Sometimes we get in a muddle, and we have only ourselves to blame. We have had a ryegrass problem in a 50ha block of land.

If you thought blackgrass is tiresome, well this is something else. It is such a pernicious weed.

Imagine your lawn. If you accidentally get carried away with the knapsack sprayer containing glyphosate when you are doing a bit of gardening, farmer style, the grass dies, right?

See also: Why early intervention is key to beat Italian ryegrass threat

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

But it comes back in time, and this is what can happen in a cereal rotation. You think you have the measure of it with some pre-drilling autumn glyphosate, but there it is, rearing its ugly, luscious green head in the spring.

I freely admit that it was bad farming that made the problem worse. When I first saw it, I thought I could control it chemically, and certainly Atlantis was brilliant in its early years, but the ryegrass soon started to shrug it off.

Philip Spencer, our agronomist on this block, didn’t hold back. “We’re not winning, you know,” was his blunt appraisal, and how right he was.

Thanks to his diligence and continuous spring cropping for 10 years, we now have a sight for sore eyes: a great looking crop of Skyfall which is a pleasure to walk.

Appropriate rates of glyphosate as late as possible before spring drilling, preferably with a late-drilled crop like borage, have got on top of the problem.

We have not ploughed for more than 10 years; we have kept the ryegrass on the surface where we can see it.

We must not be complacent, as there may still be the odd patch which will require destruction in the crop, but it certainly feels like a victory.

Hew and I spent a useful morning recently doing a Farm Business Review funded by Defra, delivered by the highly experienced Tim Isaac of Ceres on behalf of the AHDB.

Another blunt appraisal, this time of losing the Basic Payment Scheme but with some positive suggestions for generating income and saving costs. It’s free. Why wouldn’t you?