Farmer Focus: Missed early October drilling due to pumpkins
Richard Harris © Emily Fleur Now that October is here, we have our final crop to harvest – 24 varieties of pick-your-own pumpkins, squash and gourds.
This year has certainly been a good one for this summer crop, with regular rainfall from drilling in June to harvesting in October.
The mildew crept in like usual but was kept at bay with a fungicide at the end of July, with the addition of micronutrients to keep the plants healthy.
See also: Farmer Focus: Gene editing is certainly not for me
About the author
Having finally won the war on the weeds, which gave us a good run for our money, we cut them off the stem last week and I would say it’s the best crop we have grown.
Dry weather thoughts for the rest of October please.
On the farming front, we finished our linseed in that warm period in mid-September and with very pleasing results.
The sample needs cleaning, but looks to have hit the 2.5t/ha mark or even a little more.
And with a contract price of £550/t, it’s made up for last years 1.1t/ha yield. The straw has been baled and taken away by a local livestock farm, so the fields are cleared and ready to go.
Before the weather broke, we managed to spread the compost and farm yard manure without putting in too much compaction.
I’m sure the catch crop fields travelled a lot better thank usual, spreading into “shin-high” mustard and buckwheat compared to the disced stubble as before.
So having missed the early October drilling window due to pumpkins, we hope for another one to appear to drill our winter wheat and barley.
The mustard, buckwheat, volunteer wheat and weeds catch crop will be knee- to waist-high by then. I am hoping this will aid travelling conditions when the weather allows.
I’m sure this will travel a lot better than lightly disced stubble.
It will certainly be a good autumn to test out disc direct drilling in the wet. As ever, we live in hope.
