Farmer Focus: A farmer’s job is never finished
Mark Stubbs © Phil Weedon Well, last time I wrote, it was about completing a slow, drawn-out linseed harvest. I am pleased to say I’ve finally got it complete, and what an experience that was.
The straw was chopped and we failed trying to burn it. Fortunately, it incorporated well with a disc and tine cultivator, so we could drill straight after.
Drilling has gone well – being patient has certainly paid off. I did not start until 25 October, and finished on 12 November.
See also: Farmer Focus: Delay in drilling gives perfect blackgrass chit
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I drilled into reasonably dry seed-beds, but took the view not to roll as the clay loam soil was wet underneath the seed depth – I didn’t want to compact the root zone.
I was able to follow up within 24 hours with my pre-emergence spray, but I’m not happy with the results as in some of my really bad black patches in the fields, there are too many plants emerged.
Hopefully, the post-emergence blackgrass spray will take most of these plants out.
However, I know from past experiences it won’t get all of them, so in late spring, I will see those wretched blackgrass heads poking out of the top of the wheat.
This cold snap came at a good time for me as I noticed aphids in the wheat.
I was concerned about catching barley yellow dwarf virus because I am unable to spray insecticides on crops as part of my Sustainable Farming Incentive option.
The cold weather seems to have stopped aphid activity, so hopefully I have survived that scare.
So now all these jobs are complete, I can put my feet up and think about what to buy for Christmas… Not a chance!
We are onto doing the boring jobs of washing all of the equipment down to get it nice and clean, so when we come back after Christmas we can go through them all and maintain them, ready for next year’s campaign.
Like all of us farmers, we are trying to tell the government and the general public that a farmer’s job is never finished.
