Opinions Focus
- Maize harvest brought forward; yields poor.
- Sugar beet recovering after dry weather.
- Land preparation ahead of wheat and rye planting.
What’s happening on farm
Weirdly and for only the second time in my working life, the farm was closed for the August bank holiday. And now I know why I like working when everyone else is on holiday.
Great excitement, a piglet was found running free and was, therefore, immediately rescued.
Despite the UK Met Offices best advises we continue to be below normal rainfall and above normal temperatures which is making autumn cultivations harder, we destroy more metal when the soil is dry.
Deep analysis of the crops harvested is now going on, with more questions than answers.
Crop Stage
Maize harvest will start in a couple of days’ time, which is early and yields are going to be disappointing, err awful. Sugar beet is coming back to life and, for the most part, is trying to look green, although some plants currently make carrots look large. Disease pressure is mainly low.
We are preparing land for planting wheat and rye, having planted a small area of rape seeds which are currently emerging. (For a holiday my wife and I drove across France and Switzerland, on the whole trip I only saw one field of osr that I would be proud to call my own. I think the French are some of the best farmers in the world).
Big Concerns
As suggested last time, we now have a prime minister that certainly doesn’t know which way into the ground a sugar beet seed should be put and I doubt she cares. Fertilisers and pesticides stay on the list of things to worry about.
Ambitions for the Year
So continuing the theme, I observe that if I wish to improve my profitability I need to address in order:- 1) Price 2) Yield 3) cost of production. For all the crops I grow.
