We finished harvesting the last of our 2023 potato crop on 4 May, just before we started planting our 2024 crop, which took 30 days to do a fortnight’s planting between showers.

Spring cereal drilling finally came to a close with some oats on 13 May, which bar a few “skylark strips” courtesy of my apprentice earning his drilling stripes (we’ve all done it), actually look promising.

More so than the barley we drilled a week earlier, anyway. 

See also: Cereals 2024: Advice on wheat actives to counter brown rust

About the author

Andrew Wilson

Arable Farmer Focus writer Andrew Wilson is a fourth-generation tenant of Castle Howard Estate in North Yorkshire. The farm supports crops of wheat, barley, oats, beans, sugar beet, potatoes, and grass for hay across 250ha. Other enterprises include bed and breakfast pigs, environmental stewardship, rooftop solar and contracting work.  

Contact:

Email: wilsonbrickyard@gmail.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpudSlingsby

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Our spring cereal area this year is double that of normal. Will they be worth it? I’m currently taking the view that if they pay the rent and provide a few bales of straw, then that’s as much as I can expect.

We cannot harvest anything if we don’t first plant a seed. 

The sugar beet looks promising, and placing fertiliser under the seed to get it away certainly looks like it was a good idea.

The first few flowers are appearing in the pollinator strips too, which strengthens our defence against virus carrying aphids.

The British Beer Research Organisation’s Beetfield event has come north this year, and it was great to go and listen to the collective wisdom of the scientists and farmers present to find the best way to navigate what sometimes seem to be never ending challenges.

I urge growers to tap into this valuable resource, particularly if there is a local event in your area. 

Our wheat has had a small top up of nitrogen, dictated more by realistic crop potential than the slightly optimistic view of my electronic tester, which seems to ignore the financial aspects of these sorts of decisions.

Science and tech are endless and exciting in agriculture, from robotic tractors to variable rate inputs to handheld nitrogen testers, but for me at least, they need to deliver a value greater than their cost to avoid becoming expensive and unnecessary white elephants.

Maybe I’m just getting old.

Suddenly, harvest is around the corner. Our combine is serviced, trailers are mid overhaul, and the grain-handling system update is about to happen.

This month I have some trials to visit, a potato conference to attend, some hay to make when the weather lets us and some roguing to finish, but hopefully, not too much irrigating. The fun never stops.