Careers advice on offer
Having spent the evening at my eldest son’s school going through which GCSE options he should take, my advice was to think long term on what career he would like to do and choose the most appropriate.
He has several ideas. A farmer, an engineer or just the Stig. My worldly wisdom, aged 45 and a quarter, was very simple. Do not choose any profession that is governed by the weather.
This was an off-the-cuff remark to a 13-year-old, but after the last five months I don’t think it was too far off the mark. I know difficult times can cause knee jerk reactions, but they also make you sit down and analyse every decision that you have made.
Was selling wheat forward, as we have always done, right? What are the consequences of not fulfilling contracts because your wheat isn’t drilled?
Does having 50% of the farm down to oilseed rape increase the slug population to uncontrollable levels in a wet year or is the slug population high in every rotation?
Will those who had seed-beds ready to drill with wheat, but were holding off for blackgrass emergence, hold off next year? Unlikely. We weren’t in that position, but in my mind, 100% blackgrass control with no wheat drilled does not pay the bills.
Now that we are into the dark months of the year, the BASIS point collection meetings start. If you are ever given the opportunity to attend a day given by Chris Green of Crop Management Information, I suggest you take it.
The data analysis carried out by Chris and his team is second to none and will challenge the decision-making progress of crop management inputs used on your farm.
