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While a full on war hasn’t quite broken out the situation in eastern Ukraine continues to teeter on the brink of something tense but no one seems quite sure what. Various official buildings and offices are being taken over by pro-Russian, pro-separatist groups who rally around a single issue agenda of self-rule and have a general distrust of the interim Government in Kiev. Shots have been fired with several deaths reported, journalists have been... 

I’m sat in front of the keyboard to write my first blog and my mind is suddenly blank (cue a chorus of “no change there then”…), so maybe if I introduce myself, give you a bit of background and go from there? My name is Chris, I’m 35, married and live on the family farm in central Warwickshire. The farm is mixed, 100 acres of grass and 30 of arable. The grass is used for small bale hay production (for the horse market),... 

I farm in a Joint Venture operation with two neighbours in Oxfordshire and we combine over 2,000 ha. crops with two Claas 770 combines. We also have rotational silage maize and grass and farm over an area stretching over 20 miles from one end to the other. Soils are generally fairly light running from gravel through chalk to heavier clay cap plus around 160 ha. of free-draining ‘fen land’. We have been extremely fortunate in having a good year... 

Oram and Sons is a family farming business on the north side of the Pewsey Vale in Wiltshire. Six partners in the business include three generations, though my Grandfather is less involved these days than he used to be. The daily running of the farm is down to my father, Philip, my uncle, Richard, cousins Nick and James and myself. In total we farm almost 1,000 Ha., including around 200 Ha. share-farmed plus bits and pieces of rented land. We have... 

Harvest 2013 is now well and truly underway with many winter barley crops now harvested and progress has been made with some spring barley and winter wheat. Winter OSR has been the most variable with some farms finished, some not started and some have the 2013 and the 2014 crops both in the ground! I have also have seen some crops of borage in Essex which have been swathed and harvested. Hyvido winter barley has provided some outstanding yields this... 

Harvest started in the southwest with blazing sun and a blaze of activity, summer showers have now slowed progress as combines wade their way through mottled crops of oilseed rape , oats and spring barley. Wheat is largely an aspiration for the middle of next week. Quality on winter barleys has been superb with our boldest Cassia sample over 70 kg/hl and a thousand grain weight of 58 grams, yields have been variable but generally good. The Pearce... 

I farm at Abingdon in Oxfordshire on about 2,500 acres with 1,000 milking goats and we also fatten beef cattle. We have around 2,000 acres of arable plus grass and maize, on a range of soil types. Production is predominantly Winter Wheat (1,200 acres normally) though this year we only managed to get in around 200 acres, on the light land, so have mainly Spring crops this time. In fact we drilled an additional 150 acres of Winter Wheat at the end of...