Planning is vital

EVER since I started to write this column, I have put in little prophecies or hopes - like last month hoping you would all be finished harvest by the time you read my article. Well, hope springs eternally and I for one shall contine in that vane.

Being involved in agriculture today requires optimism and realism in equal quantities. Wishing alone is not sufficient to see the way ahead, planning with realism is required if you are to have a viable future.

Planning your business is just like planning a journey. You know where you are now and you know where you want to go. You know how much fuel you need, how many stops you want to make and how many passengers you can carry if you are going to arrive on time at your destination with a little fuel left in the tank.

'It's easy for him to use such simple analogies', I hear you cry. Well, every business can be broken down to simple parts and analysed to find the faulty bits. If you don't believe that, then you are only fooling yourself. All businesses are on the journey they just take different routes and some longer than others to get there. Sadly some will get lost, some will break down and some will have to sell the car. Whether you are on the motorway or a back road is not important, it is getting there that counts, planning for success and profit is essential. Do you know if what you are doing now will leave a little fuel in your tank.

At High Mowthorpe, we were fortunate enough to finish harvest before the worst of the weather, although we do have a small acreage of winter linseed left to deal with. Our seed potato crop is being lifted by contractor, which is cheaper and quicker than doing it ourselves, and allows us to concentrate on drilling. Our new winter barley is now emerging and our winter rape is doing well, despite the attention of slugs and cabbage stem flea beetles.

It is still essential to keep checking crops, as wet weather and very mild, damp conditions overnight has kept slug risk and activity on the soil surface high.

With conditions now so wet, and slugs very active, low winter wheat seed rates should be avoided unless you are very confident about establishment. A more "traditional" target from mid-October sowings would be 250+ plants/m which, with establishment likely to be around 70-75pc, would require around 350 seeds/m. Where seedbeds are very rough, expect 60pc establishment, or worse with slug grain hollowing.

These differences in establishment can alter the seed rate by around 30kg/ha, depending on the thousand grain weight. The following formula can be used to adjust the seed rate as the season progresses and as seedbed conditions vary:

Seedrate (kg/ha) = target population (pl/m) x 1000 grain weight divided by percentage establishment.

Potato lifting, nationally, is at about the same stage as last year and should speed up, weather permitting. After two wet seasons in succession, low potash levels can lead to high dry matters and higher bruising damage may then occur. Potatoes are like boxers - one hard knock is disturbing, but a whole series of blows can produce a knockout - an unsaleable crop. Ensure that harvesting operations cause the minimum amount of bruising possible.

ADAS can 'audit' your harvesting procedures to highlight where damage is occurring if it is not immediately apparent. In the harvesting progression, ensure that the crop and soil move smoothly on to the primary web, which should be matching the forward speed of the harvester.

After the wet start, and now an increasingly wet end to the season, blackleg is being found more widely, and as soils approach field capacity more rots will appear. If going into store, reduce the intensity of grading, and aim to pull off material that will cause storage problems.