My latest predicament has led me to empathise with the opposite sex facing the conundrum of what to wear.

The “blue one or the red one” has rather less excitingly been translated into whether to swath, desiccate or allow natural maturity.

Being the risk-taking sort of guy that I am, I have decided to do a mixture of all three, depending on quite how I feel at the time. And people tell me farming is about science, not gut feeling.

This leads me smoothly to my next point. Why, when I can operate almost everything from the comfort of the seat of my new sprayer, do I still have to push/jump/crawl through thick oilseed rape crops to check on desiccation stages?

Farmers are resourceful, so there must be an easier way. Note I didn’t say a better way.

We managed to grab a few days away near Lorca in Spain as an opportunity to charge the batteries up before harvest. Despite concentrating on the culture and romance of the area, I couldn’t help noticing how small the fields and farms were.

With frankly terrible looking crops, all in fields of less than an acre, I wondered how it was possible for them to compete with the scale demonstrated in northern Europe. I did notice a complete lack of environmental measures as well.

Perhaps the playing field for Fabregas, Villa and Torres to play on is slightly more level than ours?

By the time some of you read this you will be under starter’s orders for harvest. Good luck, everyone, and don’t forget to enjoy it.

We are in a privileged position where we can watch a process from start to finish and be involved in every decision made in the meantime. Not many industries can boast that.

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