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After a gap for several reasons, I hope to keep the diary a bit more
current again.
2007 was an uneventful year until harvest when prices, fuelled by speculators
increased dramatically. Many farmers had sold their
wheat crop 'forward' for under £100/tonne and most were in the £100
to £130 selling range, which seemed very good when the deals were
done in April given that previously for several years
prices had trundled along at £60- £75. At harvest prices
of £180 were not uncommon and almost reached £200 at one
point. Realistically if wheat had kept up with general
inflation it should be over £440/tonne anyway. Things settled down
through the winter to around the £140-£150 mark which was
a price most people would be happy with. The increase
is very welcome as it gives farmers the chance to update
machinery which in many cases is long overdue. Unfortunately
machinery manufacturers have seen it as an opportunity
to gain some extra profit.
After the welcome increase in produce prices in 2007, input prices are
at an all-time high, but cereal prices have slipped
by 50% from last years high. The greatest rise is in
fertilisers where Triple Super Phosphate(TSP = 46%
P )has risen from £200 last
October to over £600 now, Muriate of Potash (MOP = 60% K ) has
risen from £170 to over £400. Ammonium nitrate which rose
sharply last year because of market manipulation by
the three big manufacturers, rose from £150 in 2007 to £390
currently. Fuel also has more than doubled in price
- a large amount due to increased taxation. Wheat is
currently at the £120 mark
for harvest movement.
I have bought all my Nitrogen requirements for next year, and it as
all on farm by July, including some ammonium sulphate
(21% N, 60% S ) and one load of 28.6.6 (28% N, 6% P,
6% K ) whether I have done the right thing or not remains
to be seen. On the P & K front, I think it is too expensive
at present to treat all fields and will only apply
to fields with a soil index of 2 or less. For an explanation
of soil indices click
here. (External site -.pdf).
The intention was to start winter barley harvest tomorrow as the grain
was at 17% moisture yesterday - I prefer to cut at
16% or below if possible to save the cost of drying
which has also doubled. However some rain this morning
(18mm) has given things a good soaking and it is doubtful
whether we will get going this weekend as the forecast
is not very good. Glyphosate was sprayed on the barley
to aid ripening on 18/07/08.
Canola was treated with 1.5 kg of Roundup Max (glyphosate) on 25/07/08
and the effects of that can be seen already. It normally
takes around 18 to 21 days to fully ripen the crop.
Wheat is starting to change colour and should be ready to spray in around
10 days time although some second wheats are now ripening
faster due to the effects of take-all which is very
prevalent this year.
July was spent basically getting ready for harvest. Some modifications
to a grain store have been done and increased storage
for 'wet' grain coming off the combine created. Wild
oats were 'rogued' by hand and this was a bigger job
than normal as I found the wild oat control by herbicide
was extremely variable. Crops sprayed at the 'optimum'
time in May had more wild oats surviving than those
sprayed very close to the end of the window in June.
The high point has been the arrival of a new tractor - a New Holland
T6080 which was ordered in January and finally arrived
on 28/07/08. I have been getting to grips with the
electronics but unfortunately I don't have any serious
work for it at present. The 8360 which it replaces
left in April and is on a local farm.
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The new New Holland T6080 |
The armrest controls. |
Rear view of the T6080 showing
the 650 tyres. |
A Sumo Trio has (http://www.sumo-direct.co.uk/)been
ordered to increase the amount of min-till I do but this has also been
delayed and seems unlikely to arrive in time for the Canola sowing in
mid-August.
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