Apr 2025 I will attempt to keep this politics free. I suppose the joy of farming is that no two years are the same, and 2025’s weather has definitely started on a more positive note than 2024. As I write this, I am finished my spring sowing and it’s all rolled, one full month ahead …
My name is Neil White and I hosted the first Covering Soils event for Direct Driller magazine in Scotland. Having written for the magazine for 4 years, it was a pleasure to be asked to be part of their events programme and representing Scotland! I farm in Berwickshire, just over the border in SE Scotland. …
I’m not going to dwell on the weather but as it is a major factor in what we do, I will say, despite having constant downpours of around 40-50mm we have fared better than most. My rain gauge filled so many times I must admit I gave up emptying it. Colin McGregor, 4 miles away, …
Written September 2023 As I write this the sun shines, almost ironically as the cereals are all cut and only the beans remain to be harvested. It has been a very stop start affair from the very start, but not impossible, and easier and more rewarding than many around the UK have experienced. This is …
January 2023 As I write on this very wet December day (yes very last minute) it’s nice to look back on such a dry year. I wrote in June that the area looked the best it had ever looked, crops were full of potential, and for once they carried that into what was our record-breaking …
As I write I am sure we are all looking forward to Groundswell, getting off the farm is an important thing for many reasons. I still tell people about last years’ experience and how much I learnt. What a time to be a farmer, who could have predicted the chain of events leading up to …
Berwickshire farmer Neil White calls for clarity and equity in their baseline carbon audit on his farm after six years ofNo-till Harvest 2021 was, in the end, better than expected. The crops came out of the wet cold spring looking respectable, but then continually improved to culminate in some top yields and good quality grain …
Harvest now seems like a distant memory; thank goodness you say! We seemed to get away reasonably light here in S.E. Scotland compared to many others around the UK. I still run two systems on some crops, and I can compare the results rather than wonder what if? It started with the poorest crop this …
The 2020 season in the Scottish Borders Neil White’s farming is a constantly evolving system which includes a comparison of Mzuri direct drilling with a ploughcombi in this difficult season. It was a long and wet winter here, crops struggled, but most made it through the relentless rain into a bright, dry but cold spring. …
I farm 155Ha owned at Greenknowe and around 100Ha contract farmed in Berwickshire, Scotland just 6 miles from the border at Coldstream. The land is clay and sandy loam, deep soils, very variable but the best of products to run an arable business on, any limiting factor is probably me! I do all the farm …
