Arable Farmer Focus FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: New John Deere 6250R proves its worthWet weather washed away our carefully crafted cropping plans. Despite switching to lighter blocks of land, we still have more than 120ha of winter cropping unplanted at present (partly due… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: What are the unintended costs of GM crops?I was feeling rather smug about the amount of blackgrass that had germinated in the fields destined for autumn cropping due to our delayed drilling strategy. However, now I’m wishing… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Futures price rise good news as crops are inThis time a year ago we had completed an easy harvest, drilled winter crops into ideal conditions at the optimum time and were up to date with the sprayer. With… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Snatching in the millet between showersFarming is no bed of roses when Mother Nature is not on your side, and I will remember autumn 2019 for the muddy trail I made across my garden while… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Ag graduates are our farming futureThings are moving along in a similar vein to when I last wrote. It remains very wet and little progress has been made. In fact, it all seems a bit… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: 2,500 lambs finished in the nick of timeWe have had a cracking lambing here at Valetta, with lambs tailing 160% due to a great spell of weather, which also saw us have a great run getting spring… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Cracking on with the new chemical storeI may have been overly confident last month when I questioned if I should be braver with my delayed drilling. The “magic” 15 October start date didn’t arrive before rain… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Biblical rain but a sparsity of slugsForget politics, the main story is the abundance of rain and the lack of drilling, although we have managed a couple of days in the past month thanks to having… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Only the plough could save us from the slopI generally try to be positive but this year is testing me. Having eventually finished an “average” harvest, thoughts turned to autumn drilling. We generally get a settled spell in… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Rain helps bolster beet yieldsAre we in or are we out of the EU? That’s the question I had to pose when thinking about what to write for this piece. By the time it… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Not viable to crop headlands at current pricesMy wish last time for a benevolent autumn has certainly not come true, as we, like much of the country, have had over 160mm of rain in the past five… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Who is the Recommended List there for?I am writing this in our new farm office, which on 15 October was connected to the super-fast broadband service that Virgin Media has been installing in the area. Four… More articles
