Farmer Focus: Yield will be essential for 2026 gross margins

Spring is here and it’s a joy to see. Longer days, brighter weather; the whole countryside is starting to march forward into another season.

Crops have responded very well to the first application of nitrogen and sulphur, and are looking considerably better than 12 months ago.

I’ve taken a tissue sample from our first and second wheats, not expecting to find many deficiencies based on how the crops look, so it will be interesting to see what’s going on underneath the surface.

See also: Advice on key focus areas to ease pressure on arable margins

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Richard Harris

Richard Harris manages his family farm in partnership with his father in south Devon. The farm grows wheat, barley, linseed, grass and cover crops, with a small pick-your-own pumpkin patch.

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We have some wild oats, brome and ryegrass kicking around.

We’ll be knocking them back with the first spray application around GS30, along with some azoxystrobin for rust and take-all suppression.

With the Yr15 breakdown and reports of yellow rust appearing, it’s hard not to take some cover for a cost of £10/ha.

As my 2026 gross margins tell me, the only way out of this season’s economic situation will be yield, both grain and straw.

So without going too mad and spending the kitchen sink, we need to be hitting an average of 9-10t/ha and 5t/ha across both the first and second wheats to make any sense of it all.

With the recent (small) spike in grain prices, I’ve sold 2.5t/ha forward. I will be looking to do the same again if there is another little rally in the next week or so.

Like the last few seasons, global issues seem to rocket the input prices but barely fluster the grain markets. Very frustrating indeed.

But as discussed before, there’s very few of us who want or need food prices to increase and plenty around the world who want food as cheap as possible.

So, as ever, we’ll keep marching forward hoping for some better prices one day.

The sheep have finished up the cover crops in a timely fashion this year and ate it down before any turnips could bolt.

So we’ll be in with some 24-D and glyphosate to square it all up before linseed planting in late March to early April.