P.X. Farms Podcast

With the crops looking a real picture after the rain, attention turns to the big autumn clear up, and in this episode we put a rather expensive new gadget to the test. We bought a powerful turbine blower from the States, 14,000 cubic feet a minute coming out at around 200 miles an hour, to speed up the long, dusty job of blowing down the combines, which currently takes the team the best part of fo...

After one of the driest autumns on record, the rain has finally arrived, 21mm in a day, and with the drilling done it is a rare moment to enjoy. The crops are a real picture, and the oilseed rape in particular, which caused so much worry earlier in the year, has turned into a genuine game changer. In this episode we walk the emerging wheat, barley and rape, including the hybrid wheat trial, and ar...

With the land work done for now, the focus shifts to the workshop and the long list of winter jobs that keep a farm this size running. In this episode we go through the servicing that quietly makes the difference, from rectifying the weigh-bridge after a knock, to a trailer heading for its MOT, to the crawlers coming in for their big end of season services. As ever, it is the jobs you do not expec...

It is mid October and, remarkably, we are still talking about a drought. In this episode James walks the newly emerging wheat and rape, which are coming through a good two weeks later than normal after one of the driest autumns in memory, and explains why this heavy clay land is so difficult to farm this late in the year. There is real frustration too, as the area East-West Rail occupied has grown...

With the drilling all but done, the farm is eerily quiet, but it has been anything but a quiet week. In this episode Simon takes you around a post drilling farm, from the sprayers getting a deep clean down in the new yard to the combines going through their winter servicing, and explains the thinking behind possibly moving to even wider 54 metre booms. It was a rough weekend up in Lincolnshire tho...

After a relentless, remarkably dry campaign, the drilling is finally done, bar a small tidy up behind the sugar beet. In this episode the adrenaline starts to come down as the team shift into the big autumn clear up, freeing up the yard, grassing down the new areas and turning their attention to the winter jobs. We also move the farm office into a new open plan space, something James has never don...

Drilling is all but finished, with a remarkable 7000 hectares in the ground since the 21st of September, and the harvest meals finally coming to an end. In this episode we reflect on an enormous campaign and explain the honest economics behind a big decision, dropping all of our spring crops this year after three dry summers left them below the cost of production. The highlight is a fascinating si...

We are into the final few days of drilling now, and with beautiful dry conditions and no rain in sight, the team are pushing hard to get the last of the wheat and barley in the ground. In this episode we follow the home straight across several blocks, talk through the ever rising seed rates, and share a few honest frustrations, including a brand new forklift that has locked us out of its own syste...

We are into the final push of drilling now, with just five or six days to go, and in this episode we run through the logistics of the home straight, the rising seed rates, and a hiccup that has held us up a little. We also sit down with our agronomist Henry for a proper crop walk, and it is fascinating. He explains how a well timed dose of nutrition has brought the drought hit oilseed rape back to...

Drilling is in full flow, and the team are covering an incredible 350 to 400 hectares a day. In this episode we get into the sheer logistics that makes that possible, from keeping four drills fed to moving well over a hundred thousand litres of water a day to keep the sprayers running when the mains simply cannot keep up. We also speak frankly about the SFI, after a frustrating experience where is...

Drilling continues at pace, but this episode is an honest one about the pressures that come with it. We own up to a costly mistake, when for the first time in 27 years a seed variety mix up left us with two milling wheats blended in the same trailer, and James reflects candidly on management, standards and what it takes to keep a big operation running smoothly. There is a sobering look at costs to...

With the weather finally on side, drilling is in full swing and the conditions could hardly be better, dry on top with moisture just below. In this episode we get the four drills into a proper rhythm across the barley, and are honest about the teething problems that come with a new season and new machinery, from bent coulters to a metering unit clogged with barley awns. The heart of this episode a...

After weeks of build up, and a frustrating run of false starts thanks to the weather, the big off is finally here. In this episode the drills start rolling on the barley and the rape, and we run through the huge effort of getting four drills, the sprayers and all the seed and water moving at once. We also get into the fine detail of setting up an 18 metre drill, where every coulter now works indep...

We are right on the eve of the big off. After holding our nerve and waiting for moisture, drilling is about to begin, and as James explains, this is the part of the year that makes him most anxious, more so than harvest, because as much as 60% of next year's yield is decided by getting the drilling right. In this episode we get everything into position and plan the huge logistical effort of ke...

Back on home soil after the trip to America, it is straight back to reality, jet lag and all, and the focus now is the drilling campaign. In this episode we explain why getting the timing of drilling right is arguably even more important than harvest itself, and sit down to plan the logistics of keeping four drills running. We also take a proper look at Cropwise, the new software we are using to p...

This week we take you across the Atlantic. Fendt kindly flew James and Tom out to Boone, Iowa, for the Farm Progress Show, one of the biggest farm shows in America, and the launch of their new machinery. In this episode we get a proper look at how farming is done on the other side of the pond, and it is a real eye opener. We climb aboard the latest Fendt with its new cab and a 60km/h top speed, an...

On a quiet bank holiday, we take the chance to sit down and be honest about the numbers. In this episode James walks through the harvest field by field, laying out exactly what the drought has cost us, from milling wheat well down on budget to disappointing oats and mustard, and just how far the market now needs to move for the industry to make money. It is a frank and rarely seen look at the real...

At long last, the rain has come. In this episode a sudden 34mm downpour transforms everything, closing up the cracks and turning the brutally hard ground into near perfect cultivating conditions almost overnight, lifting output by a third and, as Glenn puts it, proving a complete game changer. The timing could hardly be better, with the oilseed rape drilled and now set to come racing out of the gr...

After a long, dry wait, this is a big milestone. All of the oilseed rape is now drilled, and in near textbook conditions, with the first proper rain in weeks finally forecast to arrive right on cue. In this episode we get the last of it in the ground, and look at the logistics challenge that comes with going bigger, because keeping two 18 metre drills fed means moving as much as 80 tonnes of seed...

After weeks of waiting, drilling finally begins. In this episode the first oilseed rape goes into the ground, and our two new 18 metre drills get to work, covering an astonishing 500 acres a day, a scale that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. We also get stuck into some brilliant home grown innovation, fitting RTK auto steer, section control and variable rate onto a Toyota Hilux using...

The cultivations roll on, and this week we push onto the new farms we have taken on, working some of the hardest, driest ground the team has ever seen, hard enough to snap subsoiler legs at walking pace. With no proper rain in sight, we face a genuine roll of the dice, whether to gamble on drilling our expensive hybrid rape seed straight into the dust now, as our Australian friends would, or hold...

With harvest behind us, the focus is now a relentless eight day push to get the cultivations finished before we move onto the new farms we have taken on. In this episode we battle on through rock hard, bone dry ground, and after a lifetime of complaining about rain, find ourselves doing something that feels almost alien, praying for it. Everything now hinges on a good soaking to get the crop drill...

The combines may have finished, but on a farm this size the work never really stops. In this episode we take on the big and rarely seen job of cleaning down after harvest, blowing down and washing the combines and chaser bins, converting the fuel, and getting everything put away properly before the rodents move in. We also turn straight into the next cycle, mapping and cultivating the new farms we...

Harvest 2026 is finally over. In this episode we cut the very last of the crop, the twice drilled mustard and a tiny field of seed, and bring an extraordinary, relentless and remarkably early season to a close. It is an emotional one, as the combines make their way home in convoy for the final time this year, with the first proper rain arriving almost to the minute, and James reflects on the relie...

This week we harvest one of our most unusual crops, a small field of Arrow spring barley grown for one reason only, to brew our own beer for the Cereals show. We are joined by Rob from RAGT, who has spent years breeding barley, to talk through what makes this variety special, and he even climbs aboard the Lexion to cut it himself. We also work out just how many pints you can get from a single fiel...