It feels like first cut is only just in the shed and we’re ready to pick up second cut. Yield prospects look good due to the warm weather interspersed with rain.

We have been in the nice position of having too much grass, with the cows not able to keep up. So we made haylage out of the excess, which I have found to be a process that I don’t have the patience for.

This will provide some useful feed for the younger animals.

About the author

Charlie Cheyney

Arable Farmer Focus writer Charlie Cheyney farms more than 480ha land in Hampshire in partnership with his father. They run a mixed arable and 450-cow dairy enterprise, growing cereal and forage crops on varying soils, from chalk to heavy clay.

Read more articles by Charlie Cheyney

I was happy to get the fertiliser on the maize before the last bit of rain, which should kick it into gear, and I am just getting the last of the herbicide on.

With that done, the fertiliser shed was looking nice and empty and I was ready to start putting some kit inside.

See also: How a Cornish grower keeps wheat diseases at bay

But right on cue, new season prices dropped.

The phone calls weren’t happy ones, as I tried to fill the sheds next month or risk even higher prices.

I am reasonably new to the buying and selling, and have made good and not-so-good deals, but the rigidity of the fertiliser market has been the hardest to get my head around.

A mad rush for limited supply at new season prices, and subsequently setting a base cost for next year’s crops before they are even in the ground, is a hard pill to swallow. Not to mention paying out for it before the previous crop is even harvested.

I feel the best answer probably lies closer to home, in terms of better managing fertiliser usage and better utilisation of our slurry and manures. Slurry treatment looks to be a rapidly developing field with some exciting opportunities to come.

Crops on the farm are looking good with everything doing well in the warm weather. The winter triticale looks like it will be the first to harvest but there is still a chance this could be whole-cropped to help buffer maize stocks.

Our first year with triticale has been reasonably successful. The main challenge so far has been managing disease pressures.

If we decide to grow it again, managing the over-winter biomass will be a key consideration.