²ÝÁñÉçÇø

We have never seen spinach grow so fast, with some crops taking just 22-23 days from drilling to harvest. Spinach struggles in the extreme heat or in cold conditions, but loves this ‘nothingy' weather we have had - mid-high teens and plenty of moisture about.

The pumpkins and squash are also loving this weather and are looking great. Good establishment and lots of flowering and fruiting leaves us hopeful we may have a bumper crop.

The only catch is the weeds are also pretty happy. Hopefully we will be in for an easy October so the crowds come out in force again to visit the pick-your-own.

Although not conducive to combining, this weather has given us the perfect conditions to get cover crops drilled and established quickly.

With the help of good neighbours, we got the winter barley in ahead of most of the rain. Adam said it was his favourite day on-farm so far, although it was missing that dusty, balmy summer night feel which typically comes with harvest.

We still have the oats to cut, but hopefully with a dry spell in the forecast, these will be safely in the shed soon.

Despite the excitement of harvest, the cereals will make a loss. It just goes to show how little hope such a small tenant farm has of turning a profit.

Obviously this farm is part of a bigger business and we are lucky to be on high grade soils with irrigation, so we have the potential to grow high-value crops, such as babyleaf or herbs, to offset this, but what chance does someone on trickier soils have?

When we took on the council farm tenancy, we recruited a land agent from Brown and Co to help us work out what we might be eligible for, having never had access to any Government grants or funding before.

We are in quite a unique situation to many farmers, who are losing the Basic Payment Scheme. Taking on the council farm's Farm Business Tenancy has opened up a lot more funding opportunities for us, and with the help of Tim, we have put together a Sustainable Farming Incentive plan.

There is nothing in it that we are not already doing, so for us it is a no-brainer, and the fact it is paid quarterly will ease cashflow.

The lack of support for new entrants in agriculture is something I bang the drum about frequently, but we are lucky to have some amazing organisations out there who are making a real difference.

In 2019, when we first started out on our own, we were very lucky to receive a scholarship from the Henry Plumb Foundation.

Meeting the late, great Lord Plumb was an honour and it gave us a real confidence boost that a team of such highly regarded businesspeople had faith in our plan.

We put the money towards accommodation on-farm, which helped to ease our staffing issues, and we found the mentorship programme invaluable.

The next round of scholarships closes at the beginning of September and I would urge any new entrants with a strong business plan, looking for some support, to look into it.