It’s frightening how quickly time flies.

It only seems like yesterday we were planting spring crops, and we’re already ordering summer seed, trying to second guess new season fertiliser prices and negotiate straw deals. 

In early June we finished planting rotational stewardship plots and game cover.

This always ends up being more complicated and time consuming than drilling our main arable crops due to fiddly plot sizes, poor access, and varying seed logistics.

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About the author

Robert Scott

Robert Scott farms 1,450ha of arable in mid-west Norfolk for seven different landowners. He grows combinable crops and sugar beet together with cover crops, grass leys and extensive countryside stewardship schemes. He also finishes 2,000 lambs a year. robert@thscottandson.co.uk Instagram: @thscottandson

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Not to mention hindering staff holidays and off-season machinery maintenance. Sometimes the environmental tail does rather wag the arable dog.

June is also the month for farm walks, shows and open days.

I think I could spend almost every day at some sort of event if I didn’t have a business to run, or more accurately a sprayer to drive (N.B. I’m still recruiting, CVs to my email address above please). 

Is the barrage of email invitations a sign of a thriving agricultural sector, or an indication of a lack of expenditure with ancillary industries who are realising they need to stimulate some farmer spending? My assumption is the latter. 

I’m honoured to write my column in Farmers Weekly while it celebrates its 90^th birthday. In 1934 the industry was entering a cautious recovery from the great depression.

The despair of the 1920s had led to the creation of the AMC (Agricultural Mortgage Corporation) in 1928.

Protection became government policy in 1931, and new innovations like the first sugar beet harvesters were demonstrated. There were great strides made in agricultural education, systems and scale.

I dare say today we are yet to enter our recovery phase, but I am buoyed by the small parallels I see with the past.

We have seen autonomous tractor demonstrations here in East Anglia, smart plant breeding with Conviso beet widely grown and new routes to farm credit through the likes of Oxbury Bank.

With a general election looming, let’s hope our politicians can also learn a little from the history books as we look to ride out the tough times ahead.