Arable Farmer Focus FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Cattle get air time as TV crew arrivesMay used to feel like a quieter month on the farm – spring drilling completed, cattle turned out, and only the spraying left to keep on top of. These days,… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Record BYDV symptoms have got me thinkingWe have more barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) symptoms than I have seen before. I haven’t sprayed any insecticides on wheat for more than 15 years, although we did have… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Recent rain showers have saved cropsWe have had more than 55mm of rain, which has been a saviour for crops, especially the cereals as they were losing tillers fast. It has been a roller-coaster year… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: I'm now part of the sugar beet 100t/ha clubI’m going to start this column with some positives, because in these challenging times, I think it’s important not to forget that it’s rare that everything is rubbish at the… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: High disease pressure adds to the costsThe less said about the weather the better. After only 12mm in the past six weeks the crops are struggling, with spring-sown naked oats suffering the most. In contrast, spring… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Rain welcome but dry spell needed for silageThe last time I wrote, there was the possibility of another drought. Thankfully since then we’ve had nearly the perfect amount of rain for the time of year. Crops and… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Winter oats are best-looking crop on farmWe have finished planting the potatoes, and the main fertiliser applications are now complete. Our focus shifts to preparing for the harvest season. It is a busy time with spraying,… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: We need to adapt to changing rainfall patternsIt rained today. Twice. I feel very fortunate as I hadn’t long finished rolling in the SFI plots and everything needs a drink. Three weeks ago the oats had the… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Cattle return and major cropping changesTimes are a-changing here, and we have cattle back at Valetta for the first time since the mid-1990s. When we first moved to this farm, we ran some cattle alongside… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Iran war shapes next year's cropping plansWe finally had some meaningful rain over the bank holiday weekend. The winter wheat crops were starting to show signs of stress on the shallow soils with substantial amounts of… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Reminiscing now I'm back in the sprayer cabFor the past couple of weeks, I have found myself on the seat of the sprayer while our regular operator takes a well-earned holiday before he gets very busy. With… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: It’s going to be ‘death by houmous’With spring drilling now complete, our attention has been diverted to inter-row hoeing our organic winter crops and mowing fertility leys for the first time to knock a few overzealous… More articles
