Over the Farm Gate is kindly supplied by - Jo Robinson - Farmer Director

At the moment it seems like every third day is a Friday, the weeks are just ticking by so quickly.

The crops are developing well, it seems to be an early season. My first crop of Oilseed Rape in 8 years is just coming off flower. I guess 90% of it is good. The winter barley continues apace and I would expect to see the first awns appear within a fortnight.

My wheat crops are very diverse. Some early drilled wheat look absolutely top notch. My October drilled wheat, we’ll see below…., the wheat drilled on a wheat November day is ok but the wheat drilled on a frosty December night is by far the best. We can only really judge the quality of our decision making in farming in hindsight and this season has stood convention on its head. If I had the capacity to have drilled the entire farm on those few frosty nights then that would have been the choice.

But the October drilled wheat. Farming convention says drill wheat in early October. This should allow you time to control some blackgrass before drilling and is optimal timing both for the development of the crop and further control of blackgrass with herbicides. I have a field that was drilled on 8th October into prefect conditions. It was rolled and then the herbicides applied, again in ideal conditions. However, that is where it ended. About a week later, just as the seed was germinating, the first of the named storms arrived and delivered about 60mm of rain. A few days later another storm topped this up with a further 50mm. The rain washed the herbicide down to the seed and this had a significant effect upon the germination and emergence of the crop. It also sadly washed the herbicide away, most likely into the North Sea.

The outcome of this was a very poor and slow establishment of the crop and virtually no effective control of blackgrass.

Over the course of the late winter and spring I have been tearing my hair out. I purchased winter wheat seed in the hope I could re-drill on a frost in Jan/Feb. No frost came. I tried to re-drill during a dry spell at the end of January, but soil conditions were still too wet. I then got distracted by planned spring drilling and nurturing the crops I already had in the ground.



So this week I turned my attention back to this field. An honest assessment of it goes something like this

10% bare ground

10% just straight blackgrass

50% wheat chocked with blackgrass

20% wheat with moderate blackgrass

10% wheat that you might be pleased with.

This photo shows the extent of the blackgrass. All the narrow spikes leaves are blackgrass which is choking the broad leafed wheat.

A reasonable yield estimate for the field would be 5t/ha. In other words a total disaster, agronomically, financially and environmentally (bearing in mind where the herbicide went). So this week the whole field has been sprayed off, including the 2.5 ha corner where there was a good crop. The seed return from the blackgrass would have been so huge that it would have taken 5 to 8 years to get the field clean again, if ever. The hope is that I will be able to establish a crop of linseed in the field. I just need the dampness of the drizzle to disappear.



Beyond that my attention is firmly fixed on a 3 day motorbike trip to N Yorkshire and whether or not Ipswich Town can achieve the 3 wins they require for promotion to the Premier League.