The sunny weather continues here in north Wiltshire, and we keep missing the rain. Seeds we direct drilled over six weeks ago have still not germinated.

We have had 14mm of rain over this time, but it has come in 2mm chunks which have evaporated as soon as they hit the ground.

What is eye-opening is that we have had only three days since February where we have had more than 10mm of rain.

See also: Video: Drought hits milling wheat yields while proteins good

About the author

Robin Aird

Arable Farmer Focus writer Robin Aird manages 1,500ha on the north Wiltshire and Gloucestershire border, with a further 160ha on a contract farming agreement. Soils vary from gravel to clay with the majority silty clay loams. The diverse estate has Residential, commercial and events enterprises. He is Basis qualified and advises on other farming businesses.

Contact:

Email: robin.aird@charltonpark.estate

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We cut all the winter wheat in July and have made a start on the spring wheat. We still have a mixture of winter and spring wheat that is to cut, where we patched in after the wet winter.

The winter wheat in this area has been very disappointing, with yields of 5-7t/ha. We got quite excited the other day when we went over a patch of deep soil in the field and the yield monitor hit 9t/ha.

Yields across the country are very variable, with some farmers having the best yields of their career and others having the worst. Psychologically, this is hard, because most years we are all in the same boat.

On a positive note, all the winter wheat has made milling specification so this will help alleviate the low yields.

The maize is in full tassel and cobs are being formed. Recently, the 30C temperatures hit our maize quite hard and it started to resemble pineapples with tight pointy leaves.

It is quite remarkable how the crop can recover even with a small amount of moisture.

Looking forward, we could do with a steady 15mm of rain to help the maize along and getting cover crop seeds and stubbles chitting. Hopefully, we will not get the usual “tap on until March”.

Finally, we did Farmwatch for the BBC on 7 August. This showed live footage screened from our combine over the day, with people asking us questions about farm life.

We thought this was a wonderful opportunity to interact with the public and be open with questions and answers.