The start to the year has been positive, with some lovely cold weather. Sadly, it wasn’t cold enough to give us free concrete.

The attempt at mole ploughing and ploughing might have been a little ambitious as we made it up and down the field once before we gave up.

We were also hoping to chip some ash trees that we had to take down along a permissive path, but it was still too soft for the massive chipper that comes in.

Hopefully, we will have another freeze in the next month.

See also: Hi-tech system measures crop nitrogen from space

About the author

Robin Aird

Arable Farmer Focus writer Robin Aird manages 1500ha on the north Wiltshire and Gloucestershire border, with a further 160ha on a contract farming agreement. Soils vary from gravel to clay with the majority silty clay loams. The diverse estate has Residential, commercial and events enterprises. He is Basis qualified and advises on other farming businesses.

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We did manage to get out with the sprayer and spray off some of the land heading into spring wheat without making a mark.

At the end of last year, we gave the Horsch sprayer a present and upgraded the boom control to curve control.

This automatically changes the nozzle selection as you go round a sweeping bend, improving the application rate and spray pattern.

At the same time we also changed to Lechler 02, 025 and 03 nozzles, which run at a slightly higher pressure to create the same drift rating as our older nozzles, those being the 035’s.

The combination of these two changes has transformed the sprayer and we are getting a great pattern from start to finish across our weird, shaped fields.

Just before the end of the year, I sent off my latest Sustainable Farming Incentive application and received the agreement this week which was good.

I am hoping that the capital elements of the schemes will reopen shortly as we are now in the new year. Time will tell.

Having invested heavily in closed transfer equipment for the sprayer, I was disappointed that all the chemical cans we received last autumn were standard cans.

Hopefully, we will start seeing more close-transfer cans come through in the spring campaign.

The aim surely for everyone is to protect the operator going forward.

The other annoyance is that glyphosate coming in IBCs seems to be more expensive than 20-litre cans per litre. Where is the logic in that?

I have been busy in the office updating and reviewing our soil management, integrated pest management and nutrient plans ahead of the coming season.

The next job this week is a trip to Lamma, so hopefully everyone will have had a good time at the show when you read this.