Over the Farm Gate is kindly supplied by - Carl Driver - Camgrain Chairman

Spring has finally arrived with the early morning bird song along with Ducks, Partridges pairing up for Spring. Hares are again more visible around the fields with their mad march boxing.

The day length and temperatures are increasing but the rainfall has not reduced significantly yet to start Spring sowing of Malting Barley and Milling Oats.

The winter cereals are now starting to race through their growth stages and have had 2 applications of nitrogen and sulphur. We are working our way through the backlog of spraying jobs when the weather allows. At this stage we are applying growth regulator, micronutrients and bio-stimulants to crops.



Crops are a mixed bag with about 70% looking good. The other 30% are patchy in places due to wet, slugs and herbicide damage. Driving around the local area and around the country yields are going to be significantly down on average. There is a lot of poor crops out there, and spring drilling is quickly getting past the optimum timing for yield and quality. It is however the difficult years like this where you learn the most, this is important to keep improving what we are doing without getting too comfortable. It is important to take the positives forward and not just dwell on the negativity, which can easily done in farming.