13th October 2023
Smith’s Soapbox: Scrum down
It’s been a slow start to this autumn’s drilling campaign on account of a long and impatient wait for rain. Having said that I know that for others this autumn has been more the case…
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Opinion
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13th October 2023
Nature Natters: The weather dice – when to drill or not to drill
Our autumns are becoming increasingly unpredictable, bringing with it the gamble of when to drill. Last year, we had a dry summer and autumn with little opportunity to germinate volunteers and weeds. This year has…
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21st August 2023
Smith’s Soapbox: Water torture
When, in a wet summer, you’re harvesting crops that suffered from a spring drought, it’s difficult to not think there’s a vindictive weather god in charge, or that you must have done something very wrong in…
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21st August 2023
Nature Natters: Decisions, decisions, decisions
The past few weeks we've been going over and over our crop rotation for the year ahead. When we're doing the budget for some of our break crops, they can look challenging in making a…
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21st August 2023
Talking Taties: Is regen a threat or an opportunity?
I know I’m not the most enthusiastic irrigator operator, but talk about a chalk and cheese season! In Yorkshire, we’ve got away fairly lightly as far as torrential downpours go, but fields are beginning to…
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24th July 2023
Talking Taties: The good, the bad, and (you might say) the ugly
Andrew Wilson doesn't know if it’s his age, but this year is roaring past far too quickly. It doesn’t seem five minutes since spring and suddenly it’s the first week of July and the barley…
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24th July 2023
Smith’s Soapbox: Over-twittered harvest yields
As the dust starts to fly and combines get into the thick of harvest 2023, its time for a re-fresher on the rules of Pub yields – now, more modernly, known as the rules of…
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24th July 2023
Nature Natters: Alternative ideas aren’t the enemy of good practice
As the summer show season comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on what seems to be a groundswell of change happening. Many farmers are quietly getting on with making changes to their farming practices,…
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30th June 2023
Talking Taties: Well, has patience paid off?
As I write this in late May the last of the N is on the combinable crops, and all are romping through growth stages apace. T2 fungicide is on most of the wheat, and the…
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30th June 2023
Smith’s Soapbox: Half right, half wrong
When it comes to making decisions, I suffer from the ‘half-right, half wrong’ school of farming. By way of example, last autumn I couldn’t decide whether to spray the rather expensive Luximo (cinmethylin) herbicide or…
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30th June 2023
Nature Natters: Silver-bullet solutions for weather woes?
The legacy of last year's dry weather has announced itself in this year’s harvest. Travelling around the farm over the past month or two, I’ve observed the dreaded blackgrass rearing its unwelcomed head in many…
