Farmer Focus: 180ha stubble turnips drilled in 8 hours
© Kathy Horniblow As I sit in the office drafting this article, it’s 25C outside, the combine is halfway through the winter wheat and the sounds of the Womad festival are flowing through my window, and it’s not even August.
I was worried that the wheat yields were going to be disappointing across the board, but it looks like it will be a “soil type” harvest where the light soils come below budget but the heavy soils are still doing respectable yields well above budget.
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Our new-to-us New Holland combine is amazing. The Intellisense and Intellicruise combined have added an extra 15% of output with fewer losses.
Chris and I were both gobsmacked when we pressed the button for the first time and let her loose as she stormed off down the field.
The maize has really struggled from the offset, and the extreme heat did not do it any favours in July.
I am sure this will be coming in below budget, but once again it has been a great year to learn how to improve the growing of this crop and learn from mistakes made.
It is still exceptionally dry, and I just hope that when the tap does come back on, it knows when to turn itself off.
We had a little bit of rain last week and we went mad and drilled 180ha of stubble turnips in eight hours, with the help of a neighbour.
These will get the first dose of digestate in the next few weeks.
It looks like we should finish our wheat in the next few days and then head up the road to repay Rory for using his cultivator and drill.
Our spring wheat looks two weeks off, but I am sure this will be well below budget.
On a sad note, Neighbours is finished. What am I now going to do with the extra half an hour I get each day? Happy harvesting everyone.
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