For us here in the South it has been a good growing spring despite the wet winter.

Where I would expect the grass to have started slowing down from dry weather, it has kept going strong, and what was a bumper first cut looks to be followed by a good second.

See also: How a Lincs farm dries grain cheaply without fossil fuels

The late drilled wheat and spring barley have also fared well, although the decision to not do any pre- and early post-emergence herbicides has caught up with us, leaving some dirty crops that will need sorting post-harvest.

That said, I still maintain that checking the crops with herbicides would have been more detrimental.

The wet spring has also meant we have not been able to spread as much muck and slurry as we wanted, particularly on the cereals.

Normally I would aim to get slurry on the wheat before stem extension and drive the tanker at 12m on and between the tramlines.

Unfortunately, this year we missed the chance and we have had to rely on the bag.

The investment required for 24m spreading of both slurry and solid manures is great, and would be a big step up from the current system, but applying manure when it will be better utilised is, hopefully, worthwhile.

For nitrogen, it would allow spreading on cooler, overcast spring days to achieve minimal losses when we would not have been able to drive on the crop at 12m.

This should also mean the P and K are better utilised through spring spreading, rather than relying on spreading in the autumn.

The main issue that remains with manure is the low availability of nitrogen, along with high P and K content that means it just isn’t a balanced fertiliser, especially for our high-index soils.

The answers to this problem seem limited and all involve some highly expensive and often experimental extra processing system or gadget.

For now, however, I will settle for a consistent, uniform product that is easy to transport.

This at least means I’ll get reliable fertilising results, as well as making spreading on more distant ground easier and more consistent.