Wouldn’t you know it. It’s the Red Tractor crops inspection day and the sprayer test ran out the day before.

This blunder, and one minor error on our crop recommendation sheets, left two black marks. But it’s nothing that can’t be easily corrected. Thankfully, organic pigs and beef passed with flying colours, so the panic is over – until the next inspector calls.

The farm was tasked with organising last month’s challenge night at the village social club so we took the opportunity to promote the Red Tractor scheme. With lots of Red Tractor goodies to give away, I hope the message got through. In a rural community it was a little slightly like preaching to the converted, but still a worthwhile reminder.

Buoyed by my success in friendly surroundings, I took my roadshow (mouth) to the BBC Good Food Show to help on the UK Agriculture stand to further promote the Red Tractor message. There were lots of positive responses from our customers and a massive effort from all those involved. But what a challenge to get the message across to all – we need more producers to help out.

Considering single farm payments are coming through, I suppose the end market is the last concern for many. It will be choosing new kit that will occupy our time. I imagine it depends on just how tight you have sat on all those tonnes of grain as to how big that nice new tractor is. Or are we going to put some by for the next downturn in the cereal market?

Pigeon patrol is the order of the day on the oilseed rape. Will they pick out the small plot of field evaluation DK Expower in the middle of the Castille. Will they notice our variable rate nitrogen experiments, or will they just decimate the lot?