This has been an extraordinary month. April showers have failed to materialise and fertiliser that should have been applied in late-March still sits in the shed a month later. The urea needs moisture to activate it otherwise it just evaporates and no nutrients reach the plant. Luckily we farm heavy clay soil that is well known (and often cursed!) for its moisture retention properties – mostly it’s either hard as rock or wet as muck. This year, despite the dry conditions it is ‘friendly soil’, however I could still do with some rain…

Like passengers at a bus stop,
bags of fertiliser wait in line,
they’ve been queuing for a month,
waiting all this time!
We can’t blame the weather on Brexit,
Trump or even Le Pen,
we want absent April showers,
would help the crops no end!
They say you can’t please a farmer,
no wonder they curse and shout,
lack of rain when needed,
will arrive when the combine’s out!

…despite some slight drizzle yesterday evening, this morning the sun shines like a summer’s morn! Oh well, the one thing nobody control is the weather, so I might as well sit back and enjoy it!

© Baldock Bard 2017
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