October 2025
I am sat here writing this and it’s raining; raining for what feels like the first time this autumn! But I am sat here content. Land work here in East Anglia is generally all up to date, and it’s finally a quieter week for most of the arable farming network.
2022 was the only time in my farm management career that I got all operations finished in October. Potatoes lifted ✓ Cereals all drilled ✓ Land all rolled ✓ Herbicides all sprayed ✓ Now, after a couple of hell-like autumns, 2025 has taken 2022’s title of being the most straightforward autumn (and all summer, if we are being honest) that I have experienced in farming.
It would be remiss of me not to mention how dry it’s been. We are just over half the average amount of rainfall to date this year.
It has been two years since I last wrote for Direct Driller. I was then one year post-leaving full-time employment and still exploring paths to take. I can now confidently say I have found a balance where I am happier than I have been for a long time.
My working time is split nicely between building my business, Thrive In Farming, and carrying out operations on a 3,300ha arable business in West Suffolk — a split that works for me perfectly. I have always enjoyed hands-on farming, which I am still able to do, but having my own business as well gives me the flexibility I crave. There is no ceiling to what I can earn or achieve with it, and that is the most exciting element for me, compared to my previous employed life.
Farming-wise, over the past few months, it has been busy but relatively straightforward. Spring drilling was completed in perfect conditions in late February. I established 400ha of oats and barley with the 12m Condor drill into land that was cultivated the previous summer and sown with an over-winter cover crop. Doing that cultivation well ahead of winter is the key to this system and allows us to then direct drill in the spring and conserve moisture in the seedbed.
Combinable harvest started on the 26th of June, this being the earliest start to a harvest that I have ever been involved in. With land being cleared early, this gave us a fantastic window to get summer catch crops drilled. The 12m Avatar did this with ease into extremely dry seedbeds; however, it was several weeks and well into August before these catch crops got going.
OSR was sown for the first time in a few years; this was all mixed with some companions. Fifty per cent found some moisture and got away. A quick decision was made not to persevere with the very poorly emerged crop, and this was turned around and drilled with WC triticale.
Autumn drilling was carried out with three drills: the Condor, Avatar and a new Horsch Finer, the latter doing most of the drilling into cultivated ground. Having the large tine drill and disc drill, complemented with the mounted tine drill, meant we were always on top of drilling and could do 200ha days when needed — which was not that often this autumn, if truth be told! But it’s reassuring that the capacity is there when needed!
The Claydon drill made an appearance towards the end of drilling, to establish 70ha of wheat following sugar beet. A quick pass with the carrier to level things and then straight in with the Claydon was all that was needed after the beet was lifted in fantastic early conditions.
So now that field work is nearly all wrapped up (there is about 60ha of wheat to do after the next beet lift), my focus turns to my recruitment and retainment work. I have worked with some fantastic farm businesses over the past two years, finding them good people to fill important roles and helping them to keep great people.
I am very bullish about the fact that I firmly believe there are lots of amazing jobs on farms around the UK AND there are lots of very skilled and exciting people out there that want to have careers on farms. What I am trying hard to do is connect these people and businesses — something which I think has been needed for a while now.
Staying with the theme of this publication, over the past 18 months, I’ve helped fill two roles centred around supporting farm businesses as they transition to regenerative farming systems. Both were taken on by highly talented and driven women who are already making a huge impact on their farms. It’s brilliant to see forward-thinking farms investing in people who can help drive change from the soil up!
Other exciting things on the timeline for this winter…
- Attending my first OFC. I have been kindly invited to be part of a panel which will discuss Skills & Opportunities in the Food & Farming Sector.
- Launching a brand-new network aimed specifically at farm staff. My goals are to bring people together and build a community where farm staff can develop, learn and lean on each other (and me!).
- Building on the fun I had over summer with sharing recipes and meal ideas from my tractor cab — look out for a recipe ebook that will bring together my (and invited others’) ideas for simple, high-protein recipes.
Despite the dry weather making things feel straightforward for operations this summer and autumn, it has still felt like a very drawn-out affair. The early harvest and lack of wet days have meant working hours haven’t been crazy, but at the same time things seem to have just carried on ticking over — if that makes sense?! R&R should now be at the forefront of most people’s minds. I, for one, am looking forward to getting back into my winter routine: more dog walks, more family time and more time focused on doing the things I love outside of farming!
Take care
Ben
IG – @thriveinfarming
Linkedin – Ben Martin
