A Week on the Estate: Cool July, Mob Greenery & Rambling Volunteers
What a difference a month makes. Southern Europe remains locked in a stubborn and dangerous heatwave caused by the Charon anticyclone, a high-pressure system pushing Saharan heat north and keeping it there. While forest fires and temperatures in the high 40s dominate life around the Mediterranean, our July couldn’t be more different.
At 4pm on 19th July 2022, a record UK high of 40.3C was recorded at Coningsby, 17 miles from our doorstep. On 19th July 2023, our local daytime high was 18C. This year’s key issue from a farming perspective is rainfall levels; June was bone-dry and July has exceeded all expectations. The below screengrab from DEFRA paints a clear picture.
All in all, July brought welcome relief to crops and our wild flora and fauna. Our investment in soil health and our diligence in maintaining both drainage and irrigation structures certainly proved their worth as summer’s pendulum swung from hot and dry to cool and wet. The erratic and potentially extreme nature of our weather from season to season has underlined the importance of building-in resilience, from the soil biome upwards.
Out on the land this week, Estate Manager Paul Barnes walked some of the forage crops that have enjoyed the rain and his pics tell an interesting story. While the rye on the left-hand picture below was mown, the rye in the right-hand picture was mob-grazed by our Lincoln Reds and looks greener and healthier for it.
Mob-grazing mimics the symbiosis between wild grasslands and the ruminants that move across them with the seasons. We ensure that our Lincoln Reds rotate regularly between grazing paddocks and we allow at least six months of regrowth between visits.
Mob-grazing cattle leave behind plenty of natural fertiliser. They also create ‘trash’, the trodden-in, near-surface tillage, stubble and other plant residue which protects against soil erosion, improves water retention and becomes mulch for the next cycle of growth. We love it when a plan comes together.
