18 years ago, we bought our first self-propelled sprayer and it revolutionized access to land, it was light and well balanced and made fertilizer and crop protection applications easy. Our timeliness and the ruts we used to leave in tramlines all but disappeared. Back then If you had told me I would ever consider running …
A baptism of fire into Direct Drilling They say if you want to see the sunshine you have to weather the storm. That couldn’t be truer of this year. From one of the wettest starts to spring followed by the hottest start to summer I can remember in my 34 years. The first ever crop …
Farming mostly light soils is easy, isn’t it? I’m often told I farm “Boys’ land” and well, I guess in many ways it is. A bigger working window, low slug and blackgrass pressure all seem to make life that bit easier for me than colleagues on proper heavy clay “man’s land”. My gap year from …
“To bale or not to bale” Life is full of compromises! Any of you who have been married for more than a few years will know this is to be true! I love my wife dearly and without her I’d be completely lost. Not only is she a wonderful woman, mother and cook. She also …
It’s now been well over a year since I wrote my first Farmer Focus piece and I have continued to learn as I go on with our strip-tillage system having had some good and not so good results on the way. As with a lot of farming much can depend on the weather, and despite …
Progressive Farmer – Alex ShutesI’m Alex Shutes – @Shutesy on The Farming Forum, 28 years old, a graduate from Harper Adams University in 2012 and now a farm manager on a 200ha all arable farm in Essex. We grow Oilseed Rape, Wheat, W Barley, S Barley and S Beans on a 7 year rotation but with the …
