The farm at Shimpling has rarely looked better than it has this April.

After all the shenanigans this government has put us through since taking power last year, the sight of lush winter crops and spring cereals pushing through some of the best seed-beds we’ve had in years has brought hope back into the business of farming.

See also: Farmer Focus: I’m keen to cut pesticides and learning how

About the author

John Pawsey

Arable Farmer Focus writer John Pawsey is an organic farmer at Shimpling Park in Suffolk. He started converting the 650ha of arable cropping in 1999, and also contract farms an additional 915ha organically, growing wheat, barley, oats, beans and spelt.

Read more articles by John Pawsey

Even the farming doomsayers on social media, garnering clicks by peddling a negative narrative, have been overshadowed by pictures of this splendid work.

Now spring drilling is complete, both of our System Chameleons have been switched over to inter-row hoeing.

They’re currently cleaning between the rows of winter wheat, working through a fine, unrolled tilth, hoisting out well-rooted blackgrass plants and stubborn docks.

After feeling ashamed of how the farm looked before harvest 2024, walking the crops this year is a real pleasure, especially with the sun still on our backs.

The next major task is undersowing next year’s fertility leys into our spring oats, along with establishing an early clover-based overwintered cover crop in our bean and wheat bi-crop.

It’s been tempting to sow these small seeds earlier, but with cold nights lingering into early April, we’ve kept the seed in the shed, as soil temperatures have remained stubbornly below 10C.

Too many times in the past, we’ve seen clover knocked out by the lightest frost, leaving a ley that’s mostly grass. 

It’s the legumes that make the rotation sing.

The sun was less welcome when the Shimpling Park Farm team ran the Cambridge Half Marathon, well, certainly not by me.

Afterwards, the kind organisers offer you photos of yourself mid-race so you can show off to friends your endurance and athletic physique.

A slightly overweight, balding, red-faced farmer? How about no.