Would you like to go on the swings or the roundabouts? That is pretty much the summary of this season’s further trials with disc and tine direct drills.

As I have always known – and have certainly been told by many more-experienced direct drillers – there are pros and cons to both, but actually there is no substitute for further practical demonstrations.

If you want to have consistently low disturbance and to avoid getting blocked up, a disc is probably the weapon of choice. But I have to say the tine has got crops in and up and away quicker in this tricky spring and I’ve been pleased to have that option.

See also: Read more from our Arable Farmer Focus writers

I do remember using some slug pellets on a spring crop some years ago, but this year the molluscs have been nearly as annoying as the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).

I don’t think cover crops are entirely to blame, as we have been using them for some years with no ill effects.

And I can see no pattern of different species in the mix leading to increased issues; it is only on the always-easier chalkier and sandier soils that we haven’t had any problems.

Some speedy crop growth would, of course, be very handy in the slug battle, but it was –10C first thing on this late April morning.

There is therefore little growth to regulate with our frustratingly wind- and rain-delayed T1 spray, but I am keen to get some fungicide on.

Is the Brexit debate another case of swings and roundabouts? Can we have some “In” and some “Out” and use whichever suits the conditions better at the time?

While attempting to stay precariously perched on the fence at this stage, I will say that it is the “In” campaign that has been pushing me more to vote “Out” than the “Out” campaign, which is not good news for either side.

The reason is that I do not appreciate being told I should be scared of being out, and that we couldn’t possibly survive on our own, and being threatened with being put to the back of the queue by another country’s president.

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.