2020 – A year to forget in every way

While the outside world was turned upside down because of the worldwide pandemic, work on the farm continued pretty much as normal in 2020.  With farming & food production deemed essential we were able to carry out our work in the fields while most other people were at home during the lockdown.  In terms of adhering to the public health guidelines, the nature of the work makes it relatively easy to maintain social distancing.

Spring planting was busy but productive – with last year’s wet autumn made up for by an unusually dry and warm March & April.  The spring corn drilling was straightforward followed by perfect conditions for the potato planting campaign.  A severe drought in June led to a mammoth effort in irrigation on our potato crops.  Reduced cereal and straw yields left us a little disappointed during our grain harvest, although we were fortunate to have dry weather.

It was our second year working with a four row potato harvester which as proved sucessful in terms of time spent harvesting, reduced compaction on soil and getting the winter cereals crops drilled.

In every way 2020 was a year we’d like to forget but, as always from a farming perspective we look ahead with optimism & hope.