We are just under half way through drilling winter cereals, but unfortunately Mother Nature has turned the taps on and we have been stopped for a week after a significant amount of rain.

Up until now, drilling has gone well. Wheat has come up through the ground in less than 10 days. It’s an eager wait for Stuart on the drill, who always looks forward to seeing the crops in rows.

Rest assured he has nothing to worry about.

A couple of new purchases have been made over the past couple of months. An ex-demo JCB forklift landed on our doorstep and it has taken no time at all to rack up the hours.

See also: Field choice is key as oat growers lose grassweed herbicides

About the author

Annabel Hamilton

Annabel Hamilton farms 1,100ha of arable in the Scottish Borders with her parents. The arable area grows 65% winter and 35% spring crops. She is Basis and Facts qualified and runs a pick-your-own pumpkin patch. The farm finishes more than 300 Limousin cattle a year.  Follow Annabel on Twitter @annabelhami11

Read more articles by Annabel Hamilton

This is a piece of machinery that you could always have another one of and still use it, but between the two forklifts, we keep them busy.

The theory is if we buy a piece of equipment the same colour as the old one, Mum won’t notice.

We are eagerly awaiting our Kuhn Performer, which will be replacing our DTXs. After demoing several cultivators, it came out on top, as well as a good deal on the table.

Its ability to mix in trash was impressive along with leaving a lovely, even seed-bed behind it.

The standout crop this harvest has been winter wheat, as we just edge over our five-year average.

A field of Grafton drilled in the middle of September came out on top, followed by Dawsum, which was our overall highest-yielding variety across all the farms despite some significant areas of flat crop.

The most disappointing crop was the Golden Promise spring barley, as over half of our tonnage was rejected for high nitrogen.

We have been growing Golden Promise for more than 30 years and this is the first time we have had it rejected.

“Two crops in one field” has been talked alot about this year as the crop produced late tillers, which were a long way from maturity when the rest of the field was ready.

Unfortunately, these unripe grains are high in nitrogen. Que sera, sera!…