Look around for signs of a good year

Published on Sunday 1 November 2009 19:18

ONE of the joys of the agricultural reporter is touring around the countryside observing the action in the fields. This is a pleasure denied the vast majority of urban travellers, as few understand just what is and what is not happening.

If you doubt the truth of that last comment, I was recently asked what all "these big round things" were in the fields. After a short gap just to confirm I was not the subject of a wind-up, I told him these were straw bales. I then proceeded to inform the questioner just how much he was missing by not being a closer or more observant traveller.

I think it was Brian Pack who first coined the phrase that when following a carload of farmers going through the countryside you could see the "bunnets revolving like lighthouses" as they took in the faults and failings in their neighbours' crops.

Well, in direct contrast with a year ago, where fields were scarred with deep gouges from harvest machinery and crops struggled to emerge from the puddled soil, I have seldom seen the countryside look as well as it does at present.

I am not blinded by the beauty of the colours of the soon-to-fall autumn-tinted leaves, even if this display is pretty special this year. I refer to the level and well-brairded autumn-sown crops.

No doubt a month where the warm winds have come right from the Sahara and where the temperature has seldom dipped into single figures has helped generate this autumn growth.

Admittedly, passing a field of broccoli being harvested last Saturday during a downpour made me hope that shoppers realise the consequences of the "harvest in all weathers" requirement of the modern food supplier.

Incidentally, such has been the effect of the higher-than-normal temperatures that crops of broccoli and cauliflower are ripening so fast that harvesting that was planned to last until Christmas will be completed within the next week or two.

There are no official figures out yet and there will not be for another few months, but any knowledgeable roadside observer will realise that there is far more autumn crop in the ground this back-end compared with the 2008 situation. This was confirmed to me last week by Peter McLellan, of Alexander Harley Seeds in Milnathort, who confirmed that sales of certified winter wheat were as good as they had ever been.

This follows good sales of oilseed rape and, surprisingly for me, also sales of winter oats. Is this more to do with an "anything but spring barley" view from growers, or are we looking at a bigger demand for porridge in these straitened times?

Note these views are for certified seed sales, but they can surely only be replicated by the sowing of farm-saved seed. In fact, it is very, very likely that the acreage of land sown with the farmers' own seed has increased quite a bit. It always happens when sheds are full of good-quality but low-priced cereals.

So the Scottish countryside looks good – and if you believe the adage that one farmer's worst enemy is another farmer, then the grist to this mill is that it has been too dry for good germination in some of the cereal growing areas of England.

A phonecall to a friend in Lincolnshire confirmed that, while his crops went into the ground in good condition, there has been a lack of soil moisture and as a result there are a few crops looking somewhat patchy.

All of this makes me almost feel I am ready for winter. But if I can have a wish it is that it is short, crisp and sharp, so that bugs can get a quick killing before we enter 2010.