Will it rain, will it rain enough, will it rain too much? The weather has a new normal at the moment with long dry spells then torrential rain. We had a very wet end to last year and now it has been very dry for a lot of us this year. Here we had two weeks of heavy rain in February but nothing else for the year and the ground is in a good condition for planting. Even the heaviest fields are still raw underneath but are workable. Will this continue with long dry summers and then long wet autumn's? Will it switch around! Who knows but it will be a challenge as always to get everything done at the right time, keep crops watered and fed and get them into store in as perfect a condition as possible.

It has been a very dry January and February with even the heaviest fields drying out now. Crops to the south of the UK are going in early, good or bad, time will tell. Fields are ploughed and ready to go. Will the weather break soon, will it forget to stop raining when it starts or will it be another beast from the east and bring weeks of cold and snow. Nobody knows. We will take it as it comes as usual and make the best job we can.

Two weeks ago we were planting in soils that were dry to very dry and in places struggling to get enough moisture to form a bed. There were odd pockets of water logging in fields from all the rain up to March that had not completely drained away. People were thinking of a drought and winter cereals on heavier ground and fields due to be planted in vegetables were already being irrigated. As with a lot of weather these days it seems to be more erratic, when its dry its very dry and when it rains it really does rain. All parts of the UK differ and monsoon style rain can hit one region and no rain in the next but it gives us something to talk about! If we had sunshine all day and then light rain at night all year round many discussions would have no where to…