Summer finally arrived in England this week. I hope our friends north of the border are getting the sun, as it sounds like another dreadful harvest for them.
All our first and second wheats are planted. Some will say it's too early, but our seed-beds are some of the best we have ever had. I would rather it be growing now than trying to maul it in when the weather does eventually turn wet.
We had some great stale seed-beds, but apart from volunteers, very little blackgrass had germinated. A low dose of glyphosate was applied to take out volunteer rape in the first wheats, but the second wheat land was virtually clean.
Pre-emergence spraying is complete with a flufenacet-based mix being applied across the board. All seed was treated with Redigo Deter, so hopefully there will be no slug problems until after emergence. Traps are out so we will keep a close eye on them.
Machinery replacement is currently the main item on the agenda. Our New Holland combine has just finished its fourth season under a contract hire agreement and we have had new machines of all colours on demo and quotes are coming in.
Our main tractor, a John Deere 9520T (450hp) has just clocked up 6,000 hours in six years. We want to replace it and we will be looking at contract hire as a way of fixing our costs. We have had a summer of interesting demonstrations. The main decision is whether we go back to wheels as our yields are 10 to 15% down on headlands where the crawler has scrubbed round. Over our area, this adds up to a lot of money at today's prices. Again, we are waiting on all the prices to come back before making our final decision.
Arable Farmer Focus: Jon Parker