Harvest is done and dusted for 2024. Spring oats out-yielded winter oats. It’s just a shame I still have no idea how much the spring oats are worth 12 months after starting the investment of buying the seed.

I have been able to get on and scratch all fields and use last week’s rain to germinate volunteers and weeds.

The first day’s rain was welcome in many ways, as ground was too dry for potato lifting. However, now we’ve had 100mm of rain in five days everything has come to a halt.

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About the author

Richard Orr

Richard Orr farms cereals and potatoes in a reduced cultivation system in County Down, Northern Ireland, with his wife and two children. He is a cereals and oilseeds sector council member and focuses on soil and plant health. He also keeps a small number of cattle, pigs and sheep.

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One field remains a particular challenge. The local housing estate sewage treatment plant has failed to function properly since 2011.

Temporary repairs have seen it “survive” until 2019.

Since then, the field has had a sodden stinking patch of sewage run-off bubbling in the field. If this was run-off from a farm business, it would have days to sort it and be facing large fines and even court. 

However, for the past five years Northern Ireland Water and the Housing Executive (HE) have been arguing over whose problem it is and looking for loopholes to blame each other.

Meanwhile the effluent (as described by HE) continues to surface in the field with no solution on the cards. Basically because neither wants to spend £250k fixing it.

In other news, following comments I made in a previous article on farm assurance I was pleased when the commissioners emailed me to ask for my opinions.

We had several good conversations and emails. Following an Ulster Farmer Union stakeholder meeting with the commissioners, I’d say they seemed to know the topics and concerns well.

I await with interest the outcomes at the end of the year.

I read an article last week on how the UK and EU have proactively increased maximum residue limits (MRLs) on imported foods to allow them into the country.

I hope we will see a factual response from the likes of AHDB to balance this.

This makes a mockery of the system. The majority of farmers have to tick all the boxes to trade, and yet the government has created a second set of rules for imports.

Meanwhile, they are paying farmers to grow daisies, while we import food sprayed with chemicals banned here.