Hope is slowly fading on the idea of being able to get the last few fields of Invicta winter wheat drilled before mid-February so, rightly or wrongly, spring oilseed rape is looking like a possible contender for at least some of the area.

The Lamma show was a good day out again, even with the freezing conditions. Luckily I managed to miss the traffic getting in and out. Hopefully the move to Peterborough will mean less traffic jams. As if the journey to Newark wasn’t far enough, this month I’m off to the Sima show in Paris to see how the French do an agricultural exhibition – should be warmer if nothing else.

Snow, ice and the need to try and work out my operating costs for the next year mean I now have an elaborate spreadsheet showing me the cost of operating each piece of machinery, and it will also aid in working out the cost of operating something for a new service. The results have been quite amazing, especially when you take into account the known “local rate” for some contract operations. Unsustainable is definitely one of the defining words when operations are carried out £5 or more under the estimated operation cost – even with realistic costs and healthy work rates.

With the NFU conference at the end of the month, hopefully, the topic of new entrants will still be high on the agenda after the recent publicity from the Farmers Apprentice and First Time Farmers. One question beforehand though, is the figure of around 60,000 new entrants being needed an actual figure, or the figure of those leaving the industry through retirement, for example, and not necessarily needing to be replaced? There’s not much point advertising so many new entrants are needed, if those trying to make it in the industry at the moment can’t get a job.

Matt Redman operates an agricultural contracting business and helps out on the family farm at lower Gravehurst, Bedfordshire. The 210ha farm grows mainly wheat, oilseed rape and beans.

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