Harvest finished early and much less stressfully than last year, and was followed by a strange period where the natural instinct was to get on and do something but the absolute complete lack of moisture in our corner of the country told us the sensible option was to do nothing.

Not being sensible, of course, I did put some cover crops in immediately before a few millimetres of rare rain, and somehow they seem to have come up – but are not romping away.

The trouble is, when I have planted them in September, they haven’t always achieved a decent biomass.

See also: Electrical weeder gives better weed control with less energy

About the author

Andrew Barr

Arable Farmer Focus writer

Andy Barr farms 700ha in a family partnership in Kent. Combinable crops amount to about 400ha and include milling wheat and malting barley in an increasingly varied rotation. He also grazes 800 Romney ewes and 40 Sussex cattle and the farm uses conservation agriculture methods.

Read more articles by Andrew Barr

I did not brave oilseed rape planting in August, given the additional challenges it faces and perhaps the additional moisture it needs.

But I have now started in the current week which is forecast to be wet. Fingers crossed they get it vaguely right.

I have given the drill operator a challenge with a mixture of varieties, plus a companion crop, organic fertiliser granules, brewed microbes, liquid silica and slug pellets, all to be applied in one go.

It may seem complicated, but they have all proved their worth in the past with the microbes fixing nitrogen and solubilising phosphate and the silica strengthening the plant against flea beetle attack.

While I was out not counting any of the pests in the water traps (a situation possibly related to the lack of moisture in the soil), a walker approached me across the field.

I’m sorry to say that the past few decades of experience made me think, “Oh no, what now?”.

However, after the obligatory weather discussion, he made a point of saying how much he appreciated the job farmers are doing producing food, and that he hoped, given the current troubles, we would become more self-sufficient as a country.

Not only as regards to food, but also energy and water. I wonder if Ranil Jayawardena, the new Defra secretary, is thinking along similar lines?