Blogs

This week from Farmers Guardian editor Olivia Midgley (September 22)

Phil Warham has been an agronomist with Agrovista for six years. He gained a degree in Land and Farm Management at Harper Adams and managed farms for several years afterwards. He now advises on combinable crops, cereals, maize and vining peas in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and into Leicestershire. Key interests include direct drilling and soil health, as well as making farms profitable. In his spare time he is a keen runner, cyclist and horseman.

George Swann is an independent agronomist, member of Arable Alliance and proud member of the Association of Independent Crop Consultants (AICC). He covers south Yorkshire, north Nottinghamshire and north Lincolnshire. George has a BSc (Hons) degree in Biology, is BASIS and FACTS qualified and also has BASIS Advanced Potatoes. George's expertise lies in helping his clients achieve maximum output whilst remaining as economical and sustainable as possible for the future.

Kate farms alongside her husband Jim on their farm near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. Farming 122 ha (300 acres), the main enterprise consists of 800 breeding ewes and cider made on site from their orchards. She is a Mum of two, runs ‘Kate’s Country School’ on farm and is the Woodland Creation Officer for Stump Up For Trees. 

Mid-August and the weather continues to challenge us; in our case for silage making. Sneaking odd days is the best we have managed but quantity and quality have been surprisingly good for late summer.  

It all began with my dad having a hernia operation, which meant I would be running the yard, and that was not really a big deal.

I don't understand how social media algorithms work, nor if your devices are really listening to you all of the time, but it certainly seems that way sometimes, when your social feeds show an advert that exactly fits your life.

I was writing my last piece just as I had finished evening milking at the start of our once-a-day milking for two months.