Happy New Year to you all!

Time to get motivated after a relaxing break from it all over Christmas and the New Year, mainly based around family, friends and shooting for me.

It can take me a few weeks to get going after this, as the days are still short, often wet and uninspiring.

But, as they say, the secret of getting ahead is getting started.

So we’ll be making a start on the relatively long list of winter jobs on machinery and building maintenance like most.

See also: Improved BYDV tool to give cereal growers better control

About the author

Richard Harris

Richard Harris manages his family farm in partnership with his father in south Devon. The farm grows wheat, barley, linseed, grass and cover crops, with a small pick-your-own pumpkin patch.

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/Harris_Farming

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Finishing off the 2024 crop review, our linseed went in the back end of 2024 and turned out to be our highest gross margin crop of 2024.

Out competing our winter wheat and barley for margin, twice the gross margin as the winter barley at 7t/ha and certainly a very good return on time invested.

It weighed out at 3t/ha, a record for us and certainly the pick of the 2024 crops. More of the same this spring, please!

The subsequent November-drilled winter wheat behind it looks as good as ever, with the later drilling date reducing the barley yellow dwarf virus pressure this autumn, and I’m expecting a significantly reduced septoria pressure in the spring, as the crop biomass is still low at this stage.

I would say early November would be close to the optimum drilling date for wheat in our area, but with unpredictable weather patterns, it’s unlikely to become a consistent theme.

Our summer/autumn catch crop of mustard and buckwheat feels like a good fit in the system between first wheat and either second wheat or winter barley.

The second wheat has established well this autumn and, hopefully, the catch crop has reduced the take-all risk. The 2025 harvest will be the judge of that, of course.

Our overwinter covers look very well.

With most of the mix dying back in the cold, it’s now the turnips and vetch left for the sheep to nibble over, which will be arriving soon to cycle the nutrients back into the system, ready for another 3t/ha linseed crop…

We wish.