October was, to say the least, a washout on nearly all fronts.

We battled through the weekends with the pick-your-own pumpkins and made the best of it until the weather pattern changed towards the end of the month, which lifted everyone’s spirits – both customers and staff.

The dry end to the month saw us reach our financial targets, which had looked a long way off for most of the month.

See also: Agronomist tips for managing late-drilled wheat

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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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So, thank you to everyone involved, with another safe and successful pumpkin harvest complete.

It’s now up to the Tamworth pigs to clear up the remaining crop, along with a few grocers who are taking the remaining squash for their shops.

In between the pumpkins, I got slightly impatient and tried drilling a field of winter barley into our mustard and buckwheat catch crop.

Although I managed to travel, there was certainly no dust flying.

As we know with barley, it’s pretty soft and does not like mud. It was just the one field, drilled as a bit of a trial to test the Moore Unidrill in those conditions.

Conclusions are, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

With about 70-80% establishment, this has been deemed a failure, but at least we know where to draw the line for another year.

Due to winter barley not really liking mud and there being no chance of any dust, we switched to a second wheat.

We got on drilling in early November, in conditions that were the kindest they have been this autumn.

The wheat behind the linseed went in well, having been untouched since the spring, with the second wheat a little sticky and tricky on our banks.

There was far too much one-way drilling on the awkward/steep areas, but it got drilled.

All but 1.5ha were drilled when the clutch pack went on the tractor. Typical.

Fortunately for us, we have some very kind neighbours we have a great generational friendship with, who let me borrow their tractor to finish off the drilling before the weather broke.

So it’s not rolled or sprayed, but it is drilled, and in conditions much better than I was anticipating earlier in the autumn.

We got there in the end and are hopeful for a successful establishment.