We had no excuse for not getting drilled up this autumn.

Conditions were ideal for our reduced-tillage system, and we have put wheat and beans into lovely seed-beds. A dry year helps our strategy hugely.

Our year-to-date rainfall is just 280mm out of an annual average of 600mm, but as my late father used to say: we don’t need as much rain as we think we do.

See also: Farmer Focus: Disappointing maize harvest in a kind autumn

About the author

Christy Willett

Arable Farmer Focus writer

Christy Willett farms with son Hew on 475ha at Parklands Farm, Galleywood, Essex, growing combinable crops alongside diversifications into horse stables on DIY livery, industrial and office lets. She is the chair of the Essex NFU.

Read more articles by Christy Willett

Hew chose the disced Sly (Horizon) drill for many of the first wheats following beans, borage and grass, and opted for the tined Kockerling drill for second wheats because it deals with the straw better and has the option of applying Avadex.

I was happy following him with the rolls using autosteer guidance, and would struggle to go back to doing the job manually.

The challenge of steering straight and parallel at the right width and finding the tramlines would make the job a real chore instead of a pleasure.

It seems we have gone back in time on some things, though. It feels like the 1970s, with strikes by Royal Mail and railway union staff, and the threat of power cuts.

And we are also using chemistry from the 1970s.

BASF has returned to producing cinmethylin, with the trade name Luximo.

It was originally discovered in the late 1970s and intended for the North American market, but issues sourcing the raw material caused it to be shelved.

Now it is back, having found a new source of the raw material, and has been developed for its blackgrass and ryegrass control.

BASF is promoting it in these pages with those enigmatic photos of well-known farmers looking wistfully into the distance.

We are giving it a go on some of our grassweed-prone fields.

On one field, we have half treated with cinmethylin + pendimethalin + diflufenican, and I then sprayed flufenacet + pendimethalin + diflufenican on the other half.

It will be interesting to see the difference, but I am not holding my breath.

I am now wondering what other 1970s delights we may return to – maybe black forest cake and cheese fondue? Yum.