Crop establishment this spring will require careful management to prevent the change in rotation further compromising crops over the next four years.

Discussing the financial implications of spring cropping on the back of a challenging autumn, Farmacy agronomist Matt Ward told an audience at CropTec: “Don’t mess up what you’re doing with a spring crop, because the 2020 harvest is already massively compromised.

It would be an understatement to say that the weather hasn't been playing ball over the past month.

At time of writing, I have growers who have absolutely nothing drilled, through to a few who have just about planted all of the winter cereals that they had planned to.

Wet conditions are seeing crops drilled into cloddy seed-beds, which won't get rolled before the spring.

Ten leading drill manufacturers are taking part in a trial in Lincolnshire to see how different machines perform when growing cover crops in the rotation.

The field-scale trial is part of ongoing work at Farmacy's Waddingworth demonstration site, at A & A W Pritchard's Redhouse Farm near Woodhall Spa, which for the past three years has hosted various trials investigating the effectiveness of cover cropping options.

Charles Wright is a Farmacy Agronomist based in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire delivering a holistic approach to crop management for his clients. He predicts low establishment of autumn-sown crops after such a wet month, so seek out solutions.

I was determined when I started to write this piece not to talk too much about how challenging it is on farm at the moment – phone calls from clients and colleagues at the minute are very much orientated around frustration and negativity, but at least people are talking.

Precision agronomy is helping a Cambridgeshire grower and his agronomist fine-tune blackgrass control and improve farm performance.

Having taken the plunge and linked his precision farming data with agronomic practices and management decisions, grower Harry Horrell is now able to interrogate multiple layers of information.