All good farmers talk about the weather almost as an icebreaker, and it is common ground we all have at a local and nation level.

The South has had a fair time recently, with lovely weather for silage, hay and grain ripening. On the back of this there is a great expectation of an at least average harvest, which isn’t bad given the state of the winter in the South and the huge disease pressure.

Average spend on our wheat is less than £100/ha for fungicide, which seems cheap compared with what we could have spent. Thanks to some big efforts on the sprayer from Simon and me our timings were there or thereabouts all four times.

Our T0 was applied late compared with a majority of people due to low pressure from yellow rust, as keeping this timing close to T1 was crucial for septoria control in my mind.

This means we have pleasing control of all the major diseases. Septoria is undoubtedly there and is slowly but surely going to spread up the plant, but there’s nothing we can do about that now, as I have no belief in the T4 scenario apart from in very specific circumstances (rust).

June seems a fraught time of year, getting ready for harvest while trying to get time off in the arable workload ready for harvest. The oilseed rape is rapidly ripening, shortening our preparation time. June is also the month when all trials are to be seen and meetings to be held.

July holds all the promise of harvest and a chance of wiping the slate clean and trying the next, slightly more refined, tactics – whether they are trying out a new drill or taking the experience from the previous year. So what new bits will I be doing?

First, I’ll be using my phone a lot more than in previous years. Time spent on the phone when moving from assistant manager to farm manager is not to be underestimated. So a bluetooth headset and truck office are two new elements to try out.

Next on the list is the change of soil. I have had only a limited experience in the spring, so I’ve not worked a considerable chunk of this farm. Therefore finding wet spots and so on will be a significant challenge. However, I have plenty of experience with multiple soil types and years of experience with my company.

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A continuous flow drier during harvest will also be a new experience, and finding out how to run this mighty useful piece of kit will be a joy I’m sure. Last, we have a new crop to establish, namely winter beans.

Plenty of other bits will be there that haven’t been mentioned, but now you can see why farming is such a fulfilling job with so many challenges to take on.

This will be my last piece before harvest starts and I think wives and partners should be mentioned at this point and thanked for their continued support of grubby farmers leaving early and coming home late, providing food in the combine on forgetful days and remaining sane while waiting for our “more normal” working hours again in the autumn.

Robert Nightingale manages 600ha of combinable cropping across Sentry’s operations in Sussex and Surrey. Cropping includes winter wheat, oats, oilseed rape, linseed, peas and soon beans.