With the continued good weather more silage and hay have been saved in the last two weeks. This should safely see us through next winter considering we had quiet a bit of fodder still in storage from last year.

Lambs are being drafted away, but it is hard work as confidence in the sector is being undermined again. In the last three weeks our lamb price has gone from €111/hd to €104 to €96 on Tuesday last. Cull ewe prices are bucking the trend up 30c/kg on this time last year, so they all want to eat cull ewes but not our prime lamb?

Cull ewes are scarce. With the lamb kill up 7,000 per week on 12 months ago, it’s easy to see again that once we supply too much product it can’t be sold. Are we just flooding our own markets and shooting ourselves in the foot?

Beef prices are up on last year by 40-50c/kg. Of course this is marvellous, but it’s not because there is a massive new market after developing. It's because cattle numers are tight. Store prices are totally unjustified currently, considering when these stores are going to be ready for slaughter there will be an extra 100,000 head of cattle for slaughter also.

Supply versus demand

Dairy farmers were told the “shackles were coming off”. Let's get ready to rock lads, pump out the milk, and now the plants are creaking. Banks are advising caution and the minister is telling them to be prepared. It’s more changeable than the weather.

It is hard to stomach as we are bombarded with press releases from various government bodies telling us about Harvest 2020 and the endless demand there will be for our product. We are led to believe as farmers all we have to do is pump out the produce and there will be a ready market for it.

I read with particular interest the headlines on the front of this week's Irish Farmers Journal about Food Wise 2025. We haven’t even got to finish out Harvest 2020 and we are being told that 2025 is going to be the “golden goose”. Yet in the last 12 months we have seen with the beef, sheep and dairy sectors that with the slightest oversupply, prices tumble. Obviously the Chinese just have got the wallets out yet to buy everything we produce but we now have 2020 and 2025 to bring us to the promised land.

As farmers we are upholding are end of the deal producing more milk, lamb and beef, so now it is time for the marketers to find a home for it. There hasn't been a word about America recently - they were going to eat a mountain of our beef!

I’m going in now to eat four lamb chops, a sirloin steak and 2 litres of milk, which should help the oversupply.