Farmer Focus: Cost of blackgrass programmes on the rise
© Tim Scrivener Autumn drilling had got off to a good start, with some excellent seed-beds.
Unfortunately, Storm Babet has brought an abrupt halt to things for the moment.
With a reasonable amount still to drill, I have everything crossed for a kind and dry November.
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Storm Babet has highlighted that even with all of the ditching work and small bits of drainage carried out over the past few years, I still have a long way to go and that a winter of water redirection beckons.
Blackgrass germination this autumn has been fantastic. It’s probably optimistic to assume that means there will be less pressure on the following crop after a stale seed-bed, but we can live in hope.
Pre-emergence herbicide programmes are costing an eye-watering amount now, but the reliability and risk of spring cropping larger areas of the farm over the past couple of years are even greater, so it’s almost a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
I’m feeling a bit out of touch with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, so the recent rainy days have given me time to catch up and look at how the options can be implemented.
I am hopeful some of the options can be integrated without too many changes to current practices or without adding risk or cost.
The winter jobs list is still growing. Now that the grain store is finished and has freed up another shed, I am looking forward to actually having a workshop large enough to get machinery inside.
With the cost of machinery rising, and what seem like shorter working windows, we are going to have to run machinery for longer, but without comprising productivity with downtime for repairs.
So good winter maintenance and a well-equipped workshop is key.
My Monitor Farm meetings kick off for the winter on 7 November and will hopefully prove to be interesting and informative.
If you’re interested in coming along, look for the details on the AHDB website.