Dog & Stick – Survival Mode Apr 2026 For many arable farms, good management on its own is no longer enough. Right now, combinable cropping feels increasingly like a high-stakes gamble, and survival may depend less on pushing forward and more on stripping the business back to the basics. There are times in farming when …
From the Field to Westminster: A Year That Changed Farming It’s been about 18 months since my last contribution to Direct Driller, and during that time, a lot has changed — both on my farm and in British agriculture. I’ve always tried to be open and honest in these pieces. They’re not polished PR, not …
Written by Clive Bailye It seems like such a long time ago now, but back in 2008 when we made the decision to stop cultivating and direct drill everything, there really wasn’t a lot of drills on the market to choose from. This made our choice relatively straightforward, but also brought compromises that often saw …
From Innovation to Evolution: A 16-year Journey in Direct Drilling Read More »
I last attended the Agritechnica show in Hanover, Germany in 2019. It was my inaugural visit, and the sheer scale of it all was unlike any agricultural machinery show I had ever seen. Some of the major exhibitors boasted stands almost as large as entire UK agricultural shows. After three days of covering several miles …
October 2023 Sustainable Farm Incentive, my experience and future plan We joined SFI pilot at the first possible opportunity, our previous entry level scheme consisting of little more that 3m margins, that never really added an awful lot to local biodiversity, had expired 2 years earlier. Countryside stewardship was the natural replacement, it was competitive, …
As a farmer, I have always been interested in new technologies that could make my job easier and more efficient. One of the most exciting new technologies in agriculture today is Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is a broad term that encompasses many different technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, and robotics. These technologies …
Power Corrupts There are two occasions in my farming year that remind me of the anticipation and trepidation felt as a child when my exam results or end of term school report were received. The first is of course harvest, yields being the score card for the team effort of all involved in every part …
October 2022 Power Corrupts There are two occasions in my farming year that remind me of the anticipation and trepidation felt as a child when my exam results or end of term school report were received. The first is of course harvest, yields being the score card for the team effort of all involved in …
Risky business The financial results are in, and they are good, in fact some of the best of my farming career to date. It would be wonderful now go on to describe how that is all down to the huge savings in fixed and variable costs made through our transition to a zero tillage, regenerative …
Written by Clive Bailye Knowledge is power and it’s exchange is valuable. When I first considered changing the way we farmed I quicky began to realise and understand I didn’t really know how to, I needed to learn, fast.# I sought out others that had the experience and skill set I knew I needed to …
