The year round: The crop nasties are proving a real headache

At this time of year, just when you think that the crops are looking good, all the nasties start appearing.

We seem to have more volunteer barley in wheat and vice versa than normal.

Our ever-present brome has also made its appearance, despite attempts at chemical treatment.

I have to decide whether the minimum till economies and speed are worth it if we end up with these messy crops.

We do practice rotational ploughing and despite this we still have wheat in barley. Most of the problem is keeping self-respect with the neighbours rather than economic, but that doesn't pay the bills.

The most disappointing thing is that we seem to get the worst problems after rape, which should be one of our cleaning crops, where we can actually kill grass weeds.

I've come to the conclusion that continuous potatoes are the answer to the cereal volunteers and grass weeds – but I guess our potato tenants won't agree with me.

After a fairly dry spring, we got a welcome 40mm of rain just in time.

Although the crops are short and we've lost tillers, I'm confident we could still end up with a decent harvest.

I'm told by my agronomist that I am now her only customer left who still swaths the rape – meaning cutting it and leaving it in rows to dry.

The fashion now is to go blasting through the crop, spraying it off, leaving it stood up for harvest.

I still can't see the benefit, as we have a good draper pickup for the combine and we can harvest 60 acres a day, often without drying.