Walking on a farm

All the posts today have been using photos from an hours walk on the farm. Walking is good for you and look at what you can see around you - nature at its best!

Remember to follow the countryside code when visiting or walking in the countryside for more details follow the link below and find publications in the left-hand side menu

http://www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk/

Clover

The clover is in flower in the field margins! Good to see it fixing nitrogen into the soil!

Wheat - growing well

The wheat is growing well - good news if we want to eat bread, biscuits, cakes etc !

We are growing feed wheat which is fed to livestock.

Mind you if you look at the top picture you can see where the rabbits were helping themselves earlier on in the year - at the field edge!

Bracken - fronds uncurling

Have you ever seen a bracken leaf uncurling? Well down in the wood you can!

There are concerns about the spread of bracken because it contains a chemical, ptaquiloside, that if it enters the water supply could cause digestive problems or even cancer. This chemical is tested for by our water company, Welsh Water, on a routine basis.

It is ok for bracken to be growing in the woods, but it will cause illness in horses and cattle so we need to ensure it does not spread too far into the fields!

Still I think the plant is amazing to see at this time of year!

Oil Seed Rape

We posted pictures of the rape in flower in April, but now, in June, the seed pods are forming and the plant now looks very different! Amazing to see how it capturing solar energy and converts it to oil!

Woodland Flowers

Well the woods have changed again in June - and they are in the pink!

The Foxgloves are in flower and we also have a myriad of other woodland flowers too!

Another source of poultrydiscussion at home!

Water footprint of cotton

Well, in my quest to determine our family water footprint I have been looking at the water footprint of cotton products - see the link to the water footprint website.

1 pair of jeans = 10, 850 litres of virtual water
1 t-shirt = 2,7,20 litres of virtual water

(Source http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report18.pdf )

These are average figures and the water used to produce cotton products varies greatly between countries the range of water used to produce the fabric being between 6 and 21.5 million litres per tonne. However this compares with a virtual water content for tea of between 5 and 16.6 million litres per tonne and coffee of between 6 and 49 million litres per tonne depending on where the crop is grown. (Source: http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report18.pdf )

In the UK we buy around 86 million pairs of jeans per year - that's around 372, 000 (yes thousand!!) olympic size swimming pools of water per year!

So after this poultrydiscussion we will definitely be looking at our clothes in a different light!