Rupert Knowles - The CA-WN Exchange

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Rupert Knowles

Cover Crops

What are ‘cover crops’ and what are they for? Winter, 20241 Many years ago, a farming friend told me that villagers backing onto his field had been complaining of pesticides being sprayed onto wheat from the air and drifting into their gardens. In fact he was not spraying at all:

Are Supermarkets Paying Fair Prices to Growers?

Are Supermarkets Paying Fair Prices to Growers?

This morning (13/11/23) on BBC Farming Today1, a grower of cauliflowers pointed out that in 1976 when he left school the price was 75p each; today he is selling caulis at £1.20. In ’76 his first new tractor was £9,500; today a new tractor is £150,

Fertility and The Three Sisters

Fertility and The Three Sisters

At the time of writing, late July 2023, the local grain harvest is just starting. The combines will be out in the Winter Barley. But there is a long way to go and typically the weather has changed to a pattern of Atlantic lows giving us sunshine and showers from

LEAF OPEN FARM SUNDAY at Brixworth Farms

LEAF OPEN FARM SUNDAY at Brixworth Farms

Sunday 11 June, 10:00am to 4:00pm

Water – Too much / Too little

Water – Too much / Too little

Writing at the end of April, I am wrapped up well and summer seems a long way off. But it is at this time of year that water companies and farmers look anxiously at the levels in their reservoirs as well as river flows and groundwater levels. If we have

Ravenous by Henry Dimbleby with Jemima Lewis

Ravenous by Henry Dimbleby with Jemima Lewis

In 2021, Henry Dimbleby published the much acclaimed ‘National Food Strategy’. This was one of the most carefully thought through and readable government documents that I have read and yet most people, including members of the government, have not read or acted upon it. In reply, in 2022 the Government

Offsetting and Carbon Trading

Offsetting and Carbon Trading

I am very suspicious of offsetting. An old friend was persuaded by her heating oil supplier to give money to forestry in India. She has travelled to India many times and has a soft spot for the country and its peoples, so she was easily persuaded. In theory, the trees

Mellow Yellow

Rupert Knowles – CA-WN Farming Correspondent Some of you may be old enough like me to remember dancing to Donovan’s 1966 hippy hit song by this name. But today, it is Farrington’s oils that invoke the magic of flower power. Farrington’s cold-pressed rapeseed oil is produced at Bottom

Farming Decisions

Farming Decisions

I was reading articles in Farmers Weekly about the rise in cost of farmers’ inputs such as fertiliser and diesel, and the rise in price of outputs such as grain and milk. This led me to thinking, ‘just how do farmers make short and long-term decisions on managing their businesses?

Amazing Maize Maze

Amazing Maize Maze

In early September 2022, I visited the Pick Your Own farm at Harpole for a chat with the owner, Teresa Drage. I wanted to find out how her enterprise had been affected by the hot, dry summer. Manor Farm has been in the family for many years. It is a

Farmers and bees are buzzing!!!

Show time. The barley is turning gold and the combines will shortly be busy in the fields. The magical months of May and June are over. July is a relatively slack time of year when farmers visit the shows. In 2022 I visited two: Cereals 2022 near Duxford in Cambridgeshire

Climate-Friendly Farming

Climate-Friendly Farming

Rupert Knowles - CA-WN Farming Correspondent New-born lambs are scampering after their mothers all over West Northamptonshire. I was driving up a farm track north of Braunston last week and they went skipping ahead without the sense to veer to left or right. The pastures to the side undulate with