We had a lot of heavy rain from Friday to Monday. One of the unacknowledged recent advances is the accuracy of the weather forecasting. Thursday was flagged as a good day well in advance, so we got the late-sown oilseed rape harvested and off. We cut the second silage on Wednesday afternoon and picked it up on Thursday afternoon. We finished disking after the winter barley to encourage weeds to germinate. I hope to follow on with oilseed rape before the end of the month.

We are now waiting anxiously to begin the wheat. This is by far the most important part of the harvest and, in a year like this, I really need to get every ounce of income from straw and seed bonuses. Prices for everything I sell are way back on last year, except the winter barley which I pre-sold.

Beef prices are also back. I am selling some bulls every week now, though I have not yet started to buy in weanlings. Even though I have never had bulls grade so well and consistently, the final price is so far back on the last few years, that if the price drop is reflected in the price of weanlings, I wonder where will the suckler herd end up. However, I still have some poorish old pasture which I intend to re-seed over the next few weeks with the intention of getting good establishment in the Autumn.

I have been reprimanded for casting doubts on the value of reseeding in my piece about six weeks ago. A number of dairy farmers contacted me to say that they can notice increases in yield of milk once cows move on to reseeded pastures, regardless of the covers. They cannot see any reason why there should not be the same performance increase with cattle. I fully accept the precision of the measurement on dairy farms and certainly I accept that total weight gain per acre on the reseeded ground is better.

I will continue to measure as best I can the individual animal performance on some of my best land and see how it compares.