Farmers are well down the government pecking order, according to Daniel Zeichner. I find this so disappointing when the government is always banging on about sustainability and renewable energy.

Agriculture is the primary industry of all industries in my opinion – nothing else can function without agriculture, as everything depends on food.

Do they not realise a lot of the money spent on the NHS could be saved by getting diet and food production right with nutrient-rich food?

See also: Farmer Focus: Convinced sugar beet algorithm is against growers

About the author

Tim Parton

Tim Parton manages 300ha in South Staffordshire growing winter wheat, OSR, spring barley, beans, oats, lupins and wild flowers as part of a biological farming system. He grows cover crops and grass for haylage across sandy clay loam soils.

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I feel sometimes we should refuse to sell any produce for a week and see how unimportant agriculture truly is.

This really shows how far-removed Westminster is. Do they think food would keep coming into the country if there was a problem with food production from the country of origin?

Did we not witness this before and during the Second World War? How vulnerable one can be when relying on another country?

Does anybody really go to the trouble of seeing production standards from that country and what chemicals are being applied to that food, when a lot have been banned from use here, for health and environment issues?

Or, is it just down to money and how much one can make? With any business you need to get the foundations right before you start to build. I see this government trying to build on wet sand.

On the farming front we have started applying calcium. This is the king of nutrients in my opinion. Calcium is the juggernaut of elements, driving nutrition around the plant.

Nothing functions without it, and it should be treated with respect.

Calcium has nothing to do with pH, which is used to measure potential hydrogen, not calcium levels, as a lot of people seem to believe.

Having available calcium is critical to a healthy crop, which is why I always start the season with my first application, which should become available as the growing season starts.

It’s all about getting the foundations right in order to be able to build and grow.