Miracle of herbicides

Modern herbicides make farming possible in the competitive world we live in. Pressures to produce ever cheaper food, fibre and flowers means a farmer must be ever more efficient and productive. We grow about 2 and a half hectares of daffodil bulbs and if we had to weed by hand then that is all we could possible do. Labelling and registration of chemicals is very strict and if a farmer uses chemicals as per the label there is very little environmental effects and you could argue it is a positive one when you are removing noxious or environmental weeds.

Today with the digging completed the tractor is free to do other jobs around the farm.Weed control is on the agenda at the moment. Early before the wind picked up I sprayed out the semi-permanent plantings (seedlings) which have to be done in January as the Nerines & Belladonnas begin growing in February. Also sparyed was the land that I am readying for next years plantings and is showing some perennial weed growth ( it is best to get rid of these before planting). The other patch I sprayed was this years plant which will be harvested next year, we let "weed trash" to grow over summer to protect the bulbs a little from the heat but it still needs to be controlled a bit.

Whilst spraying I flushed a Stubble Quail. My management of the paddocks can't be too bad as these ground dwellers are regularily seen.  Some mornings you can hear the booming call of the Painted Quail coming from the top paddock. I have found a Quails nest in the middle of the dried daffodil leaves and that same year the baby quail (they were Stubble Quail) were seen being shepherded away from me on the tractor. Another time I had a Painted Quail doing the broken wing act obviously trying to lead me away from it's chicks. This season I also had views of another ground dweller, (a Buff-banded Rail) which was seen whilst slashing the fire breaks around the perimeter of the property. This is a bird I often have flashes of when it is flushed but rarely get a good look.

Fine & sunny max 28 C min 13 C a little windy in afternoon and then a gradual change came over with light rain in the evening. Tractor based herbicide spraying in the morning and then some knapsack spraying around the shed, paths and gardens. In the late afternoon fuzzy (my cousin) came around and we did some repairs on the sizing machine motor and the hydraulics on the tractor