regenerative year and year on Improvements in soil health, so this year's crop won't necessarily benefit, but the next crop will (and with reduced nitrogen inputs) and you haven't lost a whole year to a field bean (i.e. break crop) crop, nor has there been another year of monoculture farming.

It's the kind of long term farming practice that has only recently started to enter the mainstream of farming (e.g. no plough, direct drill manure, companion crops).

Well that's no good for the Jeremy v Kaleb profit competition.

[xeny]

Chris Type R said:

What would have been interesting would have been to have had Harry Metcalfe on talking about taking arable land out of production to manage costs/risk - at the expense of growing crops.

In the interview this morning, Clarkson said the rational thing to do is take the whole farm out of production for exactly that reason. I suspect we're going to see a lot of upward pressure on food prices and the policy will have to be revisited.

[Mojooo]

CheesecakeRunner said:

Spoiler tags just in case.

Only watched the first episode so far. I do wonder if anyone from the council watches it and how they feel. Sad news at the end.

I suspect the show gives us a very one sided view.

Not least they were blatantly not complying with the rule to sell local goods.

I spose ultimately its for the local to decide whether they want to try and keep the area as it is or allow anyone and everyone to start modernising.

[aterribleusername]

Really enjoyed those first 4 episodes, mainly because there wasn't much contrived stuff. I think Caleb is still playing a caricature of himself, leaning on the knowledgeable youngster/incompetent rich man thing from the beginning but Jeremy is now in possession of some knowledge and also aware of when to ask for help. Once Caleb accepts that a bit more when he's on camera then he'll come across a lot better. They do genuinely work well together when the cameras aren't around (I've made a few deliveries of farm and building supplies to them over the last year or so) and when that's shown on the screen it really does work whilst still showing how hard the job is.

WrekinCrew said:

Three episodes in and so far no ads. We haven't paid extra for ad-free Prime.

If I watch on my FireTV I get loads of ads, two at the beginning pus ones every 10-12 minutes. Watch it on my computer with a naughty blocker thing and there aren't any but I can see where they should be as there's a slight pause. I just run it on my computer instead now as it's connected to the TV anyway for Zwift.

[DoctorX]

aterribleusername said:

If I watch on my FireTV I get loads of ads, two at the beginning pus ones every 10-12 minutes. Watch it on my computer with a naughty blocker thing and there aren't any but I can see where they should be as there's a slight pause. I just run it on my computer instead now as it's connected to the TV anyway for Zwift.

Interesting. I watch on the Prime app built into my TV. I get one ad before it starts then nothing more.

[Evanivitch]

WrekinCrew said:

Well that's no good for the Jeremy v Kaleb profit competition.

It is, because even in the first year there's a premium/subsidy paid for the regenerative farming practice.

[Sheets Tabuer]

I've been getting ads on a firestick, one of them last night was nearly two minutes long royally taking the piss.

[kmpowell]

No ads at all here. I use the Prime video app on a AppleTV 4K streaming box.

[BikeBikeBIke]

Mojooo said:

I suspect the show gives us a very one sided view.

Not least they were blatantly not complying with the rule to sell local goods.

I spose ultimately its for the local to decide whether they want to try and keep the area as it is or allow anyone and everyone to start modernising.

It's a great show and I love it but the planners have been absolutely spot on so far. It's a rural location on a small road. Something attracting that level of footfall is completely ludicrous. Clearly the show needs a 'bad guy' faceless organisation to be part of the plot and its all part of the fun. If they really wanted a restaurant/outlet for local food they could put it in Oxford and the characters visit it to give it the same profile as the farm. But that would be poor TV because there would he no conflict.

I drove past the 'farm shop' on a random wet day and it was heaving, you can't inflict Silverstone levels of traffic daily on a rural area.

They sent Poppy off (ultimately for slaughter) and blamed the planners. That was completely misrepresenting what happened. Poppy was not part of the Restaurant buisness. They'd already given her pet status becaise she couldn't get pregnant. It was just good for TV.

Great show, but like all TV its not real life and *anyone* trying to put a massive attraction through a gate on a B road would have the same issue Clarkson has. It's a non starter.

Clarkson's a genius, though. I thought this season was going to be lame and instead he's introduced two new elements that add a whole new level of interest.

Edited by BikeBikeBIke on Sunday 5th May 21:06

[juggsy]

BikeBikeBIke said:

I drove past the 'farm shop' on a random wet day and it was heaving, you can't inflict Silverstone levels of traffic daily on a rural area.

That’s exactly what Silverstone is though. I grew up near Silverstone and for a long time the roads were gridlocked on race days. But they didn’t try and close the racetrack, they improved the infrastructure to adapt.

BikeBikeBIke said:

They sent Poppy off (ultimately for slaughter) and blamed the planners. That was completely misrepresenting what happened. Poppy was not part of the Restaurant buisness. They'd already given her pet status becaise she couldn't get pregnant. It was just good for TV.

Do you mean Pepper?

[otolith]

I think the idea is to diversify the farm, not to open a restaurant 20 miles away and pay rent somewhere nobody wants to drive into. “This was grown here” is a selling point. “This was grown on a farm 20 miles away” is just another restaurant in Oxford claiming to sell local-ish food.

[okgo]

DoctorX said:

Interesting. I watch on the Prime app built into my TV. I get one ad before it starts then nothing more.

I’m doing the same and get ads.

Don’t really care tbh.

[David87]

DoctorX said:

Interesting. I watch on the Prime app built into my TV. I get one ad before it starts then nothing more.

Same (Prime app on an LG TV).

[paulw123]

Just finished all 4 episodes. Enjoyed the pigs.
I do feel like there is a fair bit of padding in it.
Hovercraft, building a dam and erecting the fallen willow etc.
Charlie is great, nice artwork on 'the tate modern' office!
Kaleb is pretty much the same as usual. Lisa is great and really gets stuck in.
Still feel the unnecessary swearing is forced/scripted and adds nothing whatsoever. Clarksons 'for fks sake' just get dropped in pretty much at random.

6.5/10 so far, will see how the next 4 episodes go.