Last night we hosted a meeting of the Litlington discussion group here at the Thrift.

We were fortunate to have David Ellerton of Hutchinsons come and speak to us about the challenges we would face in the coming years in controlling pests and diseases in arable crops. The main issue was the declining number of actives that will be available and also the levels of performance we cab achieve from them.

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It was acknowledged that this area was at the epicentre of the flea beetle issue last autumn, with widespread areas of oilseed rape ending up being written off and many sparse crops whose future will have to be assessed shortly. Control of septoria was another area that Dr Ellerton flagged up, with the emphasis now having to move to preventation rather than cure.

From everything I have heard and read, I believe it will be very unlikely that we will see the neonicotinoids that were banned last year reappearing when the current two-year suspension is up for review, so we are going to have to plan for a future without them.

Some at the meeting said at current rape prices, growing the crop was not going to be worth the riskof being at the mercy of flea beetles. Our seed crop of Interval rape, which failed for us, got replanted. Not here, but down under in New Zealand to ensure the variety is available for growers next season.

We have replaced our combine for this season. After much deliberation we have changed colour, moving from yellow to light green. We have also changed a Fendt 930 and have replaced like with like, the new 930 that will be arriving on the farm next week will be the 31st Fendt tractor that I have bought off Peter Rose of PHR Rayne, the first being a 80hp 308 some 32 years ago in 1983.

We chose to sell the 930 being replaced privately. This was a major challenge, with a heavily oversupplied market due to currency issues and lack of demand. The premium payment we  paid some six years ago for owning a Fendt wasn’t achieved when we came to selling it in 2015.

Robert Law, 2006 Farmers Weekly Farmer of the year, farms 1,500ha on the Hertfordshire/Essex/Cambridgeshire borders growing cereals, turnips, mustard, forage rape for seed and sugar beet, plus 300ha of grassland supporting a flock of 2,500 ewes. He also manages 500ha of Nottinghamshire sandland.