Farmer Focus: Drilled up in September and a change of combine

A famous YouTubing farmer once said October drilling is for losers. I’m sure that’s not true.

However, the fear of being caught out by weather and the fact the stale seed-beds are some of the best we’ve ever had has led us to be drilled up in September and with no planned spring crops.

I feel like we are in good form on the practical side of farming. When it comes to the financial side, I feel somewhat less confident.

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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

I’m trying to be positive, but on the back of three poor harvests our five-year averages make budgeting unpleasant reading.

On a more positive note, mid-September-drilled wheats have emerged very well.

Direct-drilling has allowed us to retain the moisture we had back in August, and with soil temperatures in double figures the rate of growth is fairly rapid. We just need to keep an eye out for aphids and gout fly eggs.

I resisted the urge to have another go growing oilseed rape. It still feels like a gamble with nothing really changing in flea beetle control, so most of the farm is growing wheat this year.

Like a lot of other farmers we threw the dice and had another go at getting in another SFI application.

Thanks to Joe Scarratt from Andersons for making it happen and beating the all-too-short deadline.

I really do feel for all those who put the hours of work in only to see the window close early. How has it come to this? The way this government treats farmers is shameful.

As you know, we’ve been looking at combines over the past two harvests and it’s been a huge decision.

We’ve had six good years with the Fendt ideal 10T and would have happily had another.

But in the end our very local New Holland dealer Russells came up with the winning deal. It will be the first rotary New Holland since the farm ran two TF models in the 1980s.

Finally, I’m switching from Gatekeeper to Telus today for our farm software. Can you really teach an old dog new tricks?