Farmer Focus: Reminiscing now I’m back in the sprayer cab

For the past couple of weeks, I have found myself on the seat of the sprayer while our regular operator takes a well-earned holiday before he gets very busy. 

With settled weather and blue skies, the cab is an enjoyable place to be.

My remit is to finish off the liquid N+S on cereals and oilseed rape and apply T1 fungicide to the winter barley.

See also: Why demand for hybrid rye and maize is set to rise

About the author

Neil MacLeod

Neil MacLeod manages 1,600ha of mixed soils on the east coast of Angus, Scotland. The majority of the land is in arable production with diversified enterprises consisting of soft fruit, sitka spruce, environmental stewardship, and renewable energy.

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Night-time temperatures are still on the cool side and there is a concerning lack of moisture.

Crops are about 10 days behind where I would like them to be, with the onset of oilseed rape flowering frustratingly lethargic.

I guess we need to remember the three months of continuous winter rainfall we experienced will manifest in different ways depending on crop, soil type and altitude.

And we would be foolish to expect affected crops will race out of the traps with their normal vigour.

What will happen, I can guarantee, is the farm manager will immediately want to start cutting spend on backward crops.

And the agronomist will try to ply him with various concoctions of trace elements to make him feel better.

No one wins in this situation, not even the crop, which in my experience will remain backwards regardless of what you spend.

Being on the sprayer has allowed me to reminisce back to my first experience of this operation.

I was cutting my teeth in farm management as a trainee during a very enjoyable six-year stint with Sentry Farms.

As part of the role, the manager in making would undertake the spraying to help develop skills in agronomy, soil health, establishment methods and everything else that falls under the banner of crop production.

During my time with Sentry, I was lucky enough to spray in some beautiful parts of the country including the South Downs in Hampshire, the North Downs in Kent and the east end of the Chilterns in Bedfordshire.

Now a manager, and merely the backup sprayer man, I don’t take for granted when I get the chance to see the farm the best way you can, especially when an early start allows for a full view of the sunrise over Montrose and the north-east coastline.