In your field - Dan Hawes: "It's a fine balance between being too dry and stressing the plant, and being too wet, risking poor growing conditions"

Dan Hawes grew up on an arable farm in Suffolk and now produces strawberry and raspberry plants for the UK fruit market with Blaise Plants, sister company to Hugh Lowe Farms, Kent. The business grows outside, under tunnels and in glasshouses and produces more than four million plants a year. The arable side includes environmental schemes, with a mix of wheat, oilseed rape, beans and barley crops

clock • 3 min read
In your field - Dan Hawes: "It's a fine balance between being too dry and stressing the plant, and being too wet, risking poor growing conditions"

August has brought a few positives so far – planting of strawberry plants has been completed on time, concluding our busiest time of the year, and the rains at the end of July mean the reservoirs are nicely...

To continue reading...

Already a member? Login for full access.

Login

New to Farmers Guardian? Register for 1 free article per week or become a member for unlimited access to essential farming news and insights.

article-img-580x358
Register for free Join Now

 

More on In your field

In your field: Kate Rowell – "We still look back on the monitor farm experience as a catalyst for the positive growth of our business"
In your field

In your field: Kate Rowell – "We still look back on the monitor farm experience as a catalyst for the positive growth of our business"

Kate is a fifth-generation farmer running the 750-hectare (1,853-acre) Hundleshope Farm on the Haystoun Estate, Peebles, where the family have been tenants for 150 years. She runs the hill unit with her husband Ed and their four children. She is also a vet and chair of Quality Meat Scotland

Kate Rowell
clock 15 February 2026 • 3 min read
In your field: Alan Carter – "I was scared. I have never seen weather like it and having that close a call with a flying roof does make you think about your life"
In your field

In your field: Alan Carter – "I was scared. I have never seen weather like it and having that close a call with a flying roof does make you think about your life"

Alan Carter farms in partnership with his parents, Paul and Christine, on a 162-hectare (400-acre), 400-cow dairy unit at Constantine, Cornwall, with 130 milking cows, supplying Saputo. Alan, also a Parish Councillor, and his wife Sarah, have two children, Ross and Dana

Alan Carter
clock 09 February 2026 • 3 min read
In your field: Dan Hawes – "My brain starts to hurt at this point, so I'm thankful for good records, both on-farm and at the stores"
In your field

In your field: Dan Hawes – "My brain starts to hurt at this point, so I'm thankful for good records, both on-farm and at the stores"

Dan Hawes grew up on an arable farm in Suffolk and now produces strawberry and raspberry plants for the UK fruit market with Blaise Plants, sister company to Hugh Lowe Farms, Kent. The business grows outside, under tunnels and in glasshouses and produces more than four million plants a year. The arable side includes environmental schemes, with a mix of wheat, oilseed rape, beans and barley crops

Dan Hawes
clock 08 February 2026 • 3 min read