To be quite frank I am not sure why I bother.

You spend all year paying the utmost attention to the crops, a slurp of zinc on the wheat, a slug (excuse the pun) of molybdenum on the oilseed rape and this effort is then ruined by the lack of rain during the growing season. Only it isn’t.

The yields have far surpassed my expectations, but the smug feeling I was exuding was soon erased by having to sell two loads of barley for £91/t to make room for the forth coming bean harvest.

See also: Read more from our arable Farmer Focus writers

My crusade to produce wheat consistently at less than £100/t continues, and we got mighty close this year, but to budget on these yields as an average going forwards would be naive.

There will be more costs to be cut and the higher yields won’t be chased regardless; and anyway I have a face more suited to radio than the Guinness Book of Records.

The only flaw I can think of in my personality, ignoring for a moment what others perceive to be failings, is that I lack patience.

“I murdered the first of the spring barley cutting just 10 days after desiccation, which has resulted in an uneven spread of semi-chopped straw” 
Will Howe

There is only one timescale to work to and that is yesterday and for what possible reason do I need to explain things twice?

I always ask for an hour’s notice from anyone visiting the farm; simply because I am busy.

So to be phoned up by a grain sampler/lorry driver saying they are sat in the yard rattles my cage, again I fail to see the complexity in my instructions.

Unfortunately, it appears that a direct driller needs patience in spades to complement the beard and open-toe sandals.

I murdered the first of the spring barley cutting just 10 days after desiccation, which has resulted in an uneven spread of semi-chopped straw. This straw will need a blazing hot day to spread, so that rules out the foreseeable future.

With the barley I only committed mild GBH. Cutting it at 14 days after desiccation the crop has spread and chopped far better and, therefore, allowed an immediate establishment of cover crops.

This winter’s staff training might be more angled at personal development than more practical skills.

Will Howe farms 384ha of medium to heavy land at Ewerby Thorpe Farm, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, growing wheat, oilseed rape and winter beans.