My yellow block of oilseed rape is now fading, but it was a pleasure to see it again.

This is helped no doubt by the low numbers of cabbage stem flea beetle larvae we and most of the rest of the country have had, according to the latest Niab stem count survey.

See also: How cultivated arable margins help rare plants and biodiversity

About the author

Andy Barr

Andy Barr farms 320ha in mid-Kent, aiming to farm as regeneratively as possible. He stopped ploughing 25 years ago and over this time restructured the business with less land farmed and increased the use of contractors, environmental areas and diversification projects.

Read more articles by Andy Barr

The next step is podding up, and, although most of mine is fine, there is one field that seems to be struggling, on the main stem at least.

Whether this is due to the cold, including overnight frosts, or the further alarming decline in insects found by our local Bugs Matter citizen science survey, I don’t know.

Hopefully, the current hot and dry weather may help on this front if nothing else.

Perhaps these more extreme climatic conditions are behind our blackgrass coming out in flower earlier and shorter?

The problem area we have is unsurprisingly on our heavier patch of land, and it is here where we have most challenges implementing a regen-type system.

I’m sure people are making it work on similar soils somewhere, but in the Syngenta Conservation Ag project I am part of, the figures are stacking up rather better on the light land site than the heavy one.

We do need more practical on-farm research.

I have been so frustrated over the years – the UK has incredible agricultural research institutes which are producing an output of quality scientific papers that are only beaten by China and the US, and yet we are way behind our competitors in terms of agricultural productivity growth.

The reason for me is elucidated perfectly in a recent paper by Ben Wallace, a long-time leading light in the plant-breeding industry:

“Success in the research community is focused on academic publications rather than on economic impact and value.”

We need to switch this around to create a system that is set up to deliver the outcomes we need, otherwise what on earth is the point of all this research?