Andy Baird

@howemill @bet_till @CaraCam22 I’ve also done my own audits and got SAC to sign off the recommendations using the consultancy time available through our annual SAC subscription, which costs much less than £500. Used the subscription invoice as payment evidence and that was fine 👍🏻

@bet_till @CaraCam22 Haha - no offence to Cara but I’m pretty sure SAC can be some of the worst for this! Would love to be proved wrong 😀

Are there any Scottish FBAASS accredited Ag consultants who AREN’T charging £500 to do the approximately 1 hours work it takes to read a carbon audit and make a couple of recommendations? Grant support amount seems to be driving the cost of the work 🙄

For Sale: Perfect “Starter Flock” 6 Grassroots Registered Valais Blacknose Ewes 🐑 PM for more details 👍

Yesterday and today have been the two wettest days of the year for us. Don’t think the combine will be coming out tomorrow!

@kelso_farmer @wjtwheatrig I emailed about passports last week and this was the fairly curt reply I got. I know it’s early but we’ve got barley sat in the shed now that can’t go anywhere.

@wjtwheatrig Can't cut yet - no passports for harvest 2023

Thumbs up from the ripeness inspectors, not quite convinced yet!

Cracking job opportunity for the right person. Either message me direct or call Jamie on the number provided. Please retweet.

Not something you see every day here! Someone that lives on the farm caught this great moment of an otter trotting past her house with a young rabbit for lunch!

@BenAdamsAgri Interesting to see the molybdenum levels are so high. Is that reflected in your soils too? Molybdenum is the one element that is consistently very low in both our soil and YEN grain analysis results.

Leaf test results are back, confirming what was expected from field walks. Mostly a lack of Mg&S as can be seen from the yellowing of older leaves. This Extase won’t have a T0 fungicide. May also chuck in some foliar urea, fish hydrolysate, humic acid plus some P for rooting.

I reported a problem with our weather station to @SencropUK last Monday and after remotely detecting a defect, they had a replacement unit to us on the farm by Thursday. Top service and support 👍🏻

Couldn’t have asked for better conditions this morning to have ours and our neighbour’s fertiliser spreaders tested. Thanks to @TheSpreaderGuys for making sure our old Amazone spreaders are fit for another season!

I always find these meetings really valuable and come away with plenty to think about. Thanks very much for getting involved @JulieAnnClark2

@AlistairHodge @afgroupuk @TheFarmingForum Nirvana and Stomp Aqua

@Harpertoun @afgroupuk @TheFarmingForum What chemicals were you looking for Andy

Ordered spring bean pre-em herbicide through @afgroupuk this week. One chemical is 147% of what it cost this time last year, the other is 178%… is anyone else seeing this level of inflation in spring ag-chem prices? @TheFarmingForum

@farminginfife @afgroupuk @TheFarmingForum That’s roughly where I expected things to be. Hopefully a one off in this case.

@Harpertoun @afgroupuk @TheFarmingForum Haven’t priced herbicides yet but, broadly, 15% increase across the board for most thing. Some not as much, some significantly more.

There’s a nice article in the Saler Cattle Society UK 2023 Journal on the Morton family at Kaeside, who’s cattle we have consistently bought for almost two decades

@jackfrater @ScotGovRural Has there been any talk of when this year’s application round will open?

I have been told that @ScotGovRural Ministers are yet to decide on the final scoring for #AECS so contracts can’t be approved, despite contracts starting 1st Jan

@RomanyHerefords Wow, your 785mm is about our average annual rainfall but we were a good bit short of that in 2022. Hard to believe the difference in about 10 miles!

2022's been OK, but not outstanding. Very excited about 2023 though, decisions to make & can't wait to get started on Monitor Farm Project to make these more informed. Biggest takeaway from '22 that while dry, '21 was drier! 784.8mm -22 (115 in Dec) 727.2mm -21 #monitorfarm26

@Harpertoun From Seed To Spirit 🥃 - Ep. 7 With The Borders Distillery's barley at our Craigswalls Grain Store, Quality Manager Cole Mather chats about the barley intake process and what happens during storage. Full video 👉 buff.ly/3UkyAUT All episodes 👉 buff.ly/3qdAlqB

@jonathansid @bankhousefarm01 Yes you can Jonny. We grazed the same mix last winter and will run some sheep across this stuff over the next couple of months. In my limited experience of grazing cover crops I’d say that there’s never as much feed in them as you expect there to be.

Quite a variation in our cover crop establishment this autumn. Earlier sown (21st August) crop on lighter land looks fantastic. Stuff sown 9 days later in the hope of moisture on much stiffer ground, not so good… Learning a lot with different mixes, methods and soils

@bankhousefarm01 @AgrovistaUK These are black oats

@Harpertoun @AgrovistaUK Just conventional oats?

@bankhousefarm01 It is Graham, a mix called Sprinter Pro from @AgrovistaUK

@Harpertoun Heck of a crop Andy! is that phacelia and oats?