5-6 weeks till cuckoo song

[Surgery]

Not wanting to depress folk but another one or two big rains and looking around a lot of spring stuff won’t be going in , Europe in pjaves can’t be much different , fert and chemicals not gone on on a lot of winter crops and gone backwards in places , what’s folks farms looking like and what’s your thoughts going forward?

 

[Wombat]

Not wanting to depress folk but another one or two big rains and looking around a lot of spring stuff won’t be going in , Europe in pjaves can’t be much different , fert and chemicals not gone on on a lot of winter crops and gone backwards in places , what’s folks farms looking like and what’s your thoughts going forward?

That would still be earlier than we drilled last year due the shitehouse march and april

 

[Surgery]

Yep , as you said those two months last year were the worst all year down here

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

When's the drought starting?

 

[Wombat]

Yep , as you said those two months last year were the worst all year down here

That was July and oct but match and April not far behind. Actually apart from jan and Feb and half of May and half of June they were all shite last year

 

[britt]

It's still February. Relax dude !
We never expect to get tractors on fields here until March ( I'm still hedge trimming until then anyway, and it won't all get done this year).
It can dry up surprisingly quickly with a few dry days, as they get longer. The trouble is you only get a couple of days to get work done before it rains again
Every year the weather is different, it's far too early to get worried about it yet. The weather patterns have to change some time.

 

[Wombat]

It's still February. Relax dude !
We never expect to get tractors on fields here until March ( I'm still hedge trimming until then anyway, and it won't all get done this year).
It can dry up surprisingly quickly with a few dry days, as they get longer. The trouble is you only get a couple of days to get work done before it rains again
Every year the weather is different, it's far too early to get worried about it yet. The weather patterns have to change some time.

Would probably be good if a lot didn’t get drilled, the U.K. needs a crap harvest to get rid of the surplus we are carrying

 

[Barleymow]

Wettest it's ever been here,everything was put in in October, been too wet to spray . Sent pre em back 50% of winter barley to wet or too much black grass on it .Will be sprayed off ,cover crop to follow it . Less % of wheat to kill off ..Going to be a record breaking harvest for the wrong reasons. I think it needs 3 dry weeks at for the land to dry out

 

[4course]

Not wanting to depress folk but another one or two big rains and looking around a lot of spring stuff won’t be going in , Europe in pjaves can’t be much different , fert and chemicals not gone on on a lot of winter crops and gone backwards in places , what’s folks farms looking like and what’s your thoughts going forward?

The last 3 days of dry have allowed the surface to dry a bit and the land would almost carry a fert spinner but we arnt going today might try tommorrow( daffs havnt opened up here yet) as there is no point in making a mess on the good fields though im glad we took the opportunity on the one day in jan to get some on the 2nd wheats. 1st wheats and 2nds early sown are fine .However its the spring sowing that will be the problem the 2 off lying fields destined for sp barley will just have to wait im more concerned about the survival of a couple of fields of waterlogged wheat and a flea beetle munched osr but its still feb one or both may recover enough to make a poor crop at a least loss. and if they dont will pull forward the new grass seeds onto one and beans on the other . the surviving w w and wb actually look well in the sun so im taking the view the situation is salvageable and our glass is half full. Im of an age when ive been in worse situations and got through and we will this time. It must be the enthusiam of youth in reverse or a couple of days of sunshine that have lifted spirits

 

[thorpe]

what we drilled mostly look's good all chem applied, rape 100% failed some of that gone into 2nd wheat hoping to finish fodder beet this week then plough and drill wheat. most of the other ground was covered with lds in the autumn and hoping to go in with the co4 with no cultivations

 

[Fish]

Yes it’s wet, but a long way to go, two weeks of March winds and dust will be flying.

On this place we can put two drills to work and cover a lot of ground in short time, just need the window, we’ve all been here before.

In 49 Harvests, I’ve never drilled SB before March 20th.

 

[serf]

Was just thinking yesterday considering how wet it is and only been a few days without rain but around the yard it's drying up fairly quick , land drained are still going some tho .....

 

[teslacoils]

My farm looks like sh!t.

But it could be worse. Speaking to neighbours and driving around, you will see that getting on for 80% of OSR has failed. In many cases the wheat that was redrilled into failed OSR has also failed. There is little to no winter barley or rye which would normally be for AD. Much land is stubbles, or has been partially cultivated and rained off. Most cereal fields have large wet spots in them, or missing headlands. There are a few good fields, however noticably missing are tramline wheelings. In an area of fairly high BG pressure, you wont find many who will tell you they are concerned if their wheat is viable from a grass weed POV. Fair few would be happier with the wheat back in the bag.

So, what seems to be going on is folk are pining their hopes on spring barley. Well, if pinning hopes is buying seed at £600+, and forgetting that large patches of spring barley in these parts last year (and most years) did 2t/ac. Certainly cant bank on it doing over 2.5

Adding to the world of "well, you should have done X", the cost of my mortage has gone through the roof. But then so will the drawings for granny etc on all these "bought and paid for" types. And at least I have no staff or machinery to pay.

What ive done is shove 1/2 of it into a SFI scheme. This was coming anyway, as the grass element in my 3xgrass, 3x wheat rotation was the weak link, and will be replaced with legume fallow. Got in nice and early last backend, so at least cash from that is coming in.

And I work off farm between 3 and 5 days a week. Because if I was sat in my house thinking about it too much, it would be sad times. And there is always the faint glimmer of solar on the horizon.

 

[teslacoils]

Oh, did I say I have only sold 10% of last years harvest.....

 

[Surgery]

A fair average won’t be drilled around here as it’s still under water and springs banning out water like Peckham spring

 

[czechmate]

Starting to consider other options (for here) now, like millet, sorghum

 

[Iben]

Starting to consider other options (for here) now, like millet, sorghum

When would be your cut off date?

 

[britt]

It would seem that my optimism above was misplaced. Rained regularly since and forecast unsettled for the next week. That takes us nearly to April.
My apologies Surgery.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Not wanting to depress folk but another one or two big rains and looking around a lot of spring stuff won’t be going in , Europe in pjaves can’t be much different , fert and chemicals not gone on on a lot of winter crops and gone backwards in places , what’s folks farms looking like and what’s your thoughts going forward?

Already heard the first chiffchaff this morning.

 

[Still Farming]

Not heard cookoo around here for years