I farm: “Just under 1,000ac, a mixture of owned and leased, with my father, Gene. The land is hilly, with a variety of soils. It’s mainly medium land here because we’re on top of gravel on this farm. Some of the other land we have would have a very high clay content, with heavy ground.”
2021: “It was a tricky enough start to the harvest. We had a lot of rain early on that delayed it, but once we got going it was fine. Now we’re trying to finish off sowing and spraying. We’ve to start pulling beet and we have maize to harvest this week too.”
Garrett says too many rules and regulations stifles innovation. \ Claire Nash
Sowing: “The sowing season so far hasn’t been too bad. We have the usual combinables – winter wheat, winter oats and we have some winter rye in this year. No beans this year, because we are getting on well in the autumn sowing. All going to plan, we’ll have less spring crops.”
Straw incorporation: “We did chop some straw for the scheme, where it suited. We didn’t exceed it but we had to keep some straw back for customers. We would have chopped more if we could have.”
Weather: “Dictates everything, we’re battling it all the time in this job. It’s either too wet or too dry. You want it windy to dry it out, but then you can’t spray and you’re looking for a calm day.”
Direct drilling: “We don’t do any direct drilling as of yet. It’s minimum tillage, so we try to get away without ploughing if we can, but I wouldn’t rule out direct drilling in the future.”
Gene says there are a lot of farmers hanging over rails in the sales, whinging about not making money, but doing nothing. \ Claire Nash
Grain: “You should never sell grain forward at a bad price, whatever about a good price. You’re guaranteeing a bad year if you sell it at a bad price.”
Family farm: “I don’t know what that is anymore, it seems idyllic, that’s gone now. I work with my father, but we’re in agribusiness. Farming is an under-appreciated skill, there needs to be an incentive for young lads to get into farming, to give the likes of us the chance to hire people and pay them well.”
Quotable quote: “Machinery is our biggest addiction. Growing crops is only an excuse.”
I farm: “Just under 1,000ac, a mixture of owned and leased, with my father, Gene. The land is hilly, with a variety of soils. It’s mainly medium land here because we’re on top of gravel on this farm. Some of the other land we have would have a very high clay content, with heavy ground.”
2021: “It was a tricky enough start to the harvest. We had a lot of rain early on that delayed it, but once we got going it was fine. Now we’re trying to finish off sowing and spraying. We’ve to start pulling beet and we have maize to harvest this week too.”
Garrett says too many rules and regulations stifles innovation. \ Claire Nash
Sowing: “The sowing season so far hasn’t been too bad. We have the usual combinables – winter wheat, winter oats and we have some winter rye in this year. No beans this year, because we are getting on well in the autumn sowing. All going to plan, we’ll have less spring crops.”
Straw incorporation: “We did chop some straw for the scheme, where it suited. We didn’t exceed it but we had to keep some straw back for customers. We would have chopped more if we could have.”
Weather: “Dictates everything, we’re battling it all the time in this job. It’s either too wet or too dry. You want it windy to dry it out, but then you can’t spray and you’re looking for a calm day.”
Direct drilling: “We don’t do any direct drilling as of yet. It’s minimum tillage, so we try to get away without ploughing if we can, but I wouldn’t rule out direct drilling in the future.”
Gene says there are a lot of farmers hanging over rails in the sales, whinging about not making money, but doing nothing. \ Claire Nash
Grain: “You should never sell grain forward at a bad price, whatever about a good price. You’re guaranteeing a bad year if you sell it at a bad price.”
Family farm: “I don’t know what that is anymore, it seems idyllic, that’s gone now. I work with my father, but we’re in agribusiness. Farming is an under-appreciated skill, there needs to be an incentive for young lads to get into farming, to give the likes of us the chance to hire people and pay them well.”
Quotable quote: “Machinery is our biggest addiction. Growing crops is only an excuse.”
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