Maize harvest went well this year and there’s some full clamps to show for it. Yields were good as the crop continued to grow well throughout the summer.

It was the tallest maize we’ve had in a long time, but cob sizes weren’t huge so the analysis will be interesting.

We were lucky with harvest conditions, with only the odd wet patch causing some trouble and no marks were left on the lighter ground.

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Charlie Cheyney

Arable Farmer Focus writer Charlie Cheyney farms more than 480ha land in Hampshire in partnership with his father. They run a mixed arable and 450-cow dairy enterprise, growing cereal and forage crops on varying soils, from chalk to heavy clay.

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Once the maize was off, the team put in a good shift to get the wheat in. Establishment varied depending, with cultivation on the heavy land to drilling direct on better land.

This year, we changed the Horsch from the 5in to 3in openers which seemed to have positive results, achieving a more even seed depth when direct-drilling.

See also: How two Scottish farms plan to become more sustainable

We used both the old disc direct-drill and Horsch together, originally using the Horsch after maize and the disc drill after grass.

However, weed residue and remaining maize stalks in some areas meant the tines of the Horsch alone were not working.

So, swapping the drills rather than reaching for the cultivator was plan A.

The disc drill managed the trash in the maize fantastically and achieved a really good establishment. The Horsch after the grass also performed surprisingly well, making a nice channel for the seed.

Although the Horsch did create higher disturbance after the grass, it will be interesting to see if this is a worthy trade-off in terms of weed pressure against the increased nitrogen mineralised by the greater grass disturbance, where the wheat can be slow to get going.

With a larger acreage of wheat in and now emerging, the focus shifts to how to feed it and get its nutrition right.

Although, it will require some head scratching and stretching of fertiliser stocks, it will hopefully make us sharpen up on what, when and how much nitrogen we’re applying.

If you’ve ever heard Gabe Brown speak, not being able to afford fertiliser was the best thing to happen to him. And who likes spending money on fertiliser?