I thought during my farming career that we had coped with all the varieties of weather we were likely to see but I didn’t count on the autumn of 2019. Never have we had such difficulty getting crops in. We thought a combination of plough and one-pass system would leave us immune to what the weather could throw at us, but not this year.

Last week, we got the seed wheat successfully sown and tidied up two of the headlands on winter barley fields. We made a start at the commercial wheat but had to stop and I am becoming resigned to at least considering either spring wheat or spring barley, depending on how weather and soil conditions develop.

I would particularly regret not being able to plant the land after oats as the break seems to give a particularly good wheat crop. At this stage, the priority is on this year’s gluten-free oats. The seed is sitting in the yard and the land earmarked for it had oilseed rape harvested in early August. Land after oilseed rape should be easily worked and friable but so far, we haven’t touched it.

We will give it another week or 10 days but I don’t know how much yield we have already sacrificed, nor do I know if the oats will be more resistant to less than ideal conditions than winter barley. The first of the winter barley is now well up and looks fine though like most people, we did not get to roll it.

I presume the winter barley acreage will be well down this year, so already I hear people talking about the prospects for winter barley straw but that’s a long way away. The oilseed rape has done well in the mild, wet autumn and has closed over well, though we have had to go out with a second application of slug pellets.

Meanwhile, we have taken delivery of the first lot of dairy beef bullocks – black white heads and Angus crosses. This is completely new territory. For comparison purposes, we have also bought a single load of continental steers. I am clear in my own mind that the dairy beef crosses will give very little profit for meal feeding and the aim will be to maximise as much as possible the weight gain from grass. I will keep accurate records.

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Farmer Writes: days of wintering stores on silage alone are probably over

Tillage management: planting continues but with variable success