Arable Farmer Focus FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Is now the right time to buy new machinery?What a difference a prolonged spell of dry weather makes to the farm and, indeed, my mood. I don’t think I have ever known crops to go through their growth… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Air pollution diktat will reduce us to gardenersWatching the replica HMS Endeavour sail back into its spiritual home, the harbour of Whitby, in early June made me think how far we have come in the 250 years… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: For conservation done properly, ask a farmerFollowing recent rainfall our crops have all switched to “fast forward” and, helped by the warm temperatures, have raced through growth stages. We are now back on track for a… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Winter cereals are playing hopscotchCongratulations to my daughter Rebecca and son-in-law Guy on the birth of Oliver, a baby brother for Jessica. He made a somewhat late arrival, but weighed in at 8lbs 13oz… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Volunteer barley springs up in wheatMay is a fantastic time of year if you are fortunate enough to live and work in the countryside and I am seeing more wildlife than ever on a daily… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Crops play catch-up after a late springWe completed our spring barley drilling on 8 May and the development of all crops since then has been extremely rapid, with a late season now back to normal timings.… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Come and see what’s new at Cereals 2018The farming year races on and most crops have almost caught up, although sugar beet has a lot of growing to do with drilling this year stretching into early May.… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Will abandoning plough before potatoes work?I’m writing this looking across Lake Garda while on a week’s break. When this trip was booked I fully expected that the bulk of the spring workload would have been… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Search for harvest student has come up trumpsWow, what tremendous growth we have seen in our crops recently. The sprayer doesn’t know what has hit it, with T2 fungicides following T1 very rapidly – just a two-week… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Mycoplasma bovis remains untraced and uncontainedFor us here in Valetta and for most other arable properties in Canterbury, winter grazing of livestock is a vitally important component of our farm system. In our case, we… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Prepping for harvest with a new combineHedgerows have burst into colour, fields are green and the sun is shining. Everything is a lot more positive and it’s a lot easier to find enthusiasm to do things… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: The irony of establishing wild bird food mixesThe latest stomach-churning dip on the unpredictable weather ride saw our village make the national news as the wettest place in the country. We recorded 69mm over one night and… More articles
