Farmer Focus: Still desperate for rain as ground is parched
Billy Lewis © Richard Swingler The brook at the bottom of our farm often runs low during the summer months. This spring, however, it has completely dried up.
It’s no surprise really, considering throughout May we recorded just 11mm of rain.
The remarkable thing is our crops are looking really quite acceptable. There has been virtually no disease pressure this season. The winter oats haven’t had any fungicide, nor have the spring beans.
See also: Crop conditions slide after dry spring
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We skipped T1 on some of the wheat, but have since applied a T2 across the board as I feel there is little room for error with the current state of the cereal markets.
The bird seed and other environmental areas were drilled into some of the dustiest conditions I have seen in my career.
Miraculously, they’re mustering strength from somewhere and are jumping out of the ground now. As is the herbal ley planted back at the start of May.
Nevertheless we are still desperate for rain.
The ground is so parched now I think anything less than 15mm wouldn’t even touch the sides.
We’ve had our first real skirmish with blackgrass this year.
Having never had a problem with it means I’ve got an absolute zero tolerance policy.
I spotted a few plants on the headlands of a field in a 20ha block of winter oats.
So, a few days later, I had my girlfriend and my mother out there with me on bank holiday Sunday, and we walked every 12m of crop.
A worthwhile exercise as we pulled around 60 blackgrass plants, just over one plant an acre, spread fairly evenly across all three fields. I’m still not entirely sure where it had come from.
I’m hoping we’ve done enough to prevent seeing any return in next year’s crops. I could really do without the headache it would bring.
If it does appear again, I’ll get my rogueing team back together.
The harvest countdown is now on, and the pessimist in me says the rain we’ve been praying for will arrive at the end of July and won’t stop until December.
