Farmer Focus: Combine is ready for its sixth harvest

The million-dollar question will be, “did it rain in time”? Hopefully, the answer will be, “just about”.

We had 54mm of rain over the past month. It was very welcome and most of the deep cracks in the clay have closed.

On the whole, crops look well and certainly a lot better than the past two years. Other than a few patches of blackgrass and a few wild oats, I’m really pleased with weed control.

However, one thing I’ve noticed is the amount of brome where we ran the demo combines last year, and the complete control of brome when we ran our own combine with the Redekop seed control unit.

There’s no doubt about it, controlling surface germinating blackgrass in a no-till system is easier than deeper-rooted black grass in our previous min-till system.

See also: Cereals 2026: Higher growing costs shape autumn cropping

About the author

Keith Challen

Arable Farmer Focus writer

Keith Challen manages 1,200ha of heavy clay soils in the Vale of Belvoir, Leicestershire, for Belvoir Farming Company. Cropping includes wheat, oilseed rape and elderflowers. The farm is also home to the Belvoir Fruit Farms drinks business.

Read more articles by Keith Challen

Home-melted urea protein sprays have just been completed on milling wheats, based on protein prediction samples taken a week previously and given a fair weather pattern.

Potential looks good. Of the milling varieties we are growing this year, Vibe looks most promising with Cheer looking a close second. Although I’ve made predictions before and ended up with egg on my face.

The combine has just landed back from B&B Tractors. It’s been gone through from front to back and, hopefully, is in shipshape condition ahead of its sixth season. Looking at the numbers, it might have to stay for a couple more as the economics of swapping are questionable in the current climate.

We’ll have to see how it goes this season, but with high capital costs and higher interest rates it’s hard to see how the figures will stack up.

Elderflower harvest is just about to finish and figures aren’t in yet, but I suspect it’s not going to be a vintage year. Flower heads just weren’t big enough, but we are lucky to have so many members of the public out picking for us come rain or shine . Their dedication is truly appreciated.

Finally, we lost a dear friend and farming mentor recently. I owe him so much, rest in peace Peter.