Farming and paperwork. Suddenly, I feel deluged by both. With a good forecast, there are a few urgent tasks that have to be done as soon as possible. We have not had much rain over the last week or so and I was confident that we could begin sowing the beans almost immediately but I was surprised and mildly disappointed to find water still following through the drains to the ditches beside the field. I hate working land in this state, even though it seems dry on top, so we will judge it day by day.

A decision on spreading the fertiliser on the winter barley is much easier to make and once we are organised, this can go out – the land is fully travelable.

But practical work is not the only concern. Last week, I got back my soil analysis on every field. I had not realised it was four years since the last full sample had been taken and to keep in line with the regulations (and my entitlement to the Basic and Greening Farm Payment) we got everywhere done. I was disappointed but not surprised that we are making so little progress in getting our phosphate levels up despite putting out slurry and about 40 units of P on most of the tillage ground. The results are pretty consistent with the results from the last time, except that the pH levels of most of the fields show an increase, with many of them above seven and the lowest, 6.6. In contrast, we had some much lower pHs on some of the grass fields a few years ago. I hardly ever put out lime but I am surprised at the degree of pH variation between the two most recent tests.

Meanwhile, I received in the post my Single Farm Payment forms for 2017. I still have to study them carefully but even from a first glance, the erosion of the payment continues, but together with the Basic Payments forms is a detailed list of instructions on how my sprayer needs to be managed as it is now five years old and of course that the operator needs to be authorised.

I would not mind this official oversight if tillage returns promised to be buoyant but I have little option but to fall in line.