2015 ended with warm
and wet weather, resulting in our hottest year to date, with the annual mean at
16.67ºC. This is the third year in a row that temperatures have beaten the
previous annual high. Despite the wet end to the year we also recorded our
lowest rainfall at 492mm, which included 148mm in the last few weeks of the
year. As I have previously mentioned, yearly distribution is as important as
annual total, sometimes more so. Both mild and wet conditions continued into
2016, and we went through the whole winter without experiencing a temperature
below freezing point. By early May we had passed last year’s total rainfall.
Temperatures fell below
recent years’ ones in April, and the annual mean is below the last two years as
of the end of July. We also had a fall of rain measuring 26mm on 6th
July with a very prolonged bout of thunder and lightning. We have never
measured more than 16mm for the whole of July before, and some years none at
all. After last year’s watering problems I am very pleased to be switching on
pumps rather than having to fill my boom spray tank and then go and hand water
the trees as I did last summer. I expect to run short very soon, but the olives
will manage until the autumn rains.
Unfortunately there was
rather too much rain when the trees were in bloom and pollination was not as
good as I had hoped for. Nevertheless, the trees are almost all young and many have
a reasonable crop for their age. There are a few trees with no crop at all. I
will only know for sure how things turn out when the harvest is weighed and
sold. This wet weather had a devastating effect on people growing top fruits –
apples, pears, cherries, peaches, apricots, etc. and whole crops were lost in
many cases. I do not have a single peach on any of my trees or any apricots
either. Only one tree is bearing apples, and I have a single pear and a single
plum. Grapes also appear to have suffered badly with very little fruit set.
Fortunately all these fruits are just for our own use, but I do feel sorry for
those growers who rely on them for an income. All farming is the same I suppose
– extremely weather dependent.
I did have a good crop
of hay on the few acres I cut. So good in fact that I am desperate for space.
The crop, two small fields, was double the average yield of other years. I do
not have any bale collectors or pick-up equipment so I have to pick up individual
bales by hand and then stack by hand. I carry 11 bales at a time in the link
box and 642 bales meant quite a few journeys to the field and back to the shed.
It was hot work, especially when I was stacking close to the roof, but Patrick
came and helped me with the last hundred or so because rain was forecast - and it
did happen. He more than earned his couple of beers after we finished. Without
him it would have got wet. It would have dried again, but also been just
another unnecessary little hassle. Everybody needs good neighbours.
The major project for
this year is planting almond trees and I have ordered 850 for early October
delivery. Hopefully I will be able to plant them all before the olive harvest
begins towards the end of that month. There is a lot of work in getting the
land ready for them – they will be planted on raised berms and I do not have a
machine to form them, so some experimentation with Patrick’s mouldboard plough
has resulted in quite effective berms once I sussed out how many furrows to
plough and in which direction so as to maximise the finished height.
I am also reclaiming a
few hundred square metres of land that has never been cultivated before, and
that means moving a lot of stones and earth. Again no machinery to automate the
job, so hand stone picking and using the tractor link box as a mini-bulldozer
is doing the trick. It is not yet finished, but will be by the time I need to
plant trees on it.
