If the weather forecast is correct, wheat drilling after forage maize will be completed around now.

Conditions for harvesting the maize were difficult, but the contractors were excellent – six young lads, complete with tractors and trailers ready to start at 7am.

The crop yielded 7.5t/ha more than average. I put this down to the good summer and perhaps the extra 25kg/ha of sulphate of potash we applied at emergence. I will never know for sure, but a trial would help.

The extra 300t meant finding another customer in a hurry. Thankfully, a three-brother farming partnership that finishes Charolais bullocks came to the rescue.

Grain sales are progressing well with a grain drying and storage company, owned by eight farmers, selling barley at £160/t ex-store. Will the market rise further? Local pig producers say they are in trouble and I have some sympathy with them, but not much. It’s dog eat dog in today’s supply and demand market.

We will shortly begin construction of our mini malting operation as our application for funding was successful. I really love the challenges farming keeps offering.

It appears from recent Farmers Weekly articles and comments by Farmer Focus contributors that soil fertility is gaining its rightful place at the top of the list for maximising production. Hopefully, our local government agricultural research sector will rethink its priorities and contribute to our knowledge of the top 23cm of soil. Renewables are fine and necessary, but if we lose our basic understanding of soil needs, production levels will fall.

Mistake of the month: I put an anti-theft device in my tractor and promptly left the isolator key at the other farm. A 20-mile round trip taught me to put it on my key ring. With age comes forgetfulness.