16th September 2026
Smith’s Soapbox: Burgeoning bureaucracy?
My mum passed away in July, so the worrying news is that I’m now an orphan. She was 95 and increasingly infirm so it was a bitter-sweet moment. We were sad to see her go, but…
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27th August 2026
Smith’s Soapbox: The Spanish harvest of 2026
It’s said the reason us British are obsessed with the weather is because it’s unpredictable and in a state of constant change, hence it’s in need of comment. If that’s the case then the ‘groundhog…
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27th July 2026
Smith’s Soapbox: Bad timing, good timing, two timing
It’s a good old farming chestnut to ask arable farmers which they fear the most – a very wet year or a very dry year? The answer is usually subjectively coloured by the flavour of…
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23rd June 2026
Smith’s Soapbox: The spectre of the early reaper
One October morning, roughly a generation ago, I recollect arriving at my parent’s breakfast table with the proud news my wife was expecting, the due date being mid-July. Predictably, my mother was full of tearful…
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24th May 2026
Smith’s Soapbox: Unholy trinity
I’ll confess to having had a field or two of crops in the past that have come to very little, to the point you’d have wondered if I’d bothered to actually farm them. But, I’ve…
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23rd April 2026
Smith’s Soapbox: Little white prills and big red bills
It’s a well-worn observation that you don’t appreciate things until you don’t have them. When it comes to global food supplies, that’s most certainly true of fertiliser at the moment.
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20th March 2026
Smith’s Soapbox: Spinning the wheel
As the first spring flowers poke their noses into the air, we can be assured the winter conference season has come to an end. Hopefully we’ve emerged from those darkened auditoriums with a refreshed sense of…
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12th February 2026
Smith’s Soapbox: Fifty year low point
I thought I’d introduce ‘Buddy’, our new Jack Russell terrier. Apart from having a life-long admiration for the breed, a key driver was the news I can no longer purchase rat poison strong enough unless…
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12th December 2025
Smith’s Soapbox: Known unknowns
The news that this year’s harvest area for UK oilseed rape was the lowest figure since 1983 has made rather grim reading. Given the crop was still in its introductory phase on most arable farms in…
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21st October 2025
Smith’s Soapbox: Blue or red?
There was an old adage that did the rounds, that UK agriculture was better off under a Labour government than a Tory one. Like many pearls of wisdom, it didn’t stand up to much analysis,…
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26th September 2025
Smith’s Soapbox: Watch this space
My father was one of those post-war farmers where the success of the crop was determined by what you did before you sowed the seed, as opposed to what you did to the crop afterwards.…
