Farmer Focus: Having a farm secretary is so important

In a frustrating world of politics, weather and war, the sight of sunshine and sound of songbirds is a welcome sign of positivity. 

I’ve done a fair bit of number crunching over winter, as I usually do. Sometimes I unearth things I’d maybe rather not see, and sometimes the reality of what must be done now reduces time for deeper analysis.  

This is where I see the value in my IAgSA-registered secretary. Jean has been with us 24 years, so has seen and assisted with quite a few changes, from the building up and ceasing of a significant diversification, to the rehash of enterprises, and not least, succession.  

See also: Why arable farmers should target 5% soil organic matter

About the author

Andrew Wilson

Arable Farmer Focus writer Andrew Wilson is a fourth-generation tenant of Castle Howard Estate in North Yorkshire. The farm supports crops of wheat, barley, oats, beans, sugar beet, potatoes, and grass for hay across 250ha. Other enterprises include bed and breakfast pigs, environmental stewardship, rooftop solar and contracting work.  

Contact:

Email: wilsonbrickyard@gmail.com

X: https://twitter.com/SpudSlingsby

Read more articles by Andrew Wilson

A professional secretary brings much more value than simply writing invoices and keeping the accountant happy.

They bring a similar perspective to that of an agronomist, seeing different clients deal with similar issues, so can generically advise and suggest things we often haven’t thought about as coalface farmers.

This is particularly valuable when dealing with the unique language of HMRC. 

Having to order fuel over a fortnight ahead, with no knowledge of the likely price, is a headache that I wasn’t envisaging this spring, but it’s where we are currently.  

It doesn’t make for an easy spring-planting season, but it does highlight just how reliant we all are on diesel for the world to keep turning. On a domestic level, this is quite a concern, given our esteemed leader chose to shut down our own production facility. 

Chocolate spot has appeared in the winter beans, septoria is sorting the wheat varieties out, and the barley is hungry for trace elements.   

I’ve been out with twinkle toes our tip-toeing sprayer delivering the appropriate medicine. We got nearly half the total N requirement on most of the winter cereals in the first half of this month without getting stuck, which was good. 

By the time you read this we’ll hopefully have spread muck and base fert on root crop land, lifted the last of the sugar beet (destined to produce beef via cattle rather than sugar) and crated up some of our seed potatoes for chitting in our adapted grain shed.

I’ve also bitten the bullet and pressed the green button on that shed I wanted to build before I reach 50 at the end of this year – exciting times!