While the dark clouds of politics still linger over our industry, the settled weather over the past six weeks has certainly bolstered morale on the farm.

For the first time in a long while, I feel as though we are comfortably up to date with all our field work, which is a welcome change.

Of course, the weather hasn’t been perfect. The overnight frosts have been holding back the cereals, and the grass even more so.

See also: Strip-till cultivator brings big maize establishment savings

About the author

Billy Lewis

Billy Lewis farms 140ha in North Herefordshire in partnership with his parents. They keep Hereford cattle, sheep and grow combinable crops. He also contract farms an additional 110ha. Cropping includes wheat, oats and spring beans.

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Everything was beginning to take on an unpleasant yellow or purple tinge. Thankfully, it has now warmed up, and fields have jumped into life.

We managed to get our spring beans planted into what turned out to be pretty decent conditions.

Last year, I made the decision not to plant beans due to the wet spring, meaning I had two-year-old seed to use up.

This was a slight concern, as older seed can sometimes be unreliable, but after a germination test in the airing cupboard, and making doubly sure by planting a handful in my vegetable patch, I was happy they would do the job.

The beans have now germinated nicely and have had their pre-emergence, so it’s over to them now.

We’re fully up to date with spring herbicides and have completed the first split of nitrogen on the oats and the second split on the wheats.

What’s even better is that this was all followed by some lovely, steady rain, which we were in real need of.

With the arable work all in order, our attention can turn fully to lambing and calving. The decent weather is making an enormous difference.

Lambs are going straight out of the sheds onto grass, which is a stark contrast to last year, when they had to be shut in for weeks due to the wet.

Before long, they’ll be rotationally grazing our GS4/SAM3 herbal leys, where they will help build the fertility needed in the soil to grow our future cereal crops.

I say this with the hope that it will still make financial sense to produce cereals here in the years ahead.