The Cereals event goes from strength to strength, and I had a busy day visiting stands, catching up with friends and seeing new ideas.

 I also brought home the customary free bag full of brochures that will sit on the office desk as I intend reading them all thoroughly.

The journey from Sussex was good until we hit stationary traffic. After some careful old-fashioned map reading and an illegal U-turn, I found an alternative back-route and easily gained entry. I feel sorry for others who had to endure the long traffic queues to get into what is now our main annual arable event.

Things didn’t go to plan with our maize, as we had to re-drill nearly 18ha. Crows and rooks seemed to find the taste of the Poncho (clothianidin + beat-cyfluthrin) seed dressing that we used against wireworm – because the field was once in set-aside – rather palatable. Gas bangers, flags and all other means of defence failed to deter them.

The next-door field, dressed as usual with Mesurol (methiocarb), didn’t get touched, so we’ve learned a lesson about dressing choice.

The wheat looks well, especially second crop Einstein, after a rather shaky start. I hope it’s all passed the crucial stage of attack from the dreaded orange blossom midge. This time of year is always rather fraught, with continuous checking of traps and counting thresholds.

An ear-wash spray will go on shortly consisting mainly of 0.25 litre/ha of Proline (prothioconazole). That will then just leave the Nufol to be applied to the milling wheat.

The sprayer can then have a bit of a rest before it’s time to go in again to kill off crops that I’ve been trying to keep alive all year, ready for what I’m hoping will be a really nice, sunny and hot harvest.

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