COMBINING began at Poolham Hall Farm on July 25 in a good crop of Saffron winter barley.

 

The yield was a pleasant three and a half tons per acre and this will be fed to our fattening cattle throughout the winter months.

 

The straw was baled and is stored under cover.

 

I have started to offer this in round bale feeders to the suckler cows as the grassland is currently suffering in the extreme heat and with ammonium nitrate at more than £350 per ton there is no way the grass justifies a dressing at this time.

 

The second crop to be combined was winter oilseed rape.

 

The acreage of rapeseed nationally has dropped considerably this year so I expected the price to remain buoyant throughout the season.

 

However, in the last month the price has fallen more than £40 per ton even though nationally yields appear to be below the five year average.

 

Fortunately yields in the Horncastle district seem to be quite good and this should buffer the lower price for us.

 

By the beginning of this month I had only combined one field of winter wheat.

 

The variety is Cordiale and as it is a milling wheat I started threshing at 18 per cent moisture to try and guarantee its quality, knowing that drying costs would be incurred.

 

It is vitally important to farmers that we have a hot dry August so the sun dries the corn in the field, rather than using the expensive electric and diesel in our dryers.

 

Finally I cannot complete this article without mentioning the Government's response to the culling of infected badgers in tuberculosis hotspots.

 

The view taken by Hillary Benn was scientifically unsound and morally indefensible.

 

I have spoken to two retired vets who were both involved in virtually eradicating TB in the 1950s and both say the control of infected badger sets is vital to the success of controlling TB in cattle.

 

It would appear that appeasing animal welfare groups has a higher political weight than the welfare of cattle and the health of the nation.