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April 2020 Dairy Farming edition

Following its split with John Deere, Lincolnshire-based machinery dealer, Sharmans Agriculture is the latest addition to the Case IH dealership network.

My goodness, even my relentless cheerfulness is struggling as wave after wave of bad news on Covid-19 is broadcast each hour.

Well, this is a funny one. We live in very strange times and now we are nearing the end of lambing time there is time to reflect.

We have now almost completed the spring work, with spring barley coming through the ground fairly evenly and its top dressing of fertiliser being applied at the end of last week.

The coronavirus has shown we can pull together as a community to get things done. We must keep the same spirit to push on with Brexit, says David Herbert, a South Welsh smallholder producing eggs and poultry.

NFU crops board chair, Matt Culley is a fourth generation farmer from Hampshire working in partnership with his parents and brother. The 720-hectare enterprise produces wheat, barley, oilseed rape, forage maize and rye for AD across varying soil types, from chalk and chalk loam to clay cap.

In conjunction with Bayer we will be keeping track of winter wheat crop development this season as emergence is likely to be variable following the challenging conditions.

OSR growers at the latest Syngenta iOSR group meeting highlighted their commitment to their most profitable break crop, but reinforced the need for a better understanding of establishment to achieve more consistent results.