First off, I’d like to respond to a few of the replies I received to last month’s column by saying at no point was I fishing for sympathy regarding the fact I haven’t drilled anything.

It was just a reflection of the state of the farm due to the weather and if the situation could be rectified by the purchase of a plough and combi drill we would have done it years ago.

Let me assure you, soils with a clay content over 90% don’t like being ploughed in perfect conditions, let alone current ones.

See also: Cereal grower to ditch herbicides for inter-row hoe

While a power harrow may be suitable for most of the UK’s soils, for us it would probably be the quickest way to destroy any structure left, and still wouldn’t leave us with anything near suitable to establish any type of crop.

I’d also like to comment on the trolling aimed at me when my entry was published on social media.

I feel deeply sorry for the individuals who feel the need to post derogatory personal comments, unfortunately their grammar was so poor it was almost impossible to read and left me with only a supposition of what they were trying to say.

Retro-fit seed mill

I’m writing this having just got back from three days at Agritechnica and I have to say it never fails to impress.

Stands seem to get ever bigger, as do the machines on them. Highlights for me included the Fendt ideal 10 combine featuring a joystick to replace the steering wheel, the autonomous Case magnum tractor, and the Redekop seed control unit.

This is a seed mill that retro-fits to your combine and mills 98% of seed leaving the rear of your combine, preventing viability, which for weed and volunteer control sounds fantastic and could be a very useful product should we lose pre-harvest roundup in the future.

I’ve purposely avoided mentioning the weather, needless to say conditions have recently got worse.

However, with no stock on the farm I’m only too aware that those that have may well be in a worse position, so fingers crossed for a dry December.