I'm Back - With A Couple Of Observations
Having driven fairly extensively around the North, East and Midlands this past week, maintaining the blog has taken a bit of a backseat. Blog devotees will be please to know that I am back from my travels and plan on going nowhere now for the rest of the week.
One thing that struck me whilst out and about is the number of unplanted fields around at the moment. Possibly more so than even last year, particularly around the Humber.
With barley about as popular as a ginger-haired stepson at the moment, I doubt very much that these unplanted acres will be going into spring cereals. Spring rape performed pretty well this year so maybe that is the plan? I guess it could be considering that soybean prices have held up reasonably well compared to wheat over recent months.
The wisdom of increasing rapeseed production shortly after of a record US soybean crop, and potentially record output from both Brazil and Argentina in the spring, might look questionable come next summer though.
Another thing that struck me is how dry it is everywhere, we certainly had a very dry September, and October is shaping up to go the same way.
The radio this morning is full of the story that Gordon Brown is warning of drought, floods and heatwaves, unless global governments get their arses into gear before crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.
Mind you they were also reporting when asked what his favourite type of biscuit was he took 24 hours to formulate a reply. A man who takes a full day to prevaricate over the virtues of a chocolate hobnob vis-a-vis a custard cream perhaps isn't to be trusted to speed up a reappraisal in attitude to climate change in my humble opinion.
"Anything coated in chocolate," was his in-depth reply, just in case you were wondering. I always knew he was attracted to Jaffa's.
One thing that struck me whilst out and about is the number of unplanted fields around at the moment. Possibly more so than even last year, particularly around the Humber.
With barley about as popular as a ginger-haired stepson at the moment, I doubt very much that these unplanted acres will be going into spring cereals. Spring rape performed pretty well this year so maybe that is the plan? I guess it could be considering that soybean prices have held up reasonably well compared to wheat over recent months.
The wisdom of increasing rapeseed production shortly after of a record US soybean crop, and potentially record output from both Brazil and Argentina in the spring, might look questionable come next summer though.
Another thing that struck me is how dry it is everywhere, we certainly had a very dry September, and October is shaping up to go the same way.
The radio this morning is full of the story that Gordon Brown is warning of drought, floods and heatwaves, unless global governments get their arses into gear before crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.
Mind you they were also reporting when asked what his favourite type of biscuit was he took 24 hours to formulate a reply. A man who takes a full day to prevaricate over the virtues of a chocolate hobnob vis-a-vis a custard cream perhaps isn't to be trusted to speed up a reappraisal in attitude to climate change in my humble opinion.
"Anything coated in chocolate," was his in-depth reply, just in case you were wondering. I always knew he was attracted to Jaffa's.
