Every year is different.

Over the last week, for the first time in some years, we had two trees blown down in one of the recent periods of high wind.

One fell harmlessly across a lane, but the other fell right across a roadside field gate, which will probably need replacing, but we will have a proper look at it when we get the tree cut up. Nobody was hurt and as far as I could see, no other damage was done, so it all could have been much worse.

Straw

Meanwhile, I have never seen straw move so quickly after harvest.

Normally, once the big 5x4x4 bales are safely stacked, I wonder if they will ever be moved, but this year there is practically nothing left after the 2023 harvest – and the 2022 straw, which seemed to sit there indefinitely, is long gone.

Most of my straw – especially the wheaten straw – goes for the mushroom trade, so I can only come to the conclusion that there must be some buoyancy back in the mushroom business.

Everybody seems to have the view that, from March on, the composters will be dependent on straw from Britain.

If that’s the case this year, then with the difficulty in getting winter wheat sown in the autumn just gone by, the dependence on British straw will only grow.

There seemed to be concerns of importing black grass in UK straw, but I’m told under trade rules, there is nothing that can be done about that or about seed contamination.

We also seem to have had an influx of crows. This year, they don’t seem to be attacking the wheat, but the backward oilseed rape.

Normally, I would expect the pigeons to be the main pests of our oilseed rape, but so far, there are very few.

As I mentioned before, the oilseed rape crops are backward and with the plant population looking low, the crop can’t afford any setback, so we will keep as good an eye as possible and discourage them with occasional shooting.

Beans

In the crops, the seed wheat after the beans is becoming unsightly-looking as the volunteer beans emerge.

I used be very concerned, as they outpaced the wheat, but, in fact, over the years, they have proved to be easy to control.

On the money front, we have now received the eco element of the second BISS payment. The drop compared to last year is very significant, so we are really seeing the effects of the convergence and front-loading policies.