Since my last Farm Gate in March there has been a tremendous amount of work carried out across the farm. At the start of spring the task of drilling all spring crops, applying all of the crops nutrition and applying any necessary pesticides seems an insurmountable job.

The spring drilled crops of marrowfat peas, malting barley, oats and sugar beet were largely planted into good conditions. We all know three weeks after drilling when the ideal time to plant was, too early and the heavy clay we farm has the consistency of plasticine, too late and it can form into hard lumps, either way it seems difficult to establish an ideal seedbed, a fellow director and I shared these thoughts while both preparing sugar beet land!

All of the crops have had their nitrogen fertiliser applied in two or three splits, the first dose applied to spring crops of barley and oats is usually applied in the seed bed at the same time as drilling the seed, I believe having “food” available for a seedling is vital in its early few days of life. The malting barley crops have received a total of 110kg / ha of Nitrogen this year, this is slightly lower than in previous years. With the large area of barley planted nationally I suspect any slightly high nitrogen loads will end up as feed, the lower applied rate should help me achieve the required standard. The oats have also had fertiliser applied in 2 doses although this year I have increased the total applied rate to 135 kg / ha. After over feeding a few fields 4 years ago and having a large area of flat crop I think we have been under- feeding recently, time will tell if we have got the strategy right this year but I can tell you we are currently spraying a very robust PGR ( Plant Growth Regulator) on these crops to help to shorten the straw and risk them falling over!

Henry has been exceptionally busy spraying all crops whether it be weed control in sugar beet, fungicides in wheat and barley crops or trace elements and fungicide in bean crops the sprayer doesn’t seem to stop at this time of year.

Crops generally look very good from the road and have certainly benefited from warm weather and the frequent rain, it is very easy to expect great yields from crops that look good from the field edge although these are the same fields that were extremely thin throughout the winter months, unfortunately I am not expecting a vintage wheat harvest, with luck the spring cereals and sugar beet will go someway to helping balance the books.

I enjoy reading the weekly newsletter and hearing about the activities at each site. As a farmer director I am greatly reassured by the excellent health and safety culture throughout the business and thank you all for maintaining these high safety standards.