Opinion : David Richardson

I HAVE LOST count of the times we have worked through most of the Easter holiday drilling our sugar beet.

It does not seem to matter whether Easter is early or late.

The weather turned just before Good Friday and stayed fine through to Easter Monday. A 12-row drill enables us to cover at least 20ha (50 acres) on a good day, so our 80ha (200 acres) can sometimes be planted over the long weekend. But that was not the case this year.

QUARTER DRILLED

We managed to get about a quarter of the beet in on our lightest land the week before Easter. We drilled about the same proportion of our spring beans as well. The heavier land was still too wet beneath the surface from the early March snows, so we paused to let it dry properly.

Then, on the Thursday before Easter, it rained. Not a lot, but it did not take much to make further drilling impossible and by the end of the holiday weekend we received 15mm. Friends tell me that we were lucky. In some areas of East Anglia there was much more.

Meanwhile, dull days with occasional showers since have added to our frustrations. Although we managed a few more acres of beet and beans last weekend, before it rained again, we are acutely aware that as each April day passes the potential for good yields falls faster. Trials have shown that the potential has been dropping since mid-March and much of the reason for big crops over the past few years has been because early drilling allowed long growing seasons.

The beans should, ideally, have been drilled much earlier. But you can”t plant into snow, and seeds do not germinate in sub-zero temperatures. Would they have taken any harm if we had drilled them during the mild spell in January, I wonder? The land was dry enough and the possibility crossed my mind. The sand-land growers in the Brecks, west of here, regularly drill cereals in January and it seems to suit them. But it felt too early on our stronger land and we did not do it.

But at least most of the wheat is looking good. The rains have activated top dressings and, apart from a touch of mildew, especially on Claire, which was worse before the cold spell in early March, they have come through the winter well. Blackgrass sprays applied last autumn have been effective on all but the most resistant fields. Even a small area of slug damage on one of the later drillings is recovering.

DISRUPTION 

We don”t grow oilseed rape, but most crops I have driven past look well. Nor do we now grow vining peas, for which we are grateful. Drilling programmes will have been disrupted badly by the late spring and there is little doubt this will cause problems in July when many crops come fit in a bunch and need harvesting at the same time. Potatoes have had similar planting problems, although most are now grown on lighter soils, so perhaps not so serious.

AVERAGE SPRING

It is a mix of good and not so good; all in all, an average sort of spring. We would have been reasonably content if market prices were higher.

But given that we qualified for the single farm payment – without all the work or the worry – I wonder if we were foolish to grow crops at all.

For I see little scope for profit from the cereals or the beans, despite the fact that we have locked in a few wheat contracts for 70/t next November and December. We did it because we could find little evidence that new crop would sell better than that. There was more evidence to suggest the market might fall away. If reform proposals are confirmed, this could also be the last year we make a profit from sugar beet.

I am not whingeing, honest. Just trying to be realistic.