Over the farm gate - this week kindly supplied by John Latham, AWT Farms & Camgrain Chairman

We have just enjoyed the most benign January I can remember for some time. We recorded just 15mm of rain in January with the last 21 days having just 0.25mm and the forecast is still set fine for the next week. This is causing a flurry of activity on farms across the country. AWT (our joint venture farming business) are now preparing to plant our spring crops on the lighter land here at Wadlow Farm which this year will principally be spring oats with some spring barley behind the sugar beet.

With the game shooting season now finished we had an exceptional sight on the farm yesterday with the sugar beet harvester on the farm along with the combine harvesting the maize game cover crop which still has plenty of cobs full of corn. Next week the farm should be well on its way to being fully drilled.

The autumn drilled crops continue to grow well and will be building resilience by putting a good root structure down and field conditions will allow for an early application of fertiliser to keep crops growing. As is always the case, crop output and quality will be determined by the weather over the critical months of May through to August now they are well established.

We had a shock on our farm at Waltham Hall near Stansted airport when we found Japanese Knot Weed in one of our woods. We will now put in place a five-year plan to eradicate this notifiable weed!

Keep well and safe

John