Harvest 2015 finally finished on 5 September with fantastic yields, but the celebrations don’t last long when you sit down and look at the gross margins at current prices.

A wise former employer once said “we don’t get rich in big harvest years” and he’s certainly right about the last one, but it could have been worse. At least the sheds are full.

This week’s rant. Now I’m not a political activist, in fact I’m more of a Westminster voyeur, but I feel I must voice my utter disbelief at the Tom and Jerry show (the Labour Party’s Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn) in putting vegan MP Kerry McCarthy in as shadow Defra minister.

See also: Read more from our arable Farmer Focus writers

I have no problem with the shadow farming minister’s eating habits, although I don’t understand them, but to give this position to someone who has such a point of view is little more than a joke and an insult not only to livestock farmers, but also to those supporting the livestock industry.

In other news, our new McConnell hedgecutter has landed and within no time at all, Martin has got the fields of Belvoir looking tidy again.

Although the pressure is on to keep in front of the drills, he assures me it’s no problem with the new machine as it’s twice as efficient as the old one and, it has to be said, it does do a good job.

Bazooka hybrid barley is up in rows and early drilled first wheats won’t be far behind. Blackgrass-free land has been drilled first, giving a chance for a third weed kill on some of the wetter soils.

I’ve never known a year as good for stale seed-beds to work, it’s just how long I can hold my nerve to drill them. Going by the yields this harvest, I ought to be drilling now as our highest yields were from early drilled crops and our lowest from our wheat drilled in November which was 1.5t/ha down on wheat that was September drilled.

Keith Challen manages 1,200ha of heavy clay soils in the Vale of Belvoir, Leicestershire, for Belvoir Fruit Farms. Cropping includes wheat, oilseed rape and elderflowers. The farm is also home to the Belvoir Fruit Farms drinks business