Safety first in this uncertain future

Time will tell if the weather broke soon and long enough for the arable sector to dodge what was beginning to look like a disaster season. The countryside has been crawling with machinery for two weeks now, and there’s no disguising the anxiety to get crops in the ground after endless weeks of cold, rain and mounting frustration. Last week’s darkening skies made it almost impossible to persuade any farmworkers to pause their tattie planting to let us snap a photograph. That’s pressure.

We’ll find out if the three-week delay in sowing and planting makes a difference at the other end of the year. Even one of the country’s leading agronomists, writing in this magazine, describes the season as “uncharted territory”.

It’s only once everything is in the ground that the industry will get the time to properly assess the body blow of losing neonicotinoids, the looming prospect of operating without other key crop protection products and ever-tightening environmental regulations.

We take a close look here at the products that face the axe and the growing challenges of meeting NVZ regulations.

All the indications are that environmental outcomes will be at the heart of any new British farm policy, so we also carry a sprinkling of the green research currently being undertaken by Scotland’s Rural College, the James Hutton Institute and the AHDB.

There’s a preview of some of the machinery that will be on display at next month’s Cereals 18 event in Cambridgeshire, and in a year which has already seen such tragedy on farms, don’t miss our feature on trailer brakes.

The urgency may be all-consuming right now, but make sure you take the time to stay safe.

The countryside has been crawling with machinery for two weeks.