Arable Farmer Focus FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Throwing it all at our fight against grassweedsOur farming system revolves around ryegrass seed production for four key reasons: successful yields, straw sales to North Island dairy farmers, the restorative function within our rotation and the lambs… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Feeling excited at the prospect of harvestWhat a roller coaster the 2023-24 growing season has been. Crops have picked up hugely over the past six weeks and for the first time this year I’m starting to… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Why Fastrac is driving entire UK coastlineI know this subject is in the limelight a lot, but mental health is a serious issue in the farming community. An ex-employee of mine, Taron Lee, and a farming… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Slugs decimate wild bird food plotsThe 2012 growing season was a great learning experience as we had a BASF trial on the farm, and I watched their untreated and single treatment plots go from green… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Value in first aid for mental health courseMay used to be the month when we could make a start on the odd jobs list, but over the past couple of years it seems to be just as… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Plagued with muckspreader breakdownsMay's rainfall was 76mm. Needless to say, we got stuck spraying wheat flag leaves and again in winter beans trying to control chocolate spot. I stupidly commented last year that… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Wet spring means using more bagged fertiliserFor 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… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Disease levels see high fungicide spendIt has certainly been the spring of the low disturbance drill for cereals, with concrete-like conditions on the surface and plasticine below. The Avatar has proved ideal for slotting seed… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Things are looking up as grain prices firmWe waited patiently, like most, for spring to arrive. It took until mid-April before we could get our spring linseed in the ground. We disced over the grazed multispecies cover… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Spring sowing gives way to hoeingSpring sowing has given way to spring hoeing at Shimpling Park Farm. This is an essential task to relieve my neighbours worries about the impressive level of flowering weeds that… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Time to improve the public’s knowledge of agIt’s great to see the sun shining. We have had two weeks of excellent weather, allowing potato planting to advance. Lots of long hours and late nights were required, but… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Reduced input approach is out the windowIt may not surprise you to hear that my reduced inputs approach is currently somewhat out the window. Around T0.5 I went away for a few days and septoria took… More articles
