Farm Diary

That could, however, mean that we are on the way to better things. As the folklore saying goes, 'February fill dyke, be black or be it white, be it white 'tis better to like'.

The jist of this is that white snow is better than black rain and that a cold February will be followed by a fine spring and summer.

We have sprayed any maize stubbles that have weed grasses and any other problem weeds in preparation for muck-spreading and ploughing.

Time is moving on and so far we have less than 100 acres of maize ground mucked and ploughed.

We will have more muck to cart out to the remaining fields over the next month or so but there are another 50 acres ready to spread and that will be done as soon as the spray chemical has had enough time to work.

We are attacking 'bristle grass' and 'barnyard grass', both of which arrived in some of our maize fields last year and are potentially very serious.

They are European grasses and have arrived via the maize seed or more likely on the tyres or in the drills that have been drilling game- cover crops.

These weeds are difficult to control and by hitting them now as they germinate, and again when we spray the new maize crop for weeds, we might sort them out.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette February 6