Stewart Hayllor
Stewart Hayllor
Stewart Hayllor farms
343ha (850 acres) of
owned and rented land from
Blackler Barton,
Landscove, Devon, growing
cereals and combinable
breaks. Organic vegetables
occupy 24ha (60 acres)
and a further 160ha (400
acres) is farmed on contract
PLENTY to do but too wet to do it! A change in the weather would be welcome.
It will take a while for soil to dry enough for planting potatoes or drilling cereals, meanwhile the backlog of spraying and fertilising grows. However, while rain stops play, it only takes a few hours sunshine before catch up time begins at this time of year.
The more forward wheats are at GS30-31 with about 900 tillers/sq m. These crops are due 0.25 litres/ha of Opus (epoxiconazole) plus 2 litres/ha of Cycocel (chlormequat + choline chloride). First nitrogen will also be applied at 60kg/ha (48 units/acre). Where wheat followed beans the residual nitrogen is obvious so top-dressing will be delayed.
About 5ha (12 acres) at the top of one of our highest fields was left undrilled at the end of last autumn so we could drain the many springs that emerge after sustained rain. We have nearly completed the work and it is amazing to see how much water is coming out of the pipes considering the small catchment above the trench line.
The improvements should pay dividends in the autumn, allowing the whole field to be worked earlier if we have a wet time. Anything and everything has to be done to improve output efficiency, something more easily said than done given the small fields and narrow country lanes of this farm. But "what if" scenarios played on the computer show that our best option is to keep on growing the business one way or another.
I have a brother who has farmed in Australia for many years with a business that has grown strongly over that time. One cannot help draw comparisons. They have a weak Australian $; we have a strong £. They have good prices for produce; we have poor. Australian agriculture is on a high; ours is in a low. Their government respects agricultures importance; guess what, ours doesnt. We have farmers weekly; they dont. Well, one out of five cant be bad! *
Small fields and narrow lanes are a feature of Stewart Hayllors farm, but growing the business remains the best option, he says.