Arable Farmer Focus FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Light sugar beet crop will not meet budgetIt’s that time of year again when we can sit back and reflect on just what the year has delivered for us. Have all our efforts been rewarded? Have we… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Cover crops show their value in high windsIt is hot and dry in Africa. I am beginning to sound like a stuck record but we are experiencing another very challenging planting season. We received a bit of… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Basis course hard but helps with farm decisionsI recently started Basis training which runs over 17 days in a four-month period. This will give me a better understanding of our agrochemical inputs decisions and help me to… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Have flea beetle lessons been learned?Oilseed rape never ceases to amaze me. The flea beetle attacks early in the autumn are now firmly confined to memory; the crop has enjoyed the recent mild and relatively… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Pointless features do not make a good tractorWith the increasing Brexit turmoil, it is unclear if we will have the same prime minister by the time this article is printed. I hope we do, as a change… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Negativity towards farming is desperately sadWe finally got drilled up, and with the conditions as they are, we would have had time to do it all over again. Some of our heaviest fields that were… FARMER FOCUSLooking back over 12 years as Farmer Focus writerThis is my last contribution to Farmer Focus. In early 2007 I was approached by Andrew Blake, who was the arable reporter at that time, asking me if I would… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Younger generation show greater patienceIn the words of the lager advert, if Carlsberg did autumn drilling conditions…Wheats have gone in remarkably well here, with the dry conditions really suiting our Mzuri drill. The soft… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Potato yield variation not as predictedWe are pretty much caught up on crop work barring a few tail-end jobs. It has been a marvellous autumn in many respects, allowing steady progress with only the odd… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Finally chance to crack on with fencingThe last of the winter lambs are up to weight, averaging 22kg on the hooks. It is good to see them away – 10,000 have come in here as stores… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Hare courses are back in action ruining fieldsPatience has paid off this autumn and after a reasonable amount of rain in mid-October, conditions for wheat drilling have been fantastic. More rain after drilling to keep seed-beds moist… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Did baling straw bring about our slug woes?These days my precision agronomy skills run to finishing drilling and pre-emergence sprays before the October half term and a much-needed holiday. We duly managed it, but were desperate for… More articles
