We are now into the season when gates are beginning to close on crops until harvest. We have done all that we can to determine yield and now it’s out of our hands. But if I may digress for a jiffy, as I’ve never told you about our field and yard gates.

You see, I’m a bit obsessed with gates and cannot bear to have a gate that isn’t properly hung and properly bolted. Yes, I know it’s sad, but that’s the way it is. And a few are blacksmith-made rivetted wrought iron gates, in fields where there’s a wider modern alternative.

In my father’s time, and possibly long before that, our gates were always painted signal red. Someone asked me lately, why red? Not sure, but it probably began as cheap and cheerful red oxide. It’s a tradition I’ve carried on. Most years they get a touch up and Man Friday Jason is a dab hand with the paint brush.

The gate posts are painted grey (as are the sheds) and such a colour combination would cause you to think we’re big Massey Ferguson fans which, sorry, I’m not – I was until I bought one. Harry Ferguson, yes, great guy, but he mightn’t be just that excited about today’s tractors.

Now I suspect some people will scoff at this painting crack and say we’ve little to do (maybe that’s true) and I’d be better off podging thistles or rogueing wild oats. But it’s clearly a family thing, as my uncle has always painted his gates in green.

But I would disagree with the scoffers as I love our bright red gates. It gives a sense of pride and our fields deserve a little care, as they’ve been in the family for over three centuries now. We could, of course, take a lead from some stud farms and personalise the fields with name plates on the gates as well. But this would be a bit over the top.

Nonetheless, the studs and racing yards really set the standard for tidy, well-presented yards and stud-railed fields with smart black doors instead of gates. And with livestock prices pushing almost into bloodstock territory, it’s a good time to fix your fences and gates and maybe get the paintbrush out.

In the fields

Anyhow, back to the closing of the field gates. Last week, while spraying the oilseed rape with its final fungicide, I thought it looked promising. But the weather was cold and wet for the first part of flowering. However, there are lots of busy bumble bees about now, so maybe it’ll finish flowering with a flourish.

And the gate is closed on the winter barley with the final fungicide on. I generally don’t do winter barley well, but this year I pulled out all the stops with some barley following oilseed rape. As a result, it does look good and I can be optimistic. Harvest might be a week earlier than normal and the variety is Molly. Someone reminded me there’s a wedding I’m expected to attend in early July, so I’ll be getting harvest jitters.

There’s a long and often bumpy road ahead with the wheat, where yield is made or lost depending on the weather and consequent disease. We no longer have the fungicidal firepower we once had due to septoria resistance and product withdrawal.

Nonetheless there’s good potential there but, presently, I’m not that excited by Champion. It’s been scraggy all season and it’s prone to rust and lodging. Though it’s very highly rated for yield potential, so we’ll see.

And if all the ducks come in line with this year’s harvest after last year’s poxy effort, I’ll go wild and paint the town (signal) red. But there’ll be no more red tractors.