Farmer Focus: Difficult to be enthusiastic about harvest
Matt Redman © Tim Scrivener It has been a challenge to be enthusiastic about starting harvest this year.
Whether that is because crops haven’t looked great, the weather was fairly unsettled (although it has improved), or early reports on yields weren’t great, I am not sure.
One thing is for certain though, it is painful harvesting crops at, or below, what it has cost to grow them, while also paying invoices for repairs or inputs that have continued to increase.
It is even harder to get excited about planning next year’s cropping when winter barley is down at £130/t and wheat only at £180/t.
See also: 3 risks to assess before drilling winter wheat early
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Ground conditions post-combining are proving challenging on the heavier land, with plenty of moisture currently restricting what remedial cultivations can be carried out without making things worse.
An element of patience while things dry up a bit more and some ploughing are currently the only course of action.
It would be great to reduce the fuel bill and save time doing fewer cultivations or even some direct drilling again.
However, compaction caused by harvesting machinery and all the rainfall over the past 12 months mean that is not really a viable option if we want to do the best possible to ensure next year’s crops have a chance to perform.
Maize is currently a very mixed bag, with lighter land fields drilled on time looking very good, mixed with heavier fields drilled late a long way behind.
The recent warm weather, coupled with plenty of moisture, has meant later drilled fields have established well and are now growing like mad.
But harvest date will certainly be impacted and I am fully expecting the combine to still be out at Christmas, or even the New Year.
We always complain that combines are expensive and only work one or two months of the year, so I guess I should be happy about it.
While this all sounds fairly depressing (and it is), as farmers we are forever the optimists and next year will be better.
This year has certainly provided a sharp wake-up call and got the grey matter working overdrive to find ways to reduce costs and do things differently – which doesn’t always mean doing less, or doing something new.
Old methods might be more costly short-term, but reliability counts for a lot.
So here’s to a fresh start for the 2025 season and the optimist in us, along with a safe harvest and autumn campaign.
