Thoughts of summer in February

With the cost of buying summer grazing stock still prohibitive, I began to review my options on what I should commit to for the summer of 2012, farm-wise.

Having diversified into tillage last year, on 40 acres, I have decided to continue with the grain, but will possibly change from spring barley to wheat.

About half of the ground I used last year is probably more suited to wheat, given its slightly heavy nature. I ventured down into one of those ‘heavier’ fields late last week, and was very pleasantly surprised to find it was relatively dry underfoot. The dryness was a result, I suspect, of the extensive drainage works I undertook last year, followed by the ploughing, which seems to have broken the underlying ‘pan.’