The benefits of having excellent conditions for the sowing of winter crops have really come home to me. After heavy rain last week, I was disappointed to see some large pools of water in the winter wheat. Some of the worst affected areas are prone to flooding at the best of times, so I was mentally writing off these areas as likely to stay waterlogged. After two to three days, however, the water had completely subsided and the plants underneath seem to have come through their period of being submerged undamaged and have resumed their natural green colour.

I had some of the area drained before and was considering putting in gravel-filled mole drains and running this straight over to the watercourse but it seems that while I may still have to do it in the future, the conditions at sowing in vulnerable areas are crucial.

Last year, in a panic, we mucked the wheat in and paid the price with a permanent winter flood and no crop in the worst areas. Incidentally, last week I mentioned that I had applied a fungicide to the oilseed rape. The main reason was not disease control but for the product to act as a growth regulator for the lush crop.

On the cattle side, the drop in the price of grain has made us redo the sums around the growing of both maize and grass silage, as well as zero-grazing.

I have never had the bulls graded as well as this year and they are well finished at a fat score of 2+ to 3-, substantially below the specified weight of 420kg. Last year, I bought in lighter bulls because of the reduced weight limit but I am now wondering if they are coming fitter at lighter weights, because of reduced protein or increased energy, or because the lighter cattle were simply lighter for their age at time of purchase and so had reduced potential to grow into heavier weights. Because we keep the bulls for just over a year, we have clearly defined periods of their life: the first winter in the shed, the period at grass and the final finishing stage.

With the dark evenings, I hope to segregate out which stage is meeting targets and which is a period in which we could hope for more.