All cereals are hopefully gathered in. What an August!
Bales waiting to be picked up.
More rain than the rest of the year and an increase in wheat price of 50%. I like many others started my sales at £100. Luckily as a seed grower I have some to sell at the higher price. One of the compensations of being a milling wheat grower is that the high premiums have made up for the shortfall. Yes, it would have been easier to just grow feed. Now there’s a thought…
I was feeling the same about my potato contracts but the market has come back a long way. Those who harvest early will have done well. The rest of the season will be interesting. The premium samples as usual will get the high prices. Always best to go for quality. Now there’s another thought…
What will this do to rent? I expect there will be notices on both sides. Don’t lose sight of all the increases in costs and the issues of volatility. I expect landlord’s budgets will be at least £10 long on wheat prices. Futures may be high, but we live in a volatile market. There is also the issue of increased seed cost and the lack of availability of crop protection products driving the price up. With increased grain prices the costs for dairy, beef and sheep will all rise as fertiliser and feed are all affected.
Fixing the sprayer
We have harvested sugar beet on the heavy end of the farm. It has looked well all year despite the drought. The late rain has bulked it up considerably and made lifting conditions ideal. It has had a pretty disastrous effect on the sugar content, with the factory average at less than 16%. Our own is about 15.6%, where we would normally expect much higher. This has resulted in rounding down of adjusted tonnes and that will make it likely that we will not produce our contract tonnage. I expect many will be in the same position after making decisions based on last year.
The ram is in and having had no grass we now have plenty. We established stubble turnips as we looked short of feed. They and the rape have established well. Seedbeds look excellent having been sumo-ed and pressed. Even after beet they have come down really well. Potato harvest and drilling are just around the corner. It really does amaze me just how quickly it all comes round.
Weather permitting all will be complete by November when I have a very full diary of meetings on your behalf. I am looking forward to them as they have always produced so much. The new team at Defra have cut their teeth. We at last seem to have an opportunity to control bTB. I realise from talking to members affected that with this opportunity comes great responsibility and even more difficult questions. We will do all we can to ensure whatever happens is effective. I hope to welcome Caroline Spelman on to my own farm in November and we will be pushing forward with our 2020 Vision and much more besides of importance to tenants and the tenanted sector.
Harvesting the over wintered mustard
