As usual, weather is dominating on farm at the moment. We have 16 acres of crop that is served by a small stream and it is becoming a bit worrying.

We have had the strange situation with two plots of crop, located within 3km of each other, having an entirely different season as regards rainfall with no obvious geographical reason for the split.

One field has had around 35mm over the last two weeks, while the other has had 5.5mm. Luckily we started irrigating in the field that has had lower amounts and we are getting by.

Separately, in Waterford we also have some crop that has had little to no water over the last month and its becoming a bit of a worry. We were even approached by a grass man in the area and asked if we would irrigate some grassland for him, such is the extent of the issue in the area.

With the stream that borders the field under pressure, it’s now looking like we will have to dig a lagoon and truck the water in from a nearby lake, a very cumbersome and expensive exercise. No matter how much we look for rain in the forecast, it just doesn’t seem to be appearing. It would take a minimum of 10mm of rain at this stage to make any impact.

Around the yard, it’s still all go preparing for parsnip harvest and trying to clean down and put away all the gear from carrot planting and bulb harvesting. There are 550 tonnes of daffodil bulbs in the shed drying now with an expected departure for Holland over the course of August.

Tomorrow morning I have my account manager from the bank on farm for the afternoon. I’m not currently looking for credit but will be in future and I feel it’s important for them to get their head around our business without time pressures. We will spend some time in the crops and then back to the office to run over some of our management and revenue accounts to give her the full picture.

We have managed to get by with a lot of purchasing from cashflow over the last 12 months but with a tractor to change, an additional tractor required and a range of infrastructure and machine changes on the horizon, it will be time well spent.