“Well sown is half grown”, goes the saying among tillage farmers.

This autumn, the winter barley looks a picture – level, even germination but in the crop after the oilseed rape as can be expected, there are some signs of slug damage as there is also in the wheat after the oats.

The tramlines are fully visible and we will probably go in with an early herbicide while ground conditions are reasonable.

ADVERTISEMENT

At this stage I am not sure whether we will apply an aphicide to the more barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) vulnerable variety. This year, for the first time, we have planted part of the winter barley with one of new genetically BYDV-resistant varieties which I presume we will not use an aphicide on, unless we are strongly advised that circumstances have dramatically changed.

At this stage, the wheat has still to emerge and as usual, there are more crows than I would like picking at the germinating seed. This is one of the consequences of banning the effective seed dressings but from experience, there is a huge difference in the bird damage done to a crop sown in late November compared with mid-October so I am optimistic that any crow damage will be minimal. The next fortnight will tell a lot.

The oilseed rape is still slightly uneven. With the benefit of hindsight and broken weather at the time, we went in a bit late with the herbicide to control the winter barley volunteers.

Vegetation

Where these were more concentrated directly after the combine, the rape seed has had to struggle through the mat of decaying vegetation but in between the rows, the plants are more vigorous. It’s clear that at harvest, given the variable growing season, there were tiny seeds that came through with the straw and they were still viable but the crop is evening up well as time goes on.

On the cattle side, the silage is now well open. The heavy cattle are being slowly housed while the lighter stores are getting a fresh paddock of aftergrass every day.

Weather permitting, we will continue this routine until everywhere is grazed out.

As the cattle come in, we are vaccinating them and will give a fluke and worm dose later on. Given the price of beef and the relative cost of meal, it has never been more worthwhile to keep cattle thriving.