Nobody likes new rules or regulations, not least because it usually means an increase in costs, hassle and time.

As farmers - though I expect the same is true of other businesses – we’ve had to contend with a huge amount of new regulation over the last 30 years.

Much of it originates in Brussels but not all; some comes down from the chiefs in Agriculture House. However, invariably after an appropriate amount of moaning and grumbling, we have to conform and get on with it.

Cultivation rule

The latest regulation to upset tillage farmers is the cultivation rule whereby stubble fields have to be shallow cultivated within seven days of combining or baling and certainly within 14 days of harvest.

There’s also a requirement for a 6m buffer strip around later harvested crops which is excessive. It’s been brought in under the Nitrates Action Programme in a bid to (apparently) improve water quality.

The thinking goes something like this; stubble fields are shallow cultivated in order to encourage combine crop losses and shed grain/weed seeds to green-up and mop up any residual soil nitrogen that might otherwise find itself in our waterways.

Do I think water in the beautiful Boyne will be any purer as a result? No, I don’t, because on heavy Meath soils with low permeability residual nitrogen stays put; it will remain locked up in the clay colloids.

It may be different down south in the Texan Panhandle aka Carlow.

Furthermore, recreational cultivation is distinctly uncool now, with more and more cool farmers switching to no-till. It’s quite simple - the more you disturb soil, the more carbon you release.

Equally, birds like sparrows and finches overwinter on untouched stubbles. Neither is it always possible to cultivate within a particular time frame - the soil may be too wet or maybe the straw has not (or could not) be baled.

It’s more calendar farming which the Department loves and farmers hate.

The baler man Bernard will be under some pressure with his two big tier zero coal-burning John Deeres, but either way we’ll be chopping lighter wheat crops to recycle valuable P and K.

Big brother

However, the beady eye in the sky will be watching and you may expect an unwelcome visitor if you don’t comply.

And after the COVID-19 ceasefire it seems that the inspectors are out in force, I’ve had two of them in the last four months. I do hope there will be some tolerance when it comes to this dubious rule.

However, with the grumbling over, I must point out that there will be benefits to rapid post-harvest cultivation. It will certainly stimulate volunteer grain to germinate in the stale seedbeds.

Volunteers are a big problem with people like me who don’t/won’t/can’t plough. It will also encourage weed grasses to germinate but not all.

Sterile brome, for example, needs to be left on the surface to germinate. But, in the main, early cultivation should help.

It will also reduce the slug burden and speed up straw breakdown. And even fellows like me might just be tempted to cheaply and quickly sow a cover crop with an electric seeder mounted on the cultivator.

Rethinking

With all this in mind, we’ve had to re-think our cultivations.

The TG toolbar/Joker disc combination is only 3.5m wide. This is great for seedbed creation but it’s too deep-working and slow for shallow cultivation at a very busy time.

We need a tine harrow capable of covering 100 acres a day with minimum diesel. Tines are preferable for this as discs move too much.

To do this, I’ve bought a mounted 4.7m Farmet Fantom which will, hopefully, tick all these boxes. Wider would be nicer but we haven’t the horses and it’s already cost enough to implement this new rule.