Just how challenging this year’s arable cropping has been is summed up by East Riding farmer John Holtby who farms just shy of 1000 acres from his home base of Dowthorpe Hall near Skirlaugh tenanted from The Crown, and at Long Riston.
“I said to a friend the other day, I never go out now because I can’t bear looking at it,” says John, who has farmed at Dowthorpe for 43 years having returned to the home farm following an early career in land management. “My wife Caroline said that it is the wettest she’s known it and I’ve never known it be so wet for so long and having started so early.
“I’ve joined the SFI but I haven’t gone for the crops that would replace rape as yet. I could grow something as a bird cover, which would be fine, but the difficulty I find, even in our current HLS scheme, is getting these various crops to grow. “In theory the payments are great and it looks easy but I’m slightly dubious about going into things that are actually difficult to grow.
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