Jack Bosworth, FJ Bosworth & Sons. Published 21 July 2025.
Hope everyone is well.
The rain has put a stop to harvest for the moment, but the timing has actually worked in our favour. We have finished the winter barley, the winter oilseed rape and have made a start on the wheats. So far that is roughly 80% second wheat and 20% first wheat across the weighbridge. The numbers we are seeing are 9.23 t/ha on the wheats, 4.32 t/ha on the oilseed rape and 9.44 t/ha on the first wheat we have cut. The one frustration is that a breakdown stopped us getting all the straw in before the weather turned, so we are going to have some fun drying that out after the 20mm it has now sat under.
Big thanks to the team. There have been some very early starts to get the oilseed rape off at a sensible moisture, and the forced break has at least given everyone a weekend. It will help us push on with cultivations too. We have around 170 hectares of harvest left, which is a much better position than this time last year when we had 260 hectares to go.
Why a robotic pressure washer is next on the list
Over on the pig side, we got our application in for the next round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) before the midday deadline on 10 July. The application is for a robotic pressure washer that we have been looking at for some time. We first saw the machine at the Pig & Poultry Fair and have been in discussions with the supplier since.
These are not cheap pieces of kit, which is why the grant matters. We do believe it is a worthwhile investment for several reasons.
- Time saved across the team. Pressure washing is one of the most time-intensive jobs on the unit. The machine is capable of completing up to 90% of the job on its own.
- A better working environment. Anyone who has done a full day on a pressure washer will tell you the first 90% is by some distance the worst of it. Taking that part out and leaving people with the final detail is a serious quality of life improvement for the team.
- A consistent cleaning protocol. Once the machine has learned a building, it washes that building the same way every time, which is good for biosecurity and good for pig health.
What the set-up actually looks like
If the application is successful, the front end is not as quick as some people imagine. There is a meaningful amount of time involved in getting the machine set up correctly, because it has to learn the cleaning protocol for each building. For a piece of equipment this advanced, the training is a surprisingly slow and manual process. You use a controller to walk it through every movement it needs to make.
My view is that the more we put into doing that set-up properly, the more time we save on the back end. Cleaning is one of those jobs where shortcuts at the start tend to compound into bigger problems later, so we will not rush it.
I will write more when we have a decision back on the application.
Jack Bosworth runs FJ Bosworth & Sons with his father Stuart at Spains Hall, Willingale, Essex. The family business has been farming pigs and arable since 1919, with a focus on home-grown feed, on-site solar-powered milling and farm-to-fork pork through Procters Sausages. FJ Bosworth & Sons is a Farmers Weekly award winner and Red Tractor assured.
Fourth-generation farmer at Spains Hall, Willingale. Runs the contracting team and writes most of what appears here.