Harvest 2011 officially forgotten for Richard Cobbald

I suppose I ought to start by commenting on how harvest finished up, but I am fed up with it. We finished on 1 September and by our usual standards, it was rubbish. Harvest 2011 is officially forgotten.

Drilling is well under way and we have started earlier than normal. My aim is to drill as much as we can as early as we can in preparation for what nature is going to throw at us. We have had three dry springs now and the later drilled crops always suffer more, especially with the cold winters. So, despite the popular opinion about overly lush canopies and blackgrass, I am going to end up with well-established, early drilled cereals and manage them accordingly. We don’t have a horrific blackgrass problem, but will make sure we get all the pre-emergence chemical on right behind the drill.

It may not be the popular way to farm now, but the weather has changed, so I have to try something. It always worked in the past during the isoproturon (IPU) days, so let’s give it a crack.

I read with some interest the leaked report about CAP reform, and while I can understand the need for the reform, I wonder if and how it can be fair and work.

Large estates look like they will be hit hard with large reductions in the amounts paid out. Generally, these estates are incredibly well run, efficient and do a huge amount of good for the countryside, especially when compared with those in some of the newer EU countries I have visited, which seem to take the money and run.

In a perfect world – left alone to our own devices, without political interference – British agriculture would survive without subsidy. But then our wonderful politician’s would lose control, just like they appear to have done with the rest of the country.