Annie, Grace, John and Wiz out on the town

 

Mung Beans (Green Grams) see daylight

Wheat up and Away

Planting 2016 started

We started planting wheat a few days ago, we have had 320 mm of rain over the past 3 months and so our soil is getting full.
We will plant about half our farm to wheat then the other half to Mung Beans (Locally known as Green Grams)
Plus a selection of small plot and small comercial trials of various crops.

Our planting team with our new Quick fill hopper (built by Robert in the purple top)

Seed Wheat Cleaning & Treatment

Farm Update

Well, we have had above average rain for what's locally called the short rains, usually just Nov and maybe half of December, the average for Nov, Dec and January is 208mm although we have been very fortunate to get 313 mm of rain for the same period to date (still some of Jan to go).
It has been very encouraging to see no water runoff our fields at all, quite amazing as much of the rain has been in heavy storms.
The previous crop residue, controlling our machinery traffic and zero till is showing its benefits, interestingly the only place any water has laid is in some tram lines.
The soil profile must be getting full of water and as we are only 10 or 12 days from the start of our 2016 planting it is nice to have all that water there.
Lots of preparing the planter and getting all our crop planting inputs ready to go.

Farm Christmas Party

 Gideon and his wife Margaret, Gideon runs our office and is also a very good machinery operator

 Team Security, Benson and Simon from our security team having a laugh

Samson on the left and Stanley our gardener on the right with Annett who helps Annie

 Annie giving a Christmas hug to Abigail, (Gideon and Margaret's daughter)

Mum and Dad with Chicks (black feathers are the male) Dad not happy

Happened to run into the Pope while at the Airport

Short Rains Are Here

The short rains are over the period of November and half December, from June to October (five months) we received 23mm in 4 events, so zero effective rainfall.
Since the start of November we have had 80mm, we will need three times this amount to get even a 75% full soil moisture profile. At the end of Oct our fields were bone dry and the soil cracked open ready to receive the rain.
We will aim to plant our next crop in Feb if we can plant on moisture to make the most of April/May rains when the crops needs it most, these rains are known as the long rains. (truth is they are about the same length as the short rains, i.e. 6 weeks)
 

Back home in Kenya after 15 day study tour of South America

Well after spending time in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina the small group of us returned to our homes and farming businesses.
We saw lots of different approaches to cover crops, No Till and machinery that allows planting  into high residue loads.
In Brazil and Paraguay there was obvious sub surface compaction although the 1600 to 20000  mm of annual rainfall masks it to a degree.
Lots of very good farmers and consultants growing good crops of Soya Beans and Corn.
We then moved into Argentina in an area called "The Pampas" silty clay soils that surprisingly don't appear to have the same degree of sub surface compaction  as the red high % sand soils of Brazil/Paraguay.
One amazing thing was that we did not find one farm running on a CTF system. (Controlled traffic farming ).
Thanks to all the farmers/consultants/machinery manufacturers who gave us their time, it was greatly appreciated.
     

Last Day In Argentina, looking at a field that has been no till for 30 years

Wooly Pod Vetch Cover Crop (he is concerned about his receding hairline)

Steve from Beyond Agronomy showing serious no till passion at a reseach station in Argentina. 

Iguassu Falls (Brazil side)

What a Cover Crop ( Brachiara Grass in Paraguay )

Jonti Standing Beside Lab Grown Soya With 2136 Pods on One Plant

Moving from Brazil to Paraguay (Background of Photo)

Stara Zero Till Planter Doing A Great Job Planting Soya in Southern Brazil

11 t Hectare Cover Crop (dry matter)

We had our first day with two leading farmers in Brazil, both were planting Soya Beans into some serious residues.
Great day, lots to learn from the people we are meeting.
Our host "Cleber" from a company called "Stara" has been 1st rate.
Today was Day one of our study tour in South America., over the next 10 day's we will look at various farming systems in Brazil,  Paraguay and Argentina. Busy 10 day's.

Just met one of our hosts, Cleber (Brazil)

Starting Our South America Study Tour

We arrived in Sao Paulo (Brazil) this afternoon,  heading to the home of Zero Till tomorrow.

Watching South Africa playing in WC, in Jo Burg

Three Wise Men (in transit to South America)

Group of Visitors from Ghana

Had a great visit from a group of farmers and researchers from Ghana today, they are in Kenya looking at no till/conservation farming.
There was a lot of discussion and things learnt both ways I am sure.

Crazy Harvest and Grain cleaning finished

Finally after about 10 or 12 weeks of harvest and grain cleaning we are sending the last truck load off farm today (sat). It has been an intense time with harvest followed by our grain cleaner running 24/7 for a month and a half. The barley had to be cleaned 3 times to get us to 99% retention (above the screen).
Next season will be wheat and Mung Beans (green Grams) and a small commercial trial of both Desi and Kabuli chickpeas as well as a forage sorghum trial for potential pelletizing into the animal feed market.
Our whole team, Robert, Gideon and Samson are very happy to have a quite time for a while.
The short rains are almost here, they normally start at the end of Oct or start of Nov, it may rain 50mm over Nov/Dec or 300mm, time will tell.
Our soils are empty of moisture at present, our hope is that we can fill our moisture profile (the 1.25meters of black soil) up with the short Rains (Nov/Dec) then plant in Feb/March and have the long rains (April/May) falling in crop.
The average rainfall for April/May is around 155mm, so without moisture in our soil we would struggle to grow a viable crop.
On average we should be able to collect around 150mm of plant available water in our soils before we plant, i.e sub soil moisture.
This gives us a total of around 300mm with in crop and soil moisture, using a common water use efficiency method we would use the 300mm less 110mm which is 190mm then for wheat if we do it all right we should be able to achieve around 12 to 15kg of grain per mm. This should grow between about 2.3 t ha and 2.8 t ha.
Lots of talk of El Nino here in Kenya it means more rain than normal although as with all things climate, you just don't know what will happen.
 

Annie and I saw this fellow while out walking late yesterday

Our small Quantity sales area

We have up to 20 small sales each day, with people buying from 5 kg to 100 kg.
We only sell probably 1% of our crop this way, it is however only fair that the local small traders can buy at wholesale from our farm.
We sell, Mung beans,  split Mungs , wheat and wheat gradings (small grains)

Saw this fellow when driving to the farm this morning

He was out shopping  ( he was following 4 Zebra ) click on photo to get better look at him.

Two future John Deere Clients