Sadler cousins in Cambridge

Monday 20th February; It was great to be whizzed out of the city and into the countryside today. It is really beutiful and just as I had imagined, except for the number of people and cars still everywhere!! John and Wendy Sadlers farm is on a major roadway and there are cars zooming by 24/7. John showed me around his small farm, which is cropped with wheat and canola. They are in a drought, and hoping for some rain very soon. As they are, it is hard to believe that these crops will every yield 10t/ha, but once it warms up and they put some Nitrogen on, apparently they go gangbusters! The biggest problem at the moment is the pigeons, and John showed me his novel way of keeping them away with rocket launchers...

John Sadler lighting a rocket launcher to keep the pigeons off his canola crop.

John Sadler in fron of his home in rural Cambridge

We spent the afternoon at a neighbouring farm Childery. Martin is a large and innovative farmer in the area, and crops 1400ha's (massive in this area).  He grows wheat, canola and barley, and also runs a grain storage and recieval site on his own farm. He is very pro genetic modification, and thinks that eventually England will follow the world with growing GM crops.

It is hard to relate the farming here to broadacre farming in WA. I can see why they have to have the chemical restrictions, as the young office worker driving past the booomspray on his way to work would be quick to notice a waft of ester coming in the air vents. It is just so populated. Everything that happens on your property is seen by hundreds of people everyday.

DAP fertiliser in the Childery shed ready for next season. All has to be in bags, no bulk allowed.

We finished the day with dinner at my cousins house, Rob and Suzie Sadler. They live on the farm with John and Wendy, but Suzie runs her own farm about 40 miles away.

John and Wendy have had to diversify the farm, due to their small acreage, so as well as renting out business offices on their property, they also run a Bed and Breakfast. I have been treated to one of their rooms, and they have been extremely hospitable!!! Time for breaky down decky!!!!!!