Farmer Focus: Grass more profitable than good field of wheat

January has come and gone in the blink of an eye, and as we move into February our thoughts naturally turn to the upcoming growing season.

We don’t grow any spring cereals. It’s not a particularly profitable endeavour, and for us without blackgrass to contend with, there’s little point.

See also: The role of cover crops in nitrogen management for potatoes

About the author

Billy Lewis

Billy Lewis farms 140ha in North Herefordshire in partnership with his parents. They keep Hereford cattle, sheep and grow combinable crops. He also contract farms an additional 110ha. Cropping includes wheat, oats and spring beans.

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We do, however, usually grow a small area of spring beans.

They certainly won’t make anyone rich, but they do a useful job in setting land up nicely for a couple of seasons of good winter cropping.

The bean ground this year had an application of compost ahead of a lovely, diverse cover crop.

Fantastic growing conditions throughout the autumn meant we had plenty of grass available for the sheep well into winter.

So, rather than grazing the cover crop ourselves, I got a grazier in to take care of it.

His lambs have now finished it off, so as soon as ground conditions allow, we’ll look to spray it off and get the beans planted. An inch of rain last night means patience will be required for now.

Before I get too carried away with the 2026 season, there’s still some 2025 crop to move.

All of the wheat has now been sold, averaging just north of £180/t, which I’m pleased with given current market conditions. The beans have gone as well.

That leaves me with a pile of lovely quality milling oats. I can’t bring myself to sell them at what the market currently says they’re worth – around £120-130/t.

For now, we’ll sit on them and hope something changes in the world. Wishful thinking, I know.

We do have some great looking winter oats in the ground for the 2026 harvest, though part of me now wishes we didn’t.

This all brings me back to a more straightforward rotation and simply using wheat as a break crop for our grass leys. It allows us to reset parasite burdens for grazing livestock and get on top of docks and thistles.

That may seem a little backwards, but this year especially, a productive field of grass has been more profitable than a good field of wheat.