David's Digest

Suddenly the GM debate seems to have begun again. After years of virtual apathy by the popular media because its own antagonism had killed off serious discussion, the subject is cropping up all over the place. In recent days there have been articles promoting GM in a number of newspapers, some of them, admittedly commenting on a series of TV programmes about genetically modified animals which also exposed the subject to public view. It would be inaccurate to suggest that all comments have been favourable but I have not yet heard the level of hostility that ruled a few years ago.
Today a new development is reported. American scientists at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, have apparently discovered how to genetically modify mosquitoes so that they can be used to combat the dreadful tropical disease, malaria. Concurrently another group of scientists at Imperial College, London, have created another strain of GM mosquitoes that mate normally but have no offspring. The males of this new type can be readily identified and separated mechanically from ordinary insects because they have fluorescent testicles.

We managed to get a little spring drilling done at the end of last week - a few sugar beet and a few beans. Even that meant working through the weekend but seedbeds were good and they went in pretty well.
Then the balmy sunshine ended and we were back to winter again. As elsewhere, here in Norfolk we had sharp and unpleasant showers of rain, sleet, hail and snow and no further land work has been possible. Nor does it look likely before next weekend and by then another lot of rain is forecast.
It is of, course, too early to panic. It is only three quarters of the way through March. But my father (and probably his father too) used to say that March dust is worth a guinea an ounce and, decimalisation apart, that is as true today as it ever was.
The best crops are usually those that have the longest growing season and early drilling is a prerequisite. Once the calendar rolls round towards April thoughts inevitably turn to "cuckoo barley" and lower yields. So, let us hope the end of March is as good as the beginning and allows us get our 2007 crops off to a reasonable start.

Did you happen to notice in some of the Sunday papers today an advertisement for Danepak the bacon company? The company has had problems in the UK recently culminating in the laying off of staff at the Thetford packing station in Norfolk. Clearly they are trying to build up their business again and the ad campaign must be one of the measures being taken.
I don't know who dreams up their advertising themes but this one is brilliant. Whoever it was decided to cash in on the renewed interest in the UK in local foods and traceability. A bit difficult, you might think for products originating abroad. Well, yes, but they have overcome that obvious problem by emphasising the family farm angle.
It is ridiculously simple really. They simply took a photograph of a typical (if rather large) extended farming family - they look genuine anyway whether they are or not - and labelled each with their role in the business as if they were part of a major company.

We managed to complete all our spring drilling over the weekend. Generally most crops went in well into good seedbeds. This was a pleasant surprise because I had wondered if there had been enough frost during the winter to break down our heavy land. Well, it seems we did. Either that or there were enough wets and dry's to do the job.
So, we start another journey of hope. Hope that seeds will germiniate and crops will grow to produce useful, profitable yields. Hope that market prices will hold or rise. Hope that when it comes to harvest time the weather will be kind an allow crops to be gathered economically and in good condition.
But for all that to happen we now need rain. For although only a couple of weeks ago we were worried about wet land that would not carry a tractor, today, having disturbed the top of the soil to plant the seeds, we are looking at land that has dried quickly in the sun. And as that sun still shines and warm breezes blow over it there is a danger of lack of moisture where it is needed.
But the long range weather forecast says dry over Easter. On this occasion and at the risk of offending my urban neighbours I hope it is wrong.

A few kilometers from the massive new dam, claimed to be the worlds biggest civil engineering project and due to create a 660 kilometer reservoir along the Yangtse River, the farming remains substantially the same as it was 30, 50, or perhaps 100 years ago. The dam is scheduled to be completed in 2009 and will then, it is said, provide water for areas to the north where there is a shortage, generate huge amounts of electricity and remove the threat of flooding downstream.
The scale of the scheme is mind boggling and will be life changing for many Chinese. But the farmers around the town of Yichang where the dam is sited will notice hardly any difference.
The Farmers Weekly Study Tour has just spent the day looking at the almost completed dam and at the farming nearby. The contrast is difficult to take in.
On the one hand a US$25billion investment over 30 years. On the other narrow rows of wheat and barley inter-sown with cotton plants. Sometimes they inter-plant with rice or water melons but the width of the grain strips remain the same at less than a metre - because that is the size of the cutter bar on their tiny combine harvester.

The area close to Hangzhou in Eastern China was full of the typical tiny farms the Farmers Weekly Tour Group had seen elsewhere in the country. Small plots featured vegetables, asparagus, lettuces and so on and many of those who grew them were out hoeing and watering despite the fact that this week is a public holiday in China.
How could a 1,200 cow dairy exist in such a district we wondered? Suddenly there in front of us were long open sided cattle sheds together with barns full of hay and bags of fodder. What we had not expected was that the entire milking operation would be set on just 7.5ha and that all the 5,000 tonnes of feed required would be brought in from outside.
Questioned on this the manager admitted that the transport costs of bringing hay and corn 3,000 km from northern China was as much as the value of the feed. He also admitted that the value of the milk produced at the equivalent of 15p to 16p per litre was barely enough to leave a profit. But the owners of the intensive dairy farm were the same Chinese people that owned a bottling plant a few miles away and they had set it up three years ago with the intention of serving the growing needs of the prosperous Hangzhou region comprising some six million consumers. Presumably the retail operation made up for modest returns from producing milk. Although the members of the party were intrigued to learn that the ex farm price was so low because of over-production. We thought that sounded familiar.

Since I got back from China last weekend some 9mm of rain has fallen on this farm. We had 4mm on Monday and a further 5mm last night. There is no doubt that the crops look better for it if only that they show up better against dark, moist soil than they do against the dust left by almost seven weeks without rain. But in truth all that has happened is that plants have been freshened up. Drag your boot across the soil and you soon find the moisture has only penetrated an inch or so into the topsoil. We still need a couple of inches or more of steady rain to deal with the deficit.
Even if that happens over the next few days, and there seems little likelihood of it for this area of the country according to the weather forecasts I have seen, irreparable damage has already been done. Spring drillings on heavy land are worst affected. The land was too wet to carry a tractor in early March so could not be drilled until the end of the month or early April and it has dried out ever since. In some cases sugar beet have not even germinated. Light land, drilled into moist seedbeds in March did germinate and emerged and benefited from the warm April. Such crops look well at present. But if we get the hot summer we are promised they will suffer later.

For the record, yesterday only a few hours after I posted my plea for more significant rain a period of precipitation began. By 7.00am this morning some 26mm had fallen here and the soil is now thoroughly soaked. More rain is forecast this evening and still more over the weekend and into next week. It would be churlish to complain but it would be nice if the weather gods could provide a mixture each week instead of great dollups of either hot and dry or wet and cold that go on for ages. Perhaps, in the meantime, I should modify my electronic demands. The trouble is if you wish for something too hard you sometimes get it. And that can cause as much touble as the original problem.

Spring weather and CAP reform have combined to make a crop that was, until a couple of years ago, crucial to the profitability of eastern counties farms look very questionable indeed. A 37% cut in the EU price of sugar was the first blow. Many growers said they could not produce for the new price of around £20/t that will drop by a further £2 or £3 over the next few years. But most, in those regions that still have processing plants (two have closed since last year) decided to give the crop one more year, just in case it worked out OK. EU compensation for the lower price (even though it is supposed to be decoupled from production) would, in any case, reduce the risk of serious losses in the short term.
But crop establishment this spring has been dire in places, especially on strong land where it was impossible to create fine seedbeds. Most were drilled in late March or early April into land that was drying out fast after February rain. The anticipation was that even though some seeds did not go in onto moisture there would be enough April showers to make them germinate.
As we now know that did not happen. April, in Norfolk anyway, was the driest since weather records began in 1843. And although May was the wettest since 1843 (125mm on this farm) the rain came too late.

After five inches of rain in May I was getting a little concerned about whether we would have a few dry days in June to make some decent haylage for our livery horses. Sub standard haylage (or hay) is bad enough if you have to feed it to your own animals. It's much worse if you have to try to persuade other people to feed it to their horses - that is if the horses will eat it. If they won't you really are in trouble.
That is why, a few years ago, we turned from making hay to haylage wrapped in plastic sheeting as a more reliable quality feed for our customers. It comes fit to bale a couple of days sooner than hay, reducing vulnerability to changes in the weather. And most horses seem to like it better.
Anyway, we started cutting in glorious weather on Saturday; turned the swathe several times as the sun continued to shine through Sunday; paused until the cloud cleared on Monday then turned again; and today we (that is to say our contractors) are baling and wrapping what promises to be sweet and tasty horse feed.
To avoid vermin (rabbits mainly) biting holes in the plastic overnight we are clearing and stacking the bales behind the wrapper. And in case we see a tear we keep a roll of gaffer tape handy to seal in the quality.
Hopefully this wonderful weather will have enabled our hay suppliers to make some good stuff too and we shall be able to buy from them for those few horse owners who still insist on hay rather than haylage at reasonable prices.

The evidence of April's drought is as clear in northern Germany as it is in Britain. Most fields of winter barley feature two crops. The first is the one made up of tillers that survived the drought and will soon be ready for harvest. The second is composed of green tillers that have grown since the May rains and this will make for a mixed sample off the combine.
This was no surprise to members of the FW party touring Germany. Most have similar crops at home. They shrugged their shoulders and resolved to take the earliest crop when it is fit and hope to dress the green grains out in order to improve what will be an untidy sample. The recent sharp increase in values will help to pay for the exercise and reduce the frustration.
Generally, however, crops look very well over here. Winter wheats on good land obviously came through the drought pretty well. Rye and Triticale on light land survived well too. All have benefited from the rain since and the weather has continued unsettled while we have been here.
But perhaps the most impressive are crops of fodder maize, most of which are already a meter tall, and sugar beet whose leaves clearly met across the rows a couple of weeks ago and which do not feature the "hen and chickens" problems so common at home. German growers must have managed to conserve their seedbed moisture better than we did and achieved even germination. Beet growers on the study tour were rather envious. And most of the German farmers we have talked to are feeling more optimistic than for several years.

We had been visiting farms in what used to be West Germany which had an average field size of around 20 acres (8 ha). Some, where the Code Napoleon that divides up farms into equal sizes as generations succeed one another, was still in use were much smaller. Suddenly without warning, for all traces of the previous border fence have disappeared, the fields got bigger. On several farms the FW study tour visited over the next few days field sizes were nearer 200 acres (80 ha) and clearly ideal for big, efficient machinery.
The people farming such holdings, many of whom had returned from the West to reclaim land confiscated from them by the former regime, admitted that the Communists had done them a big favour. They now benifit from economies of scale not available in the western side of the country where the removal of field boundaries is forbidden, as it is in the UK. Western technology had enabled them to increase production and yields and they were generally very pleased with life, especially as they watched the world price of cereals rising.
Moreover, most roads, houses and other buildings in the East have also been brought up to Western standards and there is only occasional evidence of how things used to be. The inhabitants of the East, or most of them for there is still significant unemployment in some areas, now enjoy the same or similar standards of living as those in the West.

This very nice Dutch farmer happened to be staying at the same farmhouse B&B as I was during the Royal Show. His arable farm was in the south of the country close to Belgium and on it he grows wheat, onions and sugar beet. Onions were clearly his top crop for profit and he said he had had a very good year in 2006. He had sold his wheat at better prices too, that was why he was able to afford to bring his wife and two children to the Royal.
But the sugar beet won't have contributed much to your profits, I volunteered. Oh yes they did, he replied. We had a very high yield last year. But what about CAP reform and the reduced price, I continued. Well, it wasn't too serious, he said, only 3% less than the year before.
But British beet growers have had a cut of 37% I said and there's more to come. Sugar beet are beginning to look very questionable in this country,especially with the threat of more quota cuts.
My Dutch friend could not understand why our price cut was so severe. My beet go to our co-operative, he told me, and they have diversified into a variety of other sugar based products. They in turn make good profits and the co-op shares those with growers so that we do not suffer too much.
Naively, I had thought that all sugar beet growers across the EU were similarly affected by the sugar reform package. Not so, apparently. It set me wondering whether British Sugar with its famed efficiency were profiting more than growers know from alternate income. And it made me regret, once again, that growers did not take over the processor twenty five years ago when we had the chance. Meanwhile my eyes probably went a pale shade of green as I wished my new Dutch friend well and hoped he would have a good Royal Show.

We've had dry weather in this part of Norfolk for the last 36 hours. Is this a record? For this particular July I think, perhaps, it is.

Anyway, I took advantage of the conditions to take a detailed look round our crops. Not that I could do much to improve things at this late stage in the season but I thought it worthwhile to assess likely yields.

My conclusions, subject to correction later if necessary, are these. Oil seed rape (ours is mainly on light land) could do quite well, always assuming we don't get the horrendous weather some forecasters are predicting for the next few weeks. It is almost ready to be dessicated and we will do this at the earliest opportunity.

Winter wheat, somewhat remarkably, seems relatively free of disease; most is still standing despite the heavy rains that have battered it and ears look to be of a good size. I doubt if the weather we have had for the last two months is ideal for wheat but I do not discount the possibility of reasonable yields. We just need a few weeks of hot dry weather from now on.

Spring beans on this farm look better than any other crop at present. They have grown tall, look healthy and appear to carry plenty of pods. They also have longer to grow in the field before harvest than the other combinable crops so there is more time for things to go wrong - like an attack of bruchid beetles, for instance. But we have sprayed against them so must hope for the best.

Dr Norman Borlaug, who pioneered the development of high yielding, disease resistant cereal varieties in Latin America and Asia today received a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honour awarded in the USA.

Forty years ago some of the most vulnerable countries in the world faced famine. But Dr Borlaug's developments of better varieties and more sustainable farming systems enabled many of those countries to escape the worst of the disasters that faced them and to grow their own food. Continued scientific work since has led to a better fed world, on average, now than then.

Indeed, some might say Borlaug's methods and the extension of them led directly to the production of too much food and to embarrassing grain mountains in some areas of the world.

Now, however, the prospect of food shortages is looming again. There is growing competition for land to produce food, energy and to provide areas for conservation. Bigger yields, if it is possible to grow them, are becoming politically correct, indeed necessary, again. And I can't help wondering if todays Gold Medal presentation to Dr Borlaug, much deserved but very late in his long and distinguished career, might be tacit recognition of that revised, if not new priority.

We had only one shower yesterday and just 4mm of rain the night before. It's not what you would call classic harvest weather but some crops are fit and need to come into the barn before they suffer further damage.

As I have explained in my FW columns a group of us in this area share a couple of combines. This year they are the aged MF that is kept going as a spare and for small fields and a new (to us) Claas Lexion 600. It was used as a demonstrator last year so is just about "run in".

It has a 10m header, a 480hp engine, and 4wheel drive, which has already proved very useful this year. Even so the machine got stuck (not on one of our fields thank goodness) last evening and had to be towed out. Without the 4wd, fitted for that very purpose, it would probably have taken a military helicopter!

Despite that we (the group of us that is) are getting on with the oil seed rape (ours is 80% done) and the winter barley. It's being snatched between showers and is, obviously coming into barns pretty moist and needing to be dried. But we feel it is better to grit our teeth and stand that expense rather than lose more grain on the ground as the forecast predicts yet more rain.

I don't suppose I'm the only farmer to be obsessed with weather forecasts while at the same time not really believing them. The other evening I listened to the latest forecast on our local radio station only to hear the same station change its mind an hour later. I shouldn't blame the newsreader, of course. They only go by what the met office tells them. The only thing we can be sure of is that predicting the weather is not an exact science.

There was a forecast in the Daily Telegraph yesterday that said British weather would stay unsettled until mid August but after that it would be hot and dry for an extended period. Not satisfied with a vague national assessment, this morning I phoned the local weather service based in Norwich. Their prediction was that the rest of today would be fine, as would most of Saturday but that there would be substantial rain on Saturday night. Monday to Friday of next week, on the other hand, would be fine and dry.

So, who to believe? I suggest we shouldn't believe any of them, absolutely. I prefer to use forecasters only as a guide to trends and, rather than wait for some so called promise of a fine spell weeks into the future, make use of every opportunity to do some more harvesting. That's what we mean to do - always bearing in mind the cost in cash and carbon footprint if we cut crops when the grain is too moist.

Don't get me wrong. For those, thankfully few, people currently involved in the Surrey Foot & Mouth outbreak the situation is clearly devastating. For the rest of the UK cloven hoofed livestock industry it is at present a considerable inconvenience. But if, as seems possible, animal movement is allowed again in a few days, it may not turn into the same kind of disaster as that in 2001.

That is not the opinion you might reach from the popular media, of course. It has featured pictures of the funeral pires of six years ago alongside big black headlines. We should remember, however, that with Parliament in recess, August is a slow month for news and this has come as a gift to under-employed reporters.

The other notable feature of the last few days is the personal involvement of the Prime Minister. This is commendable and his willingness to be interviewed on the subject every day might be interpreted as encouraging. But if I were cynical I might also wonder if maintaining such a high profile about an industry in which he has previously displayed little interest might be opportunist in that it keeps him in the news and David Cameron on the sidelines.

Regarding the source of the infection - it is, in my view, too soon to point the accusing finger. Yes, the strain of the virus is the same as that in use at Pirbright and, circumstantially, this leads to suspicion. But Guildford is not very far from Gatwick Airport and the possibility that it was imported via that route should surely not yet be discounted.

Please understand, I am not suggesting this F&M outbreak is of no consequence. Clearly it is and potentially it could become worse. Let's hope and pray it doesn't. Meanwhile at least let's treat it with reasoned perspective.

It seems unlikely we shall ever know exactly how F&M got from Pirbright to the infected farms. The H&S Executive has produced a vague enough report to enable individuals to escape blame although it does seem virtually certain that Pirbright was the source.

The main priority now must be to ensure there is no further spread. Todays Telegraph suggests another 20 farms are under suspicion but whether this is realistic or more media hype I can't say. The apparently faultless record of the unfortunate victims of the disease, unlike the 2001 scenario, has surely limited the likelihood of many more cases. But not all the facts may yet be in the public domain.

If, on the other hand, the outbreak is perceived to be under control, it is a matter or urgency that most of the UK is released from movement restrictions. Scotland has already unilaterally released its farmers from restrictions and apart from the far south east of England the same should apply to the rest of the country. If there are good reasons why this should not happen we should be told.

For the disruption and economic damage that would occur by extending the period of nationwide movement restriction would far outweigh the cost of the outbreak itself. To avoid a catastrophe becoming an industry disaster DEFRA must act now. If it does not, it had better provide some pretty convincing reasons.

I'm kicking myself for being so smug a couple of weeks ago. I really should know better. Back then I boasted about harvest progress and said we had combined all that was fit. I was relaxed about the two thirds of our wheat and all of our spring beans still to be gathered.

Well, I'm not so relaxed now. Not a wheel has turned on this farm for two weeks and the last few days have been more like November than August. Wheats that were bright and standing now look grey and are leaning. Beans that had green stalks two weeks ago are now black and ready to combine.

Meanwhile I have been tipping out inches of rain from my measuring pot each morning and the wind last night must have shelled out some of the wheat that is now rotten ripe.

The forecast is a bit better for the weekend but at present rain is driving against the office window. I heard today that wheat is up to £150/t for November. But high prices aren't much good if the stuff is still out on the field.

While most of the population sit on sandy beaches and dangle their toes in azure seas, here or abroad, we are harvesting wheat again. I'm not complaining. I'm just glad we've been able to get at it after all the rain.

Actually, our shared combine was out on Saturday gathering for the most enthusiastic member of our informal group. The moisture was 33% I understand. Sunday was a bit better. By the afternoon wheat had dried down to 24%. Now its our turn and grain is coming into the barn at a slightly more manageable 20%.

Its not pretty. Virtually every grain has shot so both weight and quality will be pretty ordinary. But we're keeping it separate from stuff gathered earlier in August, once its been through the drier, in the hope that it will have a good enough spec to be accepted against the contracts made many months ago at prices much lower than those ruling now. With luck, the unsold heap harvested in good conditions might be worth a premium.

That, anyway is the hope. Must dash now. Got to take my turn running the drier.

Surprisingly, I haven't heard the words in my headline used to describe the current situation in our industry. But if you include pigs and poultry under "horn" I think you will agree, it sums it up perfectly.

The phrase, or its opposite - Up Horn, Down Corn - dates back, of course, to the days before farming was supported by governments in the interests of guaranteed food supplies and consumer price stability. It reflects the fact that free markets always swing from surplus to shortage and back again and that when arable is profitable livestock is not and vice versa.

Whether that was what world governments and their economic advisers intended when they adopted the systems of free trade and globalisation is not clear. Whether they thought far enough ahead to a time like the present, when demand for arable commodities for food and energy is soaring, is even more uncertain. All they said was - there may be some price volatility.

Whatever the truth of the matter we have arrived at a point in the worlds economic cycle in which shortages are now a reality and, according to an Icelandic academic speaking at a conference today, the world faces the need to produce as much food in the next fifty years as it did in the previous 10,000.

Meanwhile Britain's policies have led to a significant reduction in our food self sufficiency. Do we all agree that those elected to govern us have got it wrong? Do they realise it yet? How will they respond?

Why is it that pigeons prefer freshly drilled seedling rape to thick stands of well established self sown plants on rape stubbles harvested a few weeks ago? There are any number of the latter around here, waiting to be ploughed and drilled with wheat for next year, on which the predators would do no harm at all.

But no. They'd much rather pick at the tiny two leaved, vulnerable rape plants we've drilled for harvesting next year. And despite using several bangers and flags to supposedly frighten them away I am spending hours each day trying to chase them off our crops until they are properly established.

A nice rain would help. The topsoil into which the rape seed has been drilled is very dry and seeds would grow faster and be less vulnerable to the pigeons with a bit more moisture. It would help keep the birds away as well because they don't like getting their feet wet and muddy.

So, a nice warm inch of night rain would be ideal. But none is forecast for the next few days.

Re-reading the above makes me realise that non farmers must think our industry is bonkers. All summer we've been complaining about too much rain. Now, after only a couple of weeks of fine weather, we want some more. But that's farming for you!

Isn't it time for DEFRA to be humanely slaughtered and incinerated to stop it spreading yet more catastrophe's across UK agriculture?

Virtually everything it has touched since it came into being five years ago it has messed up.

The catalogue, which is by no means comprehensive, includes an abject performance on encouraging the production of bio-fuels (despite its misleading claims to the contrary) leaving the UK light years behind most other countries. A disastrous run-down in our food self-sufficiency so that now, as that irresponsible policy begins to be seen in its true light, Britain is increasingly reliant on imports from dubious sources. The fiasco that its Rural Payments Agency made of single farm payments which is still not resolved on a number of farms. And now Foot & Mouth disease for the second time in six weeks.

Not only did the disease escape from one of its own facilities but in its indecent, politically inspired, haste to show how much cleverer Gordon Brown and the current management are compared to the 2001 lot it has compounded the disaster on many farms.

Only in this country, it seems, is such incompetence rewarded by high salaries, secure jobs and political popularity. There's something cockeyed somewhere.

As an arable farmer it's difficult to know what to say to those who keep livestock except that you have my deepest sympathy.

It hasn't exactly been a vintage year for crops, what with the spring drought and the summer deluge but at least prices have risen to help compensate. However, arable problems pale into insignificance beside Foot & Mouth, Blue Tongue and in case you'd forgotten, Avian Flu, all in a few months.

This year's catalogue of farming problems has been of Biblical proportions and you wonder what might happen next. What makes it worse is the helplessness we all feel and not knowing what to do to make it better. If ever there was a time for the whole of agriculture to stick together and try to help one another this must be it.

We've finally started lifting sugar beet today. British Sugar would probably have liked us to start last week so we were ready to deliver when the Cantley factory opened on Monday. But the land was too hard and dry and in any case we hoped for a few more days of growth to increase yields.

The half inch of showery rain we've had since has at least softened the top few inches of soil and the roots are lifting easier than they would have last week. But yields look as disappointing as we expected them to be. I'm guessing because nothing has gone off to the factory yet but I would doubt that we are lifting more than 20t/ac (50t/ha).

Not that this is a surprise given the way crops have looked all summer. But it's a long way short of the 70t/ha that British Sugar itself says is necesarry for viability. Later lifted crops may be a bit better as they continue to put on weight through the autumn but it's already clear that we'll make a substantial loss on beet this year.

Somehow, if British Sugar wants to secure supplies beyond next year, they will have to find some more money for beet. If they don't a lot of previously committed growers looking at the comparitive profitabilty of other crops are likely to change to oil seed rape instead.

Driving round the farm the other morning to check how the rape was doing (and whether predatory pigeons are still after it) I passed through a sharp shower. As it cleared, there ahead was one of the most beautiful rainbows I have ever seen. It was sharply defined against the dark cloud beyond and its spectrum of colours were spectacular.

I wished I'd had a camera with me - or perhaps a spade. For one end of it came to earth in the middle of the rape field. Did that indicate a pot of gold as I was told as a child? Of course not. But the crop certainly has more promise of profit than for several years as prices for next year hold steady so there is reason for some optimism.

Further on I disturbed three roe deer grazing a wheat stubble. We've seen more deer on the farm in the last twelve months than ever before. They had done extensive damage to cereal crops that was clear from the combine seat. Moreover we've arranged for a friend who is fully licensed to do so to thin out the population this autumn.

But the build-up of the wild deer population across southern Britain must create the possibility of uncontrollable foci of F&M and/or Blue Tongue. Don't get me wrong. I love to see a few deer about the place. But they are not all good news and I for one would advocate converting some of them into venison.

After the horrors of a wet harvest then delays to autumn work because of dry soils and hard clods its satisfying to see freshly drilled winter rape and cereals coming up and looking good. We may not yet have finished with slug and other problems and there is still a long way to go to harvest but the start of a new crop year always stimulates me.

Like many others this year we decided to min-till our autumn seedbeds rather than plough them. This was partly for economic reasons, partly environmental in that a lot less fossil fuel is used, but also because it kept the best soil into which to plant seeds on top and avoided turning over the summer saturated stuff beneath.

If ever there was a right year for min-till systems this has been it. The few fields I have seen that have been ploughed prior to drilling looked like liver - shiny and dark with blacker than usual furrows - and quickly dried into rock hard lumps that then had to be expensively broken down into a tilth. OK, min-till may not always be quite as tidy as burying trash with a plough but its paid off this year and as I say, the crops that are emerging after it are looking OK so far.

Three weeks ago I was bemoaning the poor sugar beet crop we had just started lifting, predicting significant losses for growers and telling British Sugar they should, despite EU sugar reform and terms already negotiated, raise the price for next year if they wanted to secure supplies.

Well, it seems they read my blogs. Because yesterday news arrived that the price for this year will be guaranteed at a minimum of £20/t including any deliveries surplus to quota. For quota beet the expectation is that the average will be about £24/t. This represents an increase of almost £5/t compared with previous expectations. Furthermore British Sugar is considering issuing additional contract tonnage to replace what it has lost through growers not returning contracts.

Isn't it wonderful what can be done when there are alternative crops to grow that suddenly look more profitable than sugar beet? Notwithstanding all the restrictions imposed by Brussels that used to "tie their hands" the monopoly processor has found it possible to improve its offer even after last winters "binding" contract agreement. British Sugar has exploited the fact that beet has been comparatively profitable for many years and growers have had to put up with its take-it-or-leave-it attitude. Now the boot is on the other foot and it feels good.

Whether yesterdays increase will be enough to persuade growers who had already decided to give up growing beet next year or the year after to reverse their decision, only time will tell. It is, after all, a one-off arrangement for 2008/9 enabling British Sugar to revert to previous prices should the value of wheat and rape fall significantly. Meanwhile growers will enjoy the novel experience of British Sugar dancing to their tune rather than the other way round.

It is almost beyond belief that it has taken so long for respected scientists to accept the need to control badger numbers. That feeling is exacerbated by the fact that TB in cattle has cost the nations taxpayers in the region of £1billion, never mind the losses and heartache suffered by livestock farmers. Let us hope that, finally, the government will have the courage to bite the bullet and do what is recommended. Although farmers will have to be prepared for the public reaction against killing what are seen as beautiful furry creatures.

Back in the 1950's and '60's a concerted campaign run by the Ministry of Agriculture assisted by local vets succeded in eliminating TB from Great Britain. Herds were tested on a regular basis and reactors removed and slaughtered. I was milking cows at the time and well remember the sense of achievement when we at last had a few clear tests. The main motivation was public health for it was accepted that infected milk had spread TB to consumers.

Then pasteurisation was virtually universally adopted for milk suppled to consumers - a process which eliminated the disease. Public health authorities relaxed believing the TB problem was sorted. They reckoned without the recent immigration into Britain of people from other countries whose standards were not as high as ours and TB infection in humans is now significant again.

The other change that affected livestock was the ban, in 1973, of badger digging and hunting. During the earlier campaign badger numbers were controlled by these practices and any TB problems had little influence on clearing it from cattle. But suddenly badgers had no predators. Their numbers increased exponentially; they lived much closer together and passed on disease to one another; and as farmers know to their cost, passed it on to cattle as well.

As regular readers of Farmers Weekly will know I am in the habit of leading occasional study tours to look at farming in other countries. For the last few years my wife and I have headed up two trips per year - one short and one longhaul. For 2008 we have made similar plans. A ten day tour of Spanish farming will begin on March 12th and a fifteen day trip across the mid west of America starts on May 18th.

In Spain we will spend the first few days with my friend John Shropshire who runs G's near Ely and is probably the biggest salads and vegetable supplier to Britain’s supermarkets. To provide all year round continuity for his customers John has acquired a substantial acreage near Murcia and he personally will be there to entertain us and show us round.

Driving round the rape fields again this morning with my gun (we have more pigeons than for years) I was struck once more by the beauty of autumn leaves. Some have fallen into colourful piles under the trees that bore them; others cling to the branches waiting for the next breeze to blow them off. All exhibit wonderful autumn colours; reds, browns and yellows, in various shades. I felt how fortunate I was to be able to enjoy them at such close quarters.

My feelings of well-being were enhanced by the fact that early drillings of winter wheat are looking well and that more recent drillings (after sugar beet) are just emerging. We plan to plant a few extra acres when more beet have been lifted in a few days time. But otherwise we are well up to expectations with our autumn work.

Funny, isn't it, how you can have such an awful year of weather and yet forget the droughts and the floods and the dreadful harvest and the poor yields when you have one season as ideal as this autumn is proving. And having wondered a few months ago why you took up such a frustrating profession all thoughts of packing up are banished by a morning like this.

I have walked several fields of oil seed rape during the last few weeks. Some were our own, some belonged to other people who had invited me to assist with their seasonal vermin control. The consistent thing about what I have observed is the inconsistency of plant stands and vigour. Now I see from Andrew Blake's article in this weeks FW (p47) that this is not a Norfolk thing but is much more widespread.

On this farm, for example, we used two systems to establish our rape crops. Both could be described as min till. One involved cultivating the topsoil then conventionally drilling into it. I suspect with this system some seeds may have been drilled too deep. In any event the result (on one field) is patchy with some plants well developed and others seemingly not wanting to grow. For the record, another field treated exactly the same has a full and even plant although not as vigorous as I would like.

The second system we used involved one pass with a cultivator and air drill with the seeds being scattered behind fleet cultivations and little attempt to cover them. To be honest, it looked a bit untidy when it was first done and I was worried about it. Now, however, those fields look better than those more conventionally drilled with well established plants and few patches apart from those eaten by pigeons (that are a huge problem in this area this year).

But this week (while on vermin control) I stood on a neighbours field where the same cultivator drill had been used. There was barely a crop and those plants that were there were stunted and hardly surviving. I suspect my neighbour will have to pull it up and replant with a spring variety.

The question is - why? Rape of the same varieties, drilled at the same seed rate on consecutive days using the same equipment, into similar land, following winter wheat, should look more or less the same - shouldn't it? Can anyone provide an answer? We need to know to try to avoid the same thing happening next year.

In Brussels last week I was anxious to update myself on the progress of the EU's planned changes to pesticides policy. You may remember that a few months ago we were warned we could be forced to leave wide unsprayed headlands, notify neighbours whenever we got the sprayer out and accept much tighter restrictions on the use of chemicals.

Then, a few weeks ago, news filtered out that the most stringent of these proposals had been rejected and that we could probably live with what was left. What was the real situation, I wondered? For I was aware that the proposals had still not completed their complicated process of ratification.

Well, as I now understand the situation, National Action Plans to limit pesticide use and to improve application are still part of the proposed legislation. Here in the UK, of course, we have the Voluntary Initiative which covers the same areas. The likelihood, I am told, is that this will become compulsory.

The much wider unsprayed field boundaries originally called for have disappeared but the banning of all "hazardous" substances is still there. This would mean that a safety factor of 2000 to 1 would be ignored if such a substance is contained within the product and would, for instance, rule out such sprays as Mancazeb and Gluphosinate.

At a most enjoyable Christmas lunch provide by Dow AgroSciences yesterday a group of us were told about a relatively new and growing threat to crop farmers. According to the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) counterfeit chemicals, mostly made in China where there are some 2,700 spray producers, are finding their way, via various routes but often through the Ukraine to western Europe.

It has been estimated that between 5% and 7% of the ag chems on sale across the EU and by implication, Britain are fake. They should not be confused with so called "black can" products that are usually genuine out of patent sprays that can often be bought cheaper than branded products. The fakes might not even be the products they claim to be; they may be a dilute version of the product; they may be some other liquid or powder altogether; they will almost certainly not have legal labels or safety instructions meaning that the user has no redress if crops or personnel are harmed.

I wince every time I write out a cheque for ag chems and try to keep the costs under strict control. Having always dealt with reputable suppliers I am not aware that we have ever been offered such products but if this is a growing problem I shall, in future, kerb my enthusiasm for a cheap deal if I have any suspicion I am buying counterfeits. The risks are too great.

I have just read a report that Lord Rooker has said the government is fed up with paying out millions of pounds each year to compensate livestock farmers whose animals get TB, or words to that effect. Further, that farmers will soon have to stand all the costs of TB themselves.

Old and cynical as I am I can hardly believe it. That a government whose inaction because of fear of badger groups and public opinion could drop such a bombshell into the lap of the livestock industry beggars belief. And to do so only a few days after Sir David King, the governments excellent chief scientist, came out with a report that stated clearly there could be no effective control of TB in the national herd until badger numbers are drastically reduced.

Presumably Rooker was told to soften up the industry for such a move because of the budget cuts being imposed on DEFRA, a department that has messed up almost everything it has touched and whose staff bonuses and pensions remain unaffected.

I can only record how unjust I think this proposal is and hope it is withdrawn. For the only related initiative farmers might welcome paying for would be to cull the badgers. Meanwhile, if Rookers plan goes ahead it will drive even more vital UK food producers out of business.

I know I am not alone in being concerned at increasing numbers of rabbits this year. Like the rat population they have benefited from a series of mild winters and few casualties from cold weather and now they are everywhere. We poison rats around the farmyard on a regular basis and have kept them down to manangeable proportions. But there are still plenty out in banks and hedges ready to infest buildings if we get a cold spell. And although we shoot rabbits at night whenever we can, effectively controlling their numbers often seems like a lost cause.

So, I was interested to hear of an American device, now available in the UK, that might help to control all troublesome rodents. Last week I went to see it demonstrated.

Called a Rodenator it consists of what looks like a giant oxy-acetaline welding gun with rubber tubes attaching it to canisters of propane and oxygen. The nozzle of the gun is placed into a burrow (or rat hole); the adjacent holes are pushed in and sealed with a spade; then the mixed gas consisting of 3% propane and the rest oxygen is turned on for about 45seconds, or more if the warren is a big one. After a suitable period the gas supply is turned off and a button is pressed to activate a battery powered spark plug which explodes the gas in the tunnel.

The idea is to destroy the burrow (or rats nest) but any "residents" are destroyed as well. It is simple and safe to use, so long as the rules are followed (despite delays in granting it a Health and Safety certificate). And from the demonstration I saw it looks like it does the job for which it is intended.

I was once called a “boring old fart” by a lady who disagreed with something I’d said. Fortunately, she reviewed her judgement later when it became clear I was right (I would say that wouldn’t I?) and we’ve been good friends since. But I’m in danger of attracting similar comments as I repeat unpopular opinions.

It’s mainly the warning that while arable farming seems set for at least one good year and maybe two, there’s a real chance that profits could decline sharply after that. My reason for returning to the subject is that I recently sat in on a discussion which attempted to define what might happen to costs over the next few years. I’ve also been reading a special edition of HSBC’s Taking the Pulse publication that seems to confirm my thoughts.

The discussion on costs included individuals who buy inputs for a large number of farms and several thousand acres. They research the market on a daily basis and are in close touch with likely trends.

The consensus was that whereas 35% N fertiliser had been bought for use this year at around £145/t, by 2010 it could well cost £245/t. Crop protection products (for combinable crops), which would this year cost about £175/ha would probably be at least £200/ha in two years time.

Wages would certainly increase by the equivalent of or more than inflation and even with min till cultivations being adopted more widely it was likely the cost of labour would rise by up to £15/ha during the two years. Machinery and fuel were more difficult to assess but the odds are they will go up by at least a similar percentage as labour and possibly a great deal more.

And then there’s rent, or rental equivalent if it refers to contract farming. Land agents, on behalf of landowners (and themselves, of course) have been scattering demands for rent reviews around like confetti in eager anticipation of substantial rises on the back of higher commodity prices. But like some farmers they have omitted to include those higher costs in their calculations.

According to the pundits in the group I was with, even if the grain market stays as strong as it is now, yields will need to increase by around 15% to maintain viable margins. Furthermore, this will have to be achieved with fewer inputs of ferts and sprays because they will be too expensive. The next target, they said, should be profitability without subsidies when Single Farm Payments disappear in 2012 – according to current information.

And as the HSBC economist said, there’s one other joker in the pack. During recent stock market volatility the managers of hedge funds have been desperate to find homes for the pension and other cash that comes to them for investment every day. They’ve put some of it into commodities and caused some of the unprecedented daily lurches in futures prices. If stock markets regain stability this ephemeral investment might stop and prices could fall.

David Richardson - column from 22 Feb issue of Farmers Weekly

Yesterday the office phone rang at about 12.30pm and on the other end was this bright young lady. At least she sounded bright. "We owe you a load of Urea to complete your order" she said. "Would it be OK if we delivered it today?" I replied that it would if the lorry could be here before 4.30pm because after that I had other things to attend to. "That will not be a problem, sir" she said and hung up.

Four thirty came and went. Then five thirty and still no sign of the lorry. Then the phone rang again. "I'm about ten miles from you" said the lorry driver, "how do I find the farm?"

Hang on, I said. I told your girl you would have to be here an hour ago if you wanted to be unloaded this afternoon. You're too late. Come at seven tomorrow morning and I will unload you. To which the driver said he knew nothing about the timing but agreed to arrive in the farmyard early today.

He clearly then rang his transport manager, because a few minutes later the phone rang again. "I'm sorry sir", said the transport manager, "I knew nothing of the arrangement to be with you by 4.30. But is there any way you could unload the lorry because I have a full day planned for it tomorrow and I shall lose a lot of money if it isn't emptied tonight?"

I complained about them last autumn and now I'm being driven barmy by them this spring. Keeping pesky pigeons off oil seed rape is dominating my life at present. And the size of the flocks is enormous. You set off bangers and gas guns and put up scarers but all that happens is that the birds flutter over to the neighbours rape fields until your back is turned and when his banger bangs they flutter back again.

With rape seed worth £340/t next autumn you can't afford to give up. But chasing around the district with a gun and letting off cartridges to frighten them is a soul destroying business. And inviting local shooters to come and knock a few of them over for fun is counter productive. All they do with their decoys is attract more members of the blue feathered fraternity. Nor can you rely on the shooters to be there in the early mornings when the pigeons first drop into the crops. Having relied on a couple of locals and seen how ineffective they have been I think we'll ban them in future.

The trouble is we've had such mild winters for the last few years and there is so much food around for them to eat that many more have survived than previously. And the flocks bothering me now will shortly start to incubate more clutches of eggs. So what can be done?

When I was a boy "March dust was worth a guinea an ounce". In other words dry land allowed early drilling of spring crops and maximum growing time. But when I was walking behind a sugar beet drill this morning, the earliest we have ever started drilling them, I was more concerned about whether there was enough moisture in the topsoil to germinate the seeds.

OK, there will probably be rain at the weekend and my worries for that particular field will be over. But will there be enough to germinate later drillings? Or are we in for a repeat of last year when only the first ones grew at the right time with the rest waiting for rain that didn't come until June?

I know I am trying to farm this year on the basis of last years weather and that is always a risky thing to do. After all, the ability to get onto land this early should be a good thing according to ancient lore as stated above. But the climate is different these days and maybe a different pattern is establishing itself. We've had a very dry February - a month that usually "fills dykes" and who knows what the rest of March and April will bring?

In any event I think we will push on with beet drilling as fast as possible just in case its like last year. And having said that, if past experience of predicting the weather is any guide, it will probably now rain for the next six weeks. That is what is called "Sod's Law".

Once again I must apologise for my absence from this medium for the last couple of weeks. I've been away in Spain leading a party of Farmers Weekly readers on a study tour of agriculture and horticulture. It's well over twenty years since I travelled through some of the same areas. Last time was as the country was joining the European Union in 1984 and both the national economy and the farming are noticeably more prosperous. EU membership has done Spain no harm at all.

But if my recent experience is any guide internet technology has not kept pace. We stayed in four different 4star hotels across the south of Spain from Murcia to Seville and I was unsuccessful at plugging into FWi in all of them. I know I'm not the sharpest tack in the box when it comes to computers but at one stage had three hotel technicians around me trying to get me hooked up and they failed. They eventually shrugged their shoulders in the characteristic way that Spaniards do and said "Sorry, we 'ave a problem with the system. Maybe it will work tomorrow or the next day". So, I lugged my laptop all round Spain and still couldn't contribute a blog or two. But I did try.

I'll write more detail on what we saw in FW but the lasting impression I gained was that Spain has used its free sunlight to develop and expand the production of fruit and vegetable crops that either can't be produced in northern Europe or cost much more in energy terms to do so. As in the UK they are employing huge numbers of immigrants, from Morocco as well as Poland, Romania and so on, to act as labourers.

We managed to get the last of this years sugar beet drilled yesterday afternoon. I was thankful because the forecast for today was terrible (as it happened it didn't rain until mid afternoon) and it is long past the date when they should be in the ground. Indeed beet crops are said to loose 3t/ha every week that drilling is delayed beyond April 10th. And the longer growing season you can give them the higher the potential yield.

That said, those crops that were put in in February and early March are not looking too good by all accounts. The frost and snow over Easter were just what they didn't need and plant stands have been adversely affected - partly by the weather and partly by predators, like skylarks, pigeons and mice.

The worrying thing for British Sugar is that many growers vowed after last years poor yields and low prices that they would give the crop one more chance before deciding whether to stop growing. In other words, if they got a good yield this year (over 70t/ha was the implication) they might carry on. If not, they would take the EU compensation for not growing beet and change to oil seed rape or some other break crop.

Well, prospects already look less than rosy for this year because of late drilling problems and I suspect a lot of growers are thinking this might be their last crop of beet. Its a pity because most farmers enjoy growing them. But not when wheat and rape are so much easier and now more profitable.

The FW study tour of the American Mid West has just passed through Illinois and Iowa and are at present in Minnesota. When we called in at the Chicago Board of Trade a few days ago there was little excitement in the open outcry trading pits compared with what had gone on there for the last few months. Prices were relatively static as traders adjusted to levels twice as high as they had been twelve months before. It was a bit like home really except that this was where new levels were established that affected values across the rest of the world.

 There was much more activity in the oil trading pits where crude peaked at $135/barrel this week. The knock-on effect this will have on fertiliser costs and virtually everything else needed to produce food had not yet transferred itself to the agricultural sector of the market - but it will.

As we travelled north and west from Chicago we called on several farmers. Most grew corn (maize) and beans (soya) and not much else. All complained that the spring had been wet and cold and that land work was at least three weeks behind normal. They didn't define what this might mean in loss of yield but reductions there will be compared with optimum planting dates. But its been dry enough this week to get on the land and big tractors and huge drills kicked up clouds of dust on fields either side of the road as our coach traversed the never ending black soils.

When our Countryside Stewardship Scheme ended after ten years we transferred to the Environmental Stewardship Scheme that succeded it. It's almost the same as the Higher Level Scheme and pays out a similar amount. In any case, you can't participate in ES and HLS, it has to be one or the other. The administration of ES is by Natural England.

The other day we had a note from the Eastern regional director of NE to the effect that there had been a hold-up in producing the latest version of the ES handbook and it would not be available until August. But don't worry, the note assured scheme participants, when it and the new annual forms arrive they will be easy to complete (we shall see) and they should be returned as soon as possible and in any case by the deadline of Sept 30 .

However, if we wished we could complete the old style forms to get them out of the way before August, which "is often a holiday period so may not fit in with personal arrangements".

Has he ever been on an arable farm?

Oliver Walston phoned me a few weeks ago. "Will you be growing sugar beet next year? he enquired. "Good question", I replied, "we haven't decided yet. We're still hoping British Sugar's offer will increase. Meanwhile we are hanging onto our unsigned contract".

Oliver said that was his position too and asked what were we going to do about it. I commented that I was getting to old for campaigning but would support him if he initiated one. In the event, as everyone now knows, he arranged a meeting of growers on a farm near Peterborough for yesterday morning. And yes, as promised, I was there.

About 300 beet growers turned up representing some 14% of British Sugar's tonneage. It was a vivid illustration of how much farmers care about sugar beet and how unhappy they are at British Sugar's attitude to pricing. Most there, I suspect, and certainly all who spoke, said they enjoyed growing the crop that had done them well in the past. But they were not prepared to grow it at a loss to feather British Sugar's already well lined nest.

A number pointed out that a base price of £24/t next year would probably be worth less than the £20 we received last year because costs had increased so much and were still increasing. Others told how they had reduced their acreage of beet last year and planted rape instead and significantly increased their profits as a result.

Having been a dedicated sugar beet grower for most of my life I do not consider myself much of an expert on oil seed rape. Moreover the problems we had keeping pigeons off the crops last winter (not always successfully) persuaded me that yields might be disappointing and income below budget.

Well, we managed to get about half our acreage combined by last evening, when we ran out of fit crops just before it rained, and I am agreeably surprised at the results. According to the yield monitor on the combine most of what we have done so far, all of the variety Astrid and all under 9% moisture, has yielded between five and six tonnes per hectare.

I gather from other FW correspondents that this is quite respectable. Maybe its because we have grown it on land that has not been cropped with rape for many years. Certainly it indicates how hardy the crop is despite sustained predator attack. Like I said, we still have half the crop to harvest. But if it does as well as what we've done so far I shall be satisfied - particularly as we sold most of it forward before the price dropped.

It also hardens my feelings towards growing many sugar beet next year at prices currently on the table. Good luck to the NFU in the re-opened negotiations. But I shall not hesitate to drill more rape in a few weeks time if a significant improvement in the British Sugar offer is not achieved.  

Congratulations to Farmers Weekly for spearheading the campaign to "Save Our Sprays". It is,of course, unbelievable that the EU could come up with proposals to ban most of the crop protection products we use on farms at a time like this. But common sense is in short supply in Brussels, it seems, so we must do all we can to muster public opinion to point out to MEP's and Commissioners how daft and dangerous their plans are.

Indeed it is vital that consumers are pursuaded to join on our side as well. If the group of organisations that have grouped together to try to reverse the proposals can spread their message to those who buy what we produce, with the undoubted fact that if it went ahead the price of food would rise even higher and that even the availability of food might be at risk, we might gain some powerful allies.

There are those in politics and farming who say there's no need to worry; that the proposals will never come to fruition and even if they do only a handful of products will be lost. To my mind that attitude is far too relaxed. It is not what the draft legislation says. Until this threat to our production and our livelihood is removed we must take it seriously and fight it all the way. So, support the FW petition, for the good of your customers as much as yourself.

I grew up in an era when wheat was seldom fit to combine until at least the fourth week in August. So its not in my nature or part of my history to panic about lack of harvest progress well before the middle of the month. But earlier ripening varieties, climate change and sky high energy costs are making me very uneasy.

Harvest 2008 started pretty well. We got most of the respectable yielding rape into the barn at under 9% moisture, thereby keeping drying costs to a minimum. But then the weather changed. The last 25% of our rape is still out there blowing (and doubtless shelling out) in the wind between periods of rain.

Even more worrying - most of the wheat, which we haven't started yet, is fit to combine. Or at least it would be if it were dry enough. Patches of dark ears are appearing across some fields, indicating septoria that will reduce yields and quality. And if you look hard enough you can already find grains growing in some ears caused by a combination of ripeness and the warm moist weather.

A harvest that, a couple of weeks ago, looked quite promising has very quickly changed into one in which we will have to snatch crops whenever the combine will work and then face horrendous drying costs to salvage what quality we can. In fact its beginning to feel like last year all over again - unless, of course, the forecasters are wrong and we get three weeks of scorching weather from now on. Wouldn't that be nice. 

There can be no doubt that Prince Charles is sincere and means well. His generous support of farming charities and small farmers in particular bears witness to the fact and our industry must be grateful for that. But when it comes to matters scientific and practical he confuses his costly lifestyle choice with the reality faced by most other people. And he is guided in his statements on such matters by a small but influential bunch of friends.

His recent outburst against GM crops was clearly inspired by such friends who doubtless believe what they tell him but whose rationale is already being found to be flawed. After only a few months of higher food prices many consumers who were previously prepared to pay a sizeable premium for organic food are deserting it in droves. Fashion in food will only stand a limited amount of pressure, it seems, and that limit has been reached for many. Perhaps they are also getting the message that organic farming cannot feed the world.

But Charles is not completely wrong. While holding the opposite view on the potential, indeed necessity, of GM crop varieties that may be able to tolerate the challenges of climate change, I share his concern that the developments are dominated by huge international conglomerates who will doubtless exploit their monopoly positions whenever possible. To counteract this potential abuse of economic power it seems to me there is an urgent need for governments to increase their investment in GM research to ensure outcomes are for the public good, not just the shareholders of big corporations. 

The Prince would do far more to help mankind if he promoted that idea than he is by calling for all such scientific progress to be banned.

I write this with mixed emotions. On one hand I am intensely grateful that we finished combining about 9 days ago and that our crops are in the barn and in no danger of flooding. On the other, I feel almost guilty at our good fortune while others around the country are suffering severe problems - both emotional and financial.

What can I do? Not a lot really, except to express my deepest sympathy and hope for better weather soon. As it happens I need it too - to get next years rape drilled. The optimum time for drilling is slipping away and it won't be long until it will be too late for viable establishment before the winter. With expensive seed and fertiliser paid for and sitting in the shed I can foresee the possibility of losses stretching to next year at this time.

That said, we are, of course, better off than many. But these are worrying times. 

I suppose farmers should be grateful that the powers that be at Defra have temporarily suspended the rule forbidding farmers from going onto waterlogged land to harvest crops.

It was originally imposed for environmental reasons and to protect soil from erosion and run-off. Good enough reasons on the face of it, but do the officials who write such regulations not realise that no farmer in his right mind would venture onto fields as wet as many are now if it were not absolutely necessary; that they would only do so to salvage something from disaster; that farmers are only too well aware of the long term and costly damage done to land by running over it with heavy tackle in such conditions?

Such rules are unnecessary and constitute part of the regulatory straightjacket that annoy our industry so much. They should be suspended permanently. For as this harvest weather has demonstrated in a year like this when their provisions might be most relevant they have to be relaxed anyway in order to provide a chance to harvest crops - the culmination of a years work.

I read that Defra employs one civil servant per twenty farmers to administer Single Farm Payments alone. The Department could surely cull this excessive number and lots more who are engaged in the writing and policing useless rules. The savings could be devoted to things that really matter. 

I've spent the last few days rolling freshly drilled wheat. It's necessary to break the clods left after the drill and to try to inhibit slugs.

This must be one of the worst years ever for the slimy little vandals, which is hardly a surprise after all the rain. You don't even have to dig for them. They've eaten off most of the volunteer rape plants that grew behind the combine on some fields so it was clearly vital to spread slug pellets to protect the wheat seeds.

So, as with all the rape we have drilled this year, we have invested in Metaldehyde pellets on some of the wheat in the hope that combined with the rolling we can control the damage. It seems probable, according to our agronomist, that we will have to treat the fields again in a couple of weeks time.

He told us of neighbour who drilled his rape a few weeks ago and was then prevented from spreading slug pellets for a few days by heavy rain and had his entire crop wiped out. So the problem cannot be ignored.

Which makes the noises coming from water companies about Metaldehyde contamination all the more worrying. Apparently they are having trouble getting it out of water supplies and are calling for a ban on its use. Goodness knows where that would leave us if it happened.

But I understand there is growing evidence that most of the contamination is occuring in gardens and urban situations rather than farms. As often happens amateurs mess it up for professionals. But it does re-inforce the vital need for responsible use of the pellets on farms. As The Voluntary Initiative says "Always read the label" and do what it says. 

Defra's own statistics prove how irresponsible it was, earlier this year, to refuse to cull badgers. TB is spreading, not only among the UK cattle herd, which is expected to have over 40,000 cases this year with the number of herds affected up 19% on last year already, but among other animals and humans. And diseased badgers are irrevocably and clearly linked with the spread.

 Cattle farmers and the NFU are once again calling for a cull - in the interests of their cattle, of course, but also to stop TB infecting pets and people. There is also the increasing costs of compensation paid to farmers whose cattle have to be slaughtered. The credit crunch must surely make officials more careful with taxpayers money.

Rumours have been rife since the decision not to cull that Hilary Benn had been ready to go ahead with the only logical policy of reducing badger numbers but that he had been influenced by senior civil servants to change his mind because of their perceptions of public opinion. If his staff knew anything about farming he would be right to take their advice.

Sadly Defra's corporate image is like the blind leading the blind. Its about time they had some advisers and ministers who actually understood what they were doing. They had one in Jeff Rooker who had taken the trouble to learn about our industry. Now he's disappeared, probably in disgust at what he left behind. What a tragic mess.

Some of my best friends are organic farmers. I enjoy their company and relish our debates on their lifestyle choices but I don't agree with them.

Nevertheless I have always respected their right to farm the way they do and have often sampled their wares without fear of damage to my health. I have always believed they were sincere in their concerns for what minimal pesticide residues might do to consumers but have never been able to find convincing scientific evidence to support organic food as compared with that responsibly produced on conventional or integrated farms.

I have, however, been consistently sceptical of the claims made by the organic movement and extremely so about the genuineness of some imported so-called organic produce.

But now some organic farmers who have been in receipt of government grants to convert to organic production, faced with high costs and declining demand, have asked to be allowed to use non organic feedstuffs for their animals without permanently losing their organic status.

I am not, of course, saying such feed will harm either animals or consumers. But if it goes ahead, and I understand it has the backing of some of the most powerful organic institutions, it will completely undermine the entire ethos of organic food and destroy the credibility of its advocates arguments.

I sympathise with organic farmers as I do with any farmer who loses money. But if deserting high, if questionable, principles is the only way for them to survive I suggest they give up their organic illusions and re-join the real world. Its hard enough to make a living as an integrated (LEAF) farmer but at least we don't have the burden of supporting unsubstantiated claims about what we produce.

This time last year I was spending half my days chasing pigeons off oil seed rape crops. I was using loads of petrol, cartridges, bangers, rockets and so on every single day and it really got me down. However, much to my surprise and delight, when it came to harvest, we combined just short of five tonnes per hectare. So perhaps my daily drives round the rape fields were worthwhile.

This winter pigeon frightening has been much less onerous. The fact is, in common with most farmers in this region, because of the awful wet weather when we should have been planting we did not get the rape drilled until the middle of September last year and it never got properly established. It has clearly hated having wet feet all autumn and instead of growing away and looking like small cabbages, most of it seems to have virtually disappeared. At least thats what it looks like from the road and presumably from the air as well because most of the local pigeons are looking elsewhere for their food.

Needless to say I'm enjoying missing the daily pigeon patrol. But I am very concerned at the lack of much evidence of a crop and wondering what to do about it. I know that rape has amazing recovery powers but have we got sufficient plant stand to start with?

We walked the rape fields with our agronomist the other day and he told us not to be so pessimistic; that while we might need to redrill some areas the majority would probably be OK. I'm not so sure. But I will let you know in due course.

I heard a story the other day that I found almost unbelievable. It was told to me by a farmers son in his twenties and not long out of university who works in the agriculture industry but still mixes with friends who know nothing about farming.

A young lady of his acquaintance who loved animals had joined Compassion in World Farming. She had been persuaded by the propaganda subsequently sent to her that milking cows was cruel. That the twice daily ritual of drawing milk from their udders made cows miserable. Furthermore, that she could make the life of at least one animal more bearable by giving money to the organisation spreading the propaganda.

She had therefore, according to my young friend, sponsored a cow not to be milked. How much this had cost her I don't know. But I wondered if she had thought through the reasons why the cow existed in the first place. Or if she knew about distended udders and the pain that could cause. Or any one of a number of other questions obvious to those of us involved in farming but not to those who support CWF - including the possibility that it might be a big confidence trick.

You watch a programme like Jamie Oliver's about the high welfare enjoyed by British pigs and how it is better to eat home produced meat if you want to ensure tthe animal has had a good life and you think - Great, the message is getting through. Then you hear a story like this. And you think - there's a whole lot more education and reconnection still to do. 

After the longest and coldest winter for several years it was fairly predictable that spring would be later than usual. I've known years when we've had most of our spring drilling done by mid March. But our mainly heavy land has been far too cold and wet to carry a tractor with anything heavier than a fertiliser spreader mounted on it up to now and is only just beginning to dry sufficiently to think of making seed beds.

But the forecast for next week sounds much better and there is every prospect of being able to get on with spring work. If that turns out to be the case the modest delay in starting will not be disastrous and as long as the fine spell lasts several days we should be able to get most crops in during the almost optimum period.

My goodness, I'm sounding optimistic. That's not like me. Perhaps its because the crocusses are blooming, the daffodils bursting buds, the primroses on our banks are getting ready to make their annual show and the pussy willow is following katkins in confirming that spring is almost here. Oh yes, there is a heart beneath my crusty exterior. Its just that it isn't always obvious.

A seminar arranged by The Farmers Club at its HQ in London on Monday concluded that the introduction of GM crops to UK agriculture was necesarry and inevitable. Delegates were unanimous in believeing the technology must be one of the tools that will help farmers produce increased yields at prices affordable by consumers as food shortages begin to bite in the next few years. They were also convinced that such a development would pose no threat to human health or the environment.

Those present and participating included farmers, scientists, plant breeders and environmentalists. The general feeling throughout the seminar was that GM was a technology whose time had come. That whereas there were genuine concerns among consumers about the safety of such crops these had now almost disappeared except among extreme lobby groups. But it was felt important to persuade consumers that their previous media generated fears had been groundless and that they could now buy GM foods with confidence.

One way of doing this, it was suggested, was to publicise a booklet recently produced by Sense About Science entitled Making Sense of GM. It tackles all the issues and concerns head on and deals with them and explains them in language readily understood by lay people. Copies can be obtained from www.senseaboutscience.org

Near the town of Limpopo, about one and a half hours drive east of Pretoria, South Africa, there lives a farmer called Mike Bosch. His father was one of the first to leave Zimbabwe and re-settle elsewhere after that countrys' independence because he foresaw what has since happened there. He brought with him the nucleus of a herd of Beefmaster cattle - a cross between Herefords, Brahmans and Shorthorns established in America in 1954. Mike now runs their fine looking successors in a herd several hundred strong.

But one of the biggest problems of keeping cattle in hot country's is insects, especially ticks, that worry the cattle and reduce performance, quite apart from regular trips through dips or spray races necessary to protect the animals. 

Observing this and how wild birds land on cattle's backs in hot countries to eat the ticks, Mike wondered if it would be possible to breed a domesticated hen to do the job more comprehensively and efficiently. He crossed three indigenous African breeds, the Venda, the Ovambo and the Matabele on the basis that they should have the right instincts and be hardy. He then selected the hardiest of their offspring, which he hoped would be capable of surviving the rigours of South African weather and predators, and put them in the cattle pastures with only simple sheds for protection.

The result was a significant reduction in the tick problem enabling him to halve the number of cattle spray treatments and better growth rates. He continues to select ever hardier hens, perfecting the system and supplying birds to other African farmers. In addition he has built up a flock of 100,000 of the so called Boschveld hens which he keeps on a free range system selling their eggs at a substatial premium price.

Egg production is about two thirds of what would be expected from hens bred for maximum numbers. But the premium he gets means the light brown speckled hens are now more profitable than the cattle. Mike is a genuine innovator and original thinker. It was a pleasure and an education for the Farmers Weekly study tour of southern Africa to visit him.

One of the offshoot organisations of the ill fated Royal Show is the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth. Inspired by Prince Philip when he became the Queens Consort and reflecting his personal interest in and knowledge of agriculture it holds conferences in Commonwealth countries around the world and try's to help farmers in those countries wherever necessary. Next year the delegates will travel to Zambia for their get-together and The Princess Royal is expected to attend.

One of the villages they will visit is Mombeshi, about two hours drive from Lusaka. There they will be met by Anna Nawa, a tribal princess in her own right and an agricutural adviser, employed by the Zambian Ministry of Agricuture, to hundreds, if not thousands of small native farmers in the district.

But Anna is more than just an adviser, as the Farmers Weekly tour party visiting Zambia soon realised. She is a driven woman motivated to improve farming methods and enable the farmers to produce more and combat hunger. Her target is to raise yields by a factor of 4 so that the small farmers production matches the per hectare yields achieved by bigger Commercial farmers. She is making significant progress.

But she doesn't stop at that. She took us to a prison farm where she helps the Governor and the Farm Manager to teach the prisoners how to farm before they are released back to their villages. And she took us to a school where many of the lessons are farming related. The FW party were shocked and saddened to learn that almost 75% of the 1500 pupils were orphans - that one or more of their parents had died of Aids.

There were tears in our eyes as the entire school sang a song of welcome and a group of youngsters whose ages ranged from about 12 to 8 recited an animated poem about the dangers of Aids and how to avoid it. That such young children should be exposed to the problem seemed tragic.

We put our hands in our pockets and left Anna a donation to spend at the school. Then we went to Anna's modest house and had a traditional Zambian lunch under a tree in her garden. We left for our hotel in Lusaka with heavy hearts but inspired by what Anna was trying to achieve. The Princess Royal and the RASC cannot fail to be similarly impressed when they follow in our footsteps.

As I watched the weeks weather forecast last Sunday I was full of hope that the two periods of rain experts thought would cross the country - one on Tuesday and one on Thursday - would give our land the soaking it so desparately needed. Nitrogen applied to wheat weeks ago had never been washed in; the sugar beet had not all germinated and skylarks had been biting off many of those that had; spring rape drilled to replace failed winter crops had never had enough moisture for even germination either; and crops generally were beginning to look very ordinary.

But the rain on Monday evening amounted to about 3mm and never did more than dampen the surface of the soil. Tuesday was hot and dry and by lunchtime all signs of it had disappeared. Wednesday was another lovely day for tourists but equally unsuitable for farmers. And today, Thursday, the sun is shining brightly again here in Norfolk with hardly a cloud in the sky. That rain the forecasters promised may have helped farmers west of Cambridge but has not reached this part of East Anglia and we are becoming steadily more parched with yield potential for this year disappearing like dew off a dyke.

In London yesterday I met farmers from Northern Ireland, Wales and the west country and most were complaining about too much rain. On average, therefore, the UK is probably having a wonderful spring! But averages are misleading as the above illustrates. If only the weather gods could give us all the appropriate amount we would be happy. But when did that last happen?    

Smart suits and hairy tweeds mixed together in the corridors of power yesterday afternoon as the RSPB held a party at the House of Lords to mark the tenth anniversary of its Volunteer and Farmer Alliance. The hairy tweeds, by the way, were mainly worn by the volunteers who counted the birds - not the farmers on whose land they had done so. We had put on our best business suits for the occasion and it was difficult to tell some of us from the peers and MP's who turned up.

I am not a wholeherated fan of all that RSPB says and does as previous comments in FW and elsewhere may have made clear. But I did participate in the bird count a few years ago and was pleased the volunteers who did it identified 53 species on our land. They missed at least two that I saw a few days after they had completed their survey - Golden Plover and Grey Partridge of which we have a few pairs. So in reality we had 55 species of birds on our LEAF managed farm. The RSPB told me later they regarded 40 species as satisfactory on my type of holding.

My reason for getting involved was partly to satisfy myself that our habitats were OK and that our farming system was not harming wildlife. But if I'm honest I was also keen to have the RSPB's own confirmation that what we do here, which is unremarkable and comparable with many other farms, favours birds as well as production. I reasoned it would be much more difficult for the organisation to criticise what we do if their own evidence showed the opposite. 

Indeed, what I and 4,250 or so other farmers have done over the ten year period during which the V&F Alliance has been running is an example of the kind of voluntary approach Defra requires as an alternative to set-aside and to persuade it not to bring in yet another regulation.

Hilary Benn admitted, at the reception, that he had not yet made up his mind on that but he did concede that over the last 25 years farmers had restored or replaced some 80,000 miles of hedges. He went on to say that whether the set-aside replacement were to be voluntary or compulsory it is vital that wildlife protection and production agriculture work together in harmony. That's what I and others have been saying for years and what LEAF has preached since its inception. Perhaps Hilary Benn is beginning to understand our industry at last. Time will tell.

Because of production and print times for magazines I have to write my columns for Farmers Weekly several days ahead of publication. Having written and sent off the piece for the latest edition, in which I moaned about lack of rain and the damage I feared it was doing, it rained quite a lot for a few days. In fact we had nearly 30mm over the course of about a week and I was beginning to think I'd made a fool of myself (again!).

For there is no doubt the rain perked up the sugar beet and the winter wheat no end and they now look reasonable, if a little late. But one of my biggest concerns was the spring oil seed rape, drilled after I was forced to pull up failed winter rape. We had tickled the top and drilled the spring crop fairly shallowly into moist soil. But as I feared the long dry spell that followed was too much for it to survive, especially on heavy land where the tilth was cobbly.

So, we now have about three quarters of the acreage of spring OSR that looks OK (always provided I can keep the ruddy pigeons from eating it - its almost a full time job) but the other quarter is gappy and thin and clearly will never make a full crop now. As I suspected when I wrote that FW piece the seeds must have germinated and then died for lack of moisture.

So, that's two partial crop failures on the same land in the same year. And its no consolation to me that other farmers of my acquaintance, in the fens and in north Norfolk have had even less rain than we have so have even greater crop failures than I have. I just hope the fact that I have applied to take our Single Farm Payment in Euro's this year helps to make up the loss.

I honestly never thought it would be possible. But in this weeks (17July) Farmers Weekly on page 72 there is an article about an American inventer, Alvin Snaper, who claims to be able to dry grain on a combine as it is operating at a speed that is already approaching the capacity of todays big machines.

By harnessing waste heat from the engine alongside microwave technology he claims to be able to dry up to 10% of moisture out of grain in the four minutes it takes to pass through the mechanism at 36t/hour. And this is only a proptotype! The implication is that the rate could increase once the technology has been perfected.

The trouble is the inventer has run out of funds to complete the development. But surely an invention like that, if its genuine, would attract any number of investors - well, as many as there are major manufacturers of combines anyway.  And the likely cost of £37,000 per machine, on top of the price of the combine, looks reasonable to me. If, as I say, its not a send-up.

Wheat on this farm is seldom fit to combine before mid August. But when I rubbed out a sample on our first drilled field yesterday morning it was 16% moisture and looked like it would thresh. So, at lunchtime we made a start and it went well. According to the continuous flow weigher on the combine we gathered 87t off just under 20 acres (8ha) with grain at 76hl. A good result and better than I had expected.

Flushed with this success we decided to try the next field drilled last autumn. In the gateway it looked as fit as the first. But half way round the headland it was clear that the heavier land there had not allowed the grain to ripen as fast and we had to stop combining. We looked at two or three other fields to see if they were ready but, like the one we had just had to abort, ripening was variable.

We'll just have to wait a few more days. And fortunately, and I say this with fingers and toes crossed, the forecast for the east of England is improving after today and tomorrow.

 According to our local forecaster we can expect fine weather from Saturday onwards, probably for several days. Lets hope the met office has got it right this time and that we'll be able to harvest lots of grain that doesn't need drying. With values where they are we need to keep costs to a minimum as well as gather decent yields.

Believe it or not our wheats are still not fit to combine. Some are getting close but most have ears sticking straight up mixed in with those curled over like a shepherds crook. What's worse, we have fields where one end would go but the other end needs a week of sun. But if this fine weather continues some of those fields will have to submit to the cutter bar within a day or two, come what may.

At least we haven't been wasting the weather. We cut over thirty acres of second crop grass on Saturday. On Sunday we were able to make some of it into haylage for the horses and although a few spots of rain (about 9 I think) fell on the rest of the swathe yesterday afternoon, its practically fit to make hay today. As soon as the sun breaks through the clouds I'm off to turn it one more time so we can bale it this afternoon.

Why do we take the trouble to make haylage and hay? you may wonder. Well, we have a livery here with several disparate customers (mainly ladies) and some think their horses like haylage while others believe theirs like hay better. Its a bit like fashion. Some like big hats and mini skirts while others prefer long dresses or coulots. If there's one thing I've learned from a number of years in the horse/leisure business its that the customer is always right. So, we provide a choice. 

I see the sun's coming out. I had better be off on the turner.

I don't want to tempt fate by bragging about harvest progress and there's a lot more still to do. Further, the forecast for Thursday is wet again. However, I remain astounded by how much can be done in a short time by todays combines.

We are now about half way through our wheat acreage and waiting for the rest to come fit. I just hope next week is as favourable as the last few days.

Yields have been a bit variable - consistent with the conditions in the fields were drilled last autumn. Medium soils that went in dryish at the right time have done well - 10t+/ha. Heavier fields that were drilled when it was too wet have been disappointing. But they were always going to be after last years experience.

At least moistures have been reasonable - some down in the 15% range with maximum levels into the barn at no more than 18% - and drying costs will be contained. Which is just as well with oil prices rising again.

So, a reasonably satisfactory progress report. But it ain't over yet.

About an hour ago we finished combining our last field of winter wheat. August 24th is the earliest we have ever finished and under different circumstances that would have been the end of harvest. But this year we have an acreage of spring rape (drilled after much of the winter rape failed) and it is still a few days short of being fit to cut.

However, gathering the wheat has been the easiest for years. A lot of it came into the barn at under 14% and more than half has not nor will it need to be dried. Thanks goodness for that! At least its kept costs down for a crop that, if sold at current prices, would probably lose us £25 to £30/t. Will values rise as the marketing year progresses? Who knows? But we have stored alomost all of it in hope.

Last evening, in anticipation of the end of the wheat combining today and by way of a modest celebration, we had a joint of Dexter beef for supper - all in the interests of market research.

A young couple who are friends of ours wants to start a small herd of Dexter's (small in numbers as well as in size) and we have agreed to help by providing some of the grazing. The idea is to finish them and them and then market them as cut meat. The purpose of the supper was to assess the USP's of the breed.

They are small - consistent with the lighter meals we need to eat to lose weight. They live on grass - which means their welfare is as high as it can be and it makes them particularly "green". And the meat is delicious - as I can confirm from last evening meal. I reckon the young couple are onto a winner. I wished them luck and will help them all I can. 

When the last load of our grain came into the barn my late father used to say - "Anyone who hasn't finished harvest by now deserves to lose it". He wasn't being vindictive. It was meant as a joke. And despite the fact that we finished everything, including the spring rape, on Saturday evening I am much too sensitive to repeat his words this year because I am well aware that whereas we in the east have had the easiest harvest for a long time, those in the west and north haven't been so lucky and still have a fair bit to bring in.

But that doesn't mean I'm happy - Oh no. We are now desperate for some of that rain that's been falling on other parts of the country. Autumn cultivations are proving difficult and costly using tonnes of steel. A lot of the rape that's been drilled in the last few days has gone into clods and dust and won't germinate until we get a downpour. Early drillers of winter cereals, of which there are a few in this area, will find the same.

And the sugar beet, which need a great deal of moisture at this time of year, have gone to sleep. In other words the leaves have wilted and dropped to the ground and when we do get rain will use much of the energy (ie sugar) stored in the roots during the sunny summer to re-grow those leaves reducing their sugar content and value.

Tomorrow I shall join lots of other sugar beet growers at the East of England Showground for a crunch meeting on the price British Sugar will pay for beet next year. I expect and hope that growers will stick together and support the NFU in its tough stance of demanding fair treatment by the monoploy processor. More on that in FW next week.

I still feel a bit guilty complaining about lack of rain when I hear of the problems in Scotland and Ireland. In fact I had dinner with a farmer from south west Scotland the other evening who said his grassland was so wet he had been unable to mow second cut hay, despite a good crop.

But here in East Anglia, where we were quite content to enjoy mainly fine weather for the grain harvest, it has still not rained. All through August we had a total of about 12mm and there has been no measurable rainfall in September so far. After the wet July, land has dried like concrete and on those fields which were early ploughed in order to get ready for autumn drilling there are clods as big as horses heads and as hard as steel.

A few hardy souls have tried drilling wheat into such fields. We've even done a couple ourselves on kind land. But the seeds went into clods and dust and we wore a fair bit of steel off the cultivators and drill coulters as we forced a seedbed. We've given up for now in the hope of rain but there is no sign of it on the weather horizon.

This dry land is playing havoc with lifting potatoes - some are being irrigated first in the hope of reducing lifting damage. And although the first sugar beet factory - Wissington - opens tomorrow I can't believe many beet will be delivered. Getting them out of the ground in these conditions is liable to smash your harvester and leave half the roots broken in the soil.

So, frustrating times here in Norfolk. But I don't suppose we'll get much sympathy from the north. 

As the plane from Frankfurt banked over Essex before landing at Stansted I looked out of the window at a brown countryside almost bereft of moisture. The only exceptions were the bright green areas around the 18 holes of a golf course that had clearly been irrigated. The rest was cultivated land, some probably drilled and most not and stubbles that were too hard to plough. Even the hedges and trees looked drab and dull with leaves senescing prematurely and falling onto the parched ground.

I had been to Germany for a short business trip and been reasonably impressed with the way crops looked over there and with progress with autumn land work. They could probably do with a rain but nothing like as urgently as we do in East Anglia. 

I am well aware that this must be very boring to farmers in the west and north whose land is still saturated from recent rain. But the drought is getting serious and some of the rape and grain seed already drilled may be vulnerable to inadequate moisture to keep delicate seedlings alive. Most farmers who had started drilling into dry soils have given up the battle with clods. And British Sugar has, wisely, put back the start of its processing campaign in the hope of rain to allow beet to be lifted without breaking the roots.

Remember last year? We were still suffering from continuous rain on the equivalent date and land was too wet to carry a tractor. What an interesting, surprising and challenging life we farmers lead!

I ran into our bank manager the other day. We compared notes on the state of crops and together wondered if those wheats and barleys drilled during the last few weeks will emerge or if the seeds will die in the soil. We had both seen patchy emergence across East Anglia - we have some on this farm - and were not optimistic. We also wondered how sugar beet factories would be able to keep processing if we don't soon get a rain. There are rumours that, having opened, some of them are having to close again for want of roots to slice.

Then we started talking about money. The banker had been travelling around a great many of his customers at their request to see whether he was able to increase their overdrafts. The price of grain has collapsed and most of them were holding off the market in the hope that they would rise a bit closer to break even levels. Meanwhile they needed an extra buffer at the bank to enable them to pay their bills.

He told me that in most cases he had been able to help, although, like me, he was far from sure that value's would increase as grain growers hoped. But in negotiating with farmers he had been reviewing their budgets for the coming year. He had not, he told me, seen a single one with a positive cash flow forecast at the end of the trading year next autumn. If that doesn't tell you something about the state of the industry I don't know what does.

Having complained about lack of rain in virtually every posting for the last several weeks I should, at least, express some satisfaction that we have had about 15mm this week. Its not enough and we need a fair bit more to keep autumn drillings growing and allow sugar beet to be lifted comfortably. But there's been enough mainly gentle rainfall to break clods and germinate seeds and the corn drill has been rolling again.

The earlier drillings are still looking patchy with some parts of fields showing a healthy green while others are still brown. I hope the reluctant germinating areas will now emerge and catch up the rest during the winter. That said, I have heard of a number of cases up and down the east of England where farmers have already re-drilled both wheat and rape that they judged had died.

This mixed growth pattern is not good for potential yield. I well remember a meticulous German farmer I visited on his farm many years ago who had designed his own grain drill. Every seed was placed in the soil at exactly the same depth, he claimed, because "It is my ambition zat every seedling should emerge on ze same afternoon".

We certainly won't achieve that level of perfection this year but the rain will at least allow us to get a bit closer to it with the drillings now taking place. The moist soil will also let the sugar beet harvesters into the ground and reduce wear on lifting shares. Sods law being what it is, the next concern will probably be too much rain, given that the weather usually averages out over a period. But we're not at that stage yet and are feeling much happier than we were a week ago.

I know I bang on a lot about the need for greater production in years to come and more research to help us achieve it. So when I support what might look at first glance to be a contradictory initiative - the set-aside replacement called the Campaign for the Farmed Environment (CFE) some might think I am being inconsistent.

I beg to differ. I have counted myself an environmentalist for many years, to the extent that we were putting down environmental headlands and leaving hedges to grow through the summer, only trimming them once the berries had all been eaten by birds, long before there were grants available to encourage the practice.

In my view it is perfectly possible and probably more profitable (at least on our farm it is) to allocate unproductive areas to wildlife. Yield monitors on combines have since proved the point that under trees, in wet patches that are difficult to drain and so on, it usually costs more to cultivate and plant crops than are repaid by yield. So why not leave such areas for the birds?

Like I say, we've been doing it for years, long before set-aside had crossed the Atlantic to the EU. What is more, and I did not fully expect it, the practice has meant we have not needed to spray insecticides on cereals for about twenty years. The beetles that live in the hedge and bank bottoms do it for us saving quite a lot of cash and effort.

So I'm in favour of the CFE initiative and want it to succeed. The alternative if farmers don't play ball will be more unwelcome civil servant inspired regulation and we surely don't want that. I've always preferred to do things voluntarily rather than be pushed and this is no exception. That's why I helped start LEAF eighteen years ago. Actually if every farmer had joined we wouldn't have needed the CFE initiative. But thats another story - and at least LEAF is in there helping to make CFE happen.

I've been travelling around Britain most of the week speaking at a series of farmers meetings. So my knowledge of what's been happening on my home patch has been gleaned from news bulletins and the views of farmers I've met along the way.

Suffice to say that farmers in Lincolnshire, whose contracts to grow vining peas appear safe at the moment, were sounding sympathetic to the plight of the 180 growers in Norfolk and Suffolk who have just lost theirs. But behind their sympathy they were clearly concerned that if Birds Eye can close one factory overnight they can close others in the same way. "Will we still have contracts next year?" was the unspoken question.

Now that I'm back in Norfolk and a little closer to the scene of the crime I am getting more of the feeling of disgust and let-down felt by longstanding growers who are left with huge and probably unsalelable pea viners, significant acreages of uncropped land that will now have to be planted with a less profitable crop, and the loss of one of the best rotational crops that actually adds fertility to the soil through nitrogenous nodules on the roots taken from the air.

Add that to the fact that the type of land used for pea growing is also ideal potato land and that the market for spuds has gone pear shaped this year and you are coming close to knowing how pea'd off some of my Norfolk neighbours are. And its not just farmers, of course. Hauliers, farm and factory workers and those with whom they spend their wages will also be adversely affected. Will they be compensated? I doubt if anyone yet knows. But I'd be surprised if someone isn't looking at possibilites. It's bad news all round.

I've had enough of cold and snow for this winter. In a few days time I'm off to Argentina and Chile to look at farming there - and to soak up a bit of sun, I hope.

Before going I thought I had better take a close look at our autumn drilled wheats. Before winter set in they all looked pretty good; green and tillering with a respectable plant stand on every field. Since the frost and snow they've gone brown and in some fields as you drive along potholed roads beside them, almost disappeared.

On closer inspection the plants are still there. But the frosts have caused the land to lift and even almost masked the later drillings. I was reminded, when I looked at them, of a trip I made to France several years ago to look at a similar phenomenon. There, on light land around Rheims after very severe frosts, winter barley had been torn from its roots by frost heave caused by the extreme cold and whole fields had been killed. It was a tragic sight.

Fortunately, our crops don't appear to be as seriously affected. The little brown leaves and the roots beneath seem to be intact. What we need now is some warmer temperatures, a nice steady rain to pat the soil down, and an early application of nitrogen. I shall leave a note to that effect before I leave. And I fully expect those crops to look very much better when I get back.

Three weeks ago I complained about the cold weather and how it was holding back autumn drilled cereals. I then went off to South America to look at farming and have just returned. I was optimistic that this farm would look a lot greener when I got back.

Well, it doesn't. And I am disappointed. I really thought temperatures would have perked up while I was away. But apparently it was wet and cold for the first half of my absence and dry and cold for the rest. Land was only just dry enough to start top dressing as I landed back at Heathrow a couple of days ago.

One of the reasons I often choose to go away at this time of year is in search of better weather. As it happens we had floods in Argentina and an earthquake in Chile. But it was warmer than the UK and by the time we reached Patagonia the sun shone every day. Further north in central Chile (not too far from the quake) farmers were combining wheat.

So, it was a nasty shock when I drove round the farm yesterday to find winter wheat still looking brown and frost damaged and showing little sign of spring growth. By mid March they should look a lot better. Ours certainly won't "hide a hare" by the end of the month. Spring drilling looks some days away, not least because the soil is so cold. And the period during which crops can grow into profit is reducing by the day.

I think I'd rather be in South America.

What a difference a few days make! There I was last week complaining about the cold, slow spring. And suddenly this week everything has changed. The land dried out, temperatures began to rise and autumn drilled crops started to turn green. So, with sun on our backs, on Wednesday we started drilling sugar beet.

By tonight (Friday) with luck we should have three quarters of our acreage in. If the forecast is right we won't complete the job because it should rain tomorrow. But even if the last field is delayed until next week some light rain should ensure those in the ground germinate evenly.

Seed beds have been achieved in one pass after the frosts of the winter meaning that the land has not been compacted and that soft soil covers the seed. All too often if we don't get a frost tilth some seeds on our heavier fields end up being covered by little clods and having to be rolled to protect them from the weather, mice and skylarks. Not this year.

In other words we are off to a good start with spring work. Soil temperatures are still a little cold for the peas that we want to drill next so we won't be in too much of a hurry. All we need now is continued warm weather with half an inch of rain every weekend. Then, despite inadequate prices for most arable crops, we will begin to enjoy farming again.

Three weeks after drilling our sugar beet they are beginning to emerge. They're pretty vulnerable at this stage and I see the skylarks that proliferate around here have already found them. I hope they don't create too many gaps in an otherwise relatively full plant stand. But given the unpleasant wet weather we've had since they were put in its quite surprising they are up already. The secret, of course, is that temperatures have been quite reasonable, even at night, and that and plentiful moisture has encouraged the seedlings to peep above the soil surface.

And although we've not been able to do any land work since we drilled the beet, today we are again busy planting combinable peas. Once again we are benefiting from early ploughing and easy soft seedbeds guaranteed by the winter frosts. Walking behind the drill a few minutes ago I was very happy at the way they were going in after one pass with the seedbed maker. The Cambridge rolls are following the drill to leave level land for the combine in four or five months time and also to help preserve moisture. If the rest of the growing season goes as well we should be able to harvest a useful crop.

Isn't it grand how a bit of sun on your back makes everything seem better?

As April draws to a close I note from my records that we've had about half of average rainfall for the month. For most of the month, here in Norfolk, we had no moisture at all. Last week we had a couple of short spells of rain but together they only added up to a few millimeters. Still, at least they freshened up the spring sown crops of sugar beet and peas. But I fear there's still a bit of nitrogen applied to autumn cereals that has yet to be washed down to the roots and its starting to show.

Last night we had another modest freshener of a shower with a couple more millimeters falling while we slept. And this morning, when I went out at 5.45am to frighten the pigeons off the peas, they were shining bright green against the dark, damp soil, as were the rows of seedling sugar beet in a neighbouring field. But they're going to need a lot more moisture than they've had so far if they are to become decent yielding crops.

Maybe they'll get it. I recently read an article by a top meteorologist who reckoned that after a dry April, in nine out of ten years, there followed a wet summer. If he's right our crops might benefit. But those who anticipated a barbecue summer (as forecast by another weather expert a few months ago) may be disappointed. Perhaps they should arrange some sort of cover for the glowing charcoal to avoid having their cook-outs snuffed out and hope that temperatures stay reasonably high.

Having complained about the lack of rain this spring I should, I suppose, admit that we have now had enough to do some good. Not enough to make up the deficit by any means but the many hours of light rain over the weekend, from Saturday morning through to Sunday morning and several showers since have delivered sufficient water to soak the soil and reach down to the roots of spring drilled crops.

The sugar beet and peas on this farm look much better than they did a week ago and the wheat has darkened to a healthier colour having got hold of the last dollup of nitrogen applied last week.

We got our beet in early this year and the last lot of heavy rain in early April ensured they all germinated. We have the best plant stand for a few years, I'm pleased to say, and most fields look pretty good with 6 to 8 leaved seedlings throughout. The peas were, perhaps, put in a little too early and where there were moist patches in some fields do not look too happy. But most look promising - always assuming we can keep the pigeons away.

What we need now is more rain and a significant rise in temperature. Then we might be able to look forward to some decent yields.

In todays FW I describe how dry it was in the Paris basin just over a week ago and how many cereal crops were being irrigated. Yesterday I had to go to London on the train and was able to look at line-side crops from a similar high vantage as I did from the coach window in France.

I have to tell you that Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and parts of Norfolk are now showing the same symptoms of lack of rain. As in France there were several irrigators spraying water onto wheat. As in France, I suspect it will be too late.

Drought stress is widespread with great patches of wheat and barley fields losing tillers and scorching in the hot sun. Clearly the few drops of rain we've had in the last week have been too little to save them and we can expect premature ripening and low yields and quality across East Anglia. And if we don't get significant rain soon those patches will grow to cover whole fields.

Not a very good introduction to Cereals next week, I'm afraid. And the area south of Cambridge was among the worst that I saw from the train. But perhaps it will sharpen up the traders who'll be at the event as they realise it could be a sellers market from now on. 

It might be a bit moist at Cereals this week. I don't know how much rain they've had in the Royston area but here in Norfolk we've had about 30mm since Sunday. The soil was very dry before that so it may have absorbed most of it. But it fell pretty fast here and I suspect a mess will have been made by those involved in setting up today and they may have made a few ruts. Which worries me a bit because I am lame at present.

You know how it is - there I was training hard for the World Cup and .. bang! my Achilles tendon went. Poor old Fabio Capello - now he's lost me and Rio Ferdinand. He must be distraught and wondering how long the team can last in the competition without us.

Anyway - it meant I didn't have to go to South Africa and could stay at home and attend Cereals instead. But I couldn't face walking round with my sore leg so organised an electric buggy to ride on. How it will get on over those ruts I predicted I don't know. And I doubt if it will be 4WD. My main concern is the ribbing I expect to get from mates who will accuse me of slacking. Perhaps I had better take a doctors certificate to prove I really have got an injury.

However, there's plenty to do without tramping round the plots on the edges of the site so I may confine myself mainly to the stands. I see from the programme that one of the activities is a seminar arranged by the Oxford Conference Committee - which is a first. Those of us in the habit of attending their January get together often say to one another "See you at Oxford". Now we Oxfordians will be able to say "See you at Cereals as well". 

To be honest it isn't quite so hot today. But travelling across East Anglia yesterday was very uncomfortable and looking over hedges made me feel even worse. At least it did until I read Phil Clarkes blog that indicated wheat prices had risen £10 in a week. The view over those hedges was clearly the reason.

Hardly a field was ripening evenly. Most had scorched patches all over them and some whole crops were looking very sad indeed. This morning we've had about five drops of rain here in this part of Norfolk and I suspect moisture has been just as scarce elsewhere. Harvest must begin soon but it will not be an enjoyable experience despite the higher prices. For yields are likely to be well down.

I am almost embarrassed to mention that in this immediate area our grain crops are, of course, suffering but not nearly as much as those I saw 60 miles west yesterday. Whether its because we've had a bit more rain, or that our heavier land has retained winter moisture better I can't say. But our yields will be down as well, although hopefully by not quite as much as some.

My thoughts turn to the fact that we've probably sold too much forward at prices well below those available now, confirming the gamble that is farming - this time for traditional weather reasons rather than because of currency fluctuations. It also crosses my mind that, climate change notwithstanding, the law of averages suggests the deficit in rainfall will be corrected sometime and that sods law dictates that it will be in August when we are trying to harvest the shrivelled grain.

There, I've confirmed it. I'm a miserable git whose glass is always half empty. But at least I will have satisfied some of my critics who have been making such allegations for years.

Here in Norfollk (as in many other area's) some specialist potato growers rent land for a season on which to grow potatoes. Most try to get hold of fields where irrigation is available but if the land and location are good enough they will sometimes take the risk of having no water nearby in the hope that the summer weather is wet enough to provide for a profitable crop.

Needless to say that latter policy has come a bit unstuck this year and unirrigated spuds are suffering. And according to our agronomist at least one grower in east Norfolk has become so concerned about the state of one of his 30 acre rented potato fields that he has been carting water to it in tanker lorries and watering the crop that way.

Apparently he's taken dozens of loads and has been doing it for several days at huge expense that I hesitate to quote because it might be exaggerated. I hope for his sake that he saves his crop. Because he's saddled himself with horrendous outgoings that will have to be paid whether or not he gets an economic yield. But I suppose that's the kind of risk you have to take in the dryest summer for a hundred years. 

As the rain came down during the dullest, wettest and coldest August for seventeen years the frustrations of harvest were pretty extreme. You could see the deterioration in the grain and the straw as day followed day. And even now its over (or nearly) for most the barns are hardly bursting at the seams. In common with most of the country, according to information received, our yields are down 10% to 15%, some of it, I suspect, because of shelling out in the brisk winds of a week ago. So thank goodness for the higher prices that will apply to that portion of the crop we did not sell too early.

Despite the lower tonnage and the forward seeling it will be a fairly successful harvest financially. As always we farmers try to grow optimum yields but we make more money when output is short and prices are high - a paradox ruled by the laws of supply and demand. But we'll still try to grow big crops next year, of course.

As I write the last of the straw (that we did not chop behind the combine) is being brought into the Dutch barn for storage in big bales. Its not very pretty after all the rain but its all we've got and the animals that lie on it will have to manage as best they can. At least its dry and I don't suppose they'll be too concerned about the colour as long as there's no mould.

We don't grow winter rape these days so we're not concerned with making seedbeds from wet compacted soil. I sympathise with those who are struggling at such jobs at the moment for heavy clay land is coming up in wet lumps and if it isn't caught just right it will be a nightmare to cover the seed.

Its bad enough to have to deal with the ruts made by the corn trailers along headlands and the middle of fields as they carted the grain to the barn. The damage they've done is worse that that by the combine, I reckon. And if you put a sub-soiler into such areas at present all it would do is cut the clay like cheese.

So, although I hear of farm in the north and in Scotland (where they've had a rare and well deserved easy harvest this year) where winter wheat drilling is already well under way, I think we'll let things settle for a few days and delay the start of autumn grain drilling and hope the land dries so that we can once again travel on it without doing harm. And that suggests more faith in the weather than I really feel.

We haven't turned a wheel on a corn drill for ten days. I can't remember when I last saw land as wet at this time of year. And its getting close to the season when temperatures will stay low and it will take several dry days before the soil will carry a tractor. More rain is forecast tonight and tomorrow.

We've had close to 10inches since the start of August. Harvest never really got going until the first few dry days of September after which it reverted to heavy rain every second day. We're well behind with our autumn drilling and there seems little prospect of catching up in the near future. Frankly we need about a month's fine weather to allow the land to dry enough to finish drilling and start sugar beet harvesting.

I saw some beet being lifted the other day (they'd been grown by British Sugar on land they had rented for the purpose) in dreadful conditions. Presumably the factory needed beet to process and while other growers decided not to lift in the rain BS ordered their harvester to work no matter how much damage they did to soil structure. I don't know how much rent they paid the owner but I doubt if it will cover the cost of re-instating that land to a condition that will allow it to grow decent crops for a couple of years.

But back to the non event of drilling. I hear from merchants that some farmers have virtually written off prospects of getting all the wheat and winter barley planted that they had planned and have been ordering spring barley seed as fast as they could - to the point that supplies are becoming worryingly short.

We haven't panicked to that extent - yet - and hope still to get most of our planned acreage in the ground sometime soon. But prospects of growing good high yielding crops are already diappearing down the drains as we pass optimum drilling time and face having to plant into dreadful seedbeds with some of the seeds not buried because of wet conditions. As Kansas would say "Its jest one darned thing after another".