I’ve come to the conclusion that I live in a climatically advantaged area of north Leinster. But I don’t say this too loudly as a proportion of our farm is classified as disadvantaged by the EU and I am grateful for their kind compensatory payment. However, I’m not quite saying that we live in the Garden of Eden – that’s down around Athy – but, hey, this too is a good place to farm.

Our total rainfall for 2016 was 751mm, which is below our 12-year average of 857mm. But around 800mm is very much an optimum rainfall total for arable crops. In a whole island context, Meath is one of the drier areas, and Kildalkey clearly has its own micro climate as it is usually a little drier here than at the met station at Dunsany, about 12 miles away.

To put the record straight, my rain gauge isn’t one of the cheap little plastic ones that Lidl might do as a special. Neither is it a high-tech gizmo; it’s the proper old fashioned copper-type and is ex-Met Éireann – they gave it to me. But I am not an official recorder.

However, as I’ve reminded you before, we farm heavy land, which were it situated in a wetter area would not be suitable for tillage at all. A decent shower is enough to reduce our fieldwork to a sticky porridge. Conversely, tillage is possible in places like Galway or Donegal but on light soils which can cope with their much higher rainfall. The problem over there is that in a wet year, there are precious few harvest opportunities. But I wouldn’t have the patience for combining up there. It’s bad enough here. It’d have to be cows and robots for me.

And we’ll stay with new technology. If I was Mr Bateman or Mr Knight or any other specialist sprayer manufacturer, I’d be getting worried. The day and age of huge and ever heavier sprayers may be coming to an end and more quickly than we might expect.

Technology in all aspects of our lives has taken quantum leaps in the last five years. Now our lives are controlled by the smartphone and the driverless car is only around the corner. And those horrible Martian-looking drones are about to descend on us like a plague of locusts.

Spraying

If the drone was born for any particular purpose, it has to be crop spraying. With zero ground pressure and down-draft-assisted, highly accurate boom application, the next generation of drones (probably next week) will be capable of carrying loads of active ingredient in ultra-low water volumes.

The drones will be pre-programmed with the farm maps and load themselves in a central docking station. On-board live weather feeds will allow the drone to decide its own spraying opportunities, perhaps while you’re tucked up with the missus.

The wheel is going full circle. Aerial spraying was huge in the 1960s/70s and it had many benefits. But the main problem was accuracy of application. You didn’t just spray a field of earring wheat with Bayleton CF and Metasystox, you sprayed the village as well.

Drones will be a hugely superior tool for crop spraying and will become the only approved technique to spray crops. Watch this space but I hope it’s at least nine years away as by then I should be living the good life on the Shannon or blasting around the place in a topless Morgan, while you’re trying to combine. You’ll still have to drive that yourself.