Maize harvest was as expected – disappointing. However, it was dry and it allowed us to experiment with different winter wheat establishment techniques in the following crop.

This included our standard of once through with the Terrano and then drilled with the Vaderstad Rapid, direct drilled with our Weaving Sabre Tine and direct drilled with the Horsch Avatar, which was kindly demonstrated by Claas Western.

It will be interesting to watch crops establish and grow through the season.

See also: Have your say in the digital grain passport consultation

About the author

Robin Aird

Arable Farmer Focus writer Robin Aird manages 1,500ha on the north Wiltshire and Gloucestershire border, with a further 160ha on a contract farming agreement. Soils vary from gravel to clay with the majority silty clay loams. The diverse estate has Residential, commercial and events enterprises. He is Basis qualified and advises on other farming businesses.

Contact:

Email: robin.aird@charltonpark.estate

Read more articles by Robin Aird

The forage rye was planted on 26 September into fantastic seed-beds, it had a low-rate pre-emergence of Liberator (diflufenican + flufenacet) to reduce the risk of crop damage.

I do love watching crops emerge, but I really do not like the way rye comes out of the ground purple and does not turn green for a week, it does make me exceptionally nervous.

Autumn has been kind so far, but I am sure we will pay at some point. The forecast shows a little rain in the future, but we need a substantial amount to get back to field capacity.

Hopefully, the crops will be well established before the heavens open.

Over the next few weeks, we will revisit and update our budgets to see the impact on yield, increased costs, and better prices. My gut feeling is we are above budget.

I had a very enjoyable evening at the Farmers Weekly awards recently courtesy of Cawood. It was a superb evening, and it was good to catch up with people I have not seen for a few years.

As I took the train up to London, I realised that I had not attended the event since 2012. Back then, I saw fields under water with combines stuck in fields along the train line.

From one extreme to another. The joys of farming in the UK.

The estate is now reviewing its health and safety paperwork. We are involving all staff in the process – from risk assessments to work permits.

We hope this will enable everyone to have an even better work-safety attitude.