I have never seen a mid-March like it. Land is sodden and water is gushing from drains with such force that in one instance, the pressure from a main pipe draining over 20 acres is sending a jet of water 3ft across a ditch.

Just this week, we took delivery of our first bulk load of fertiliser for this year – 10.10.20 with sulphur. The most urgent need is in the case of the oilseed rape. A section of it is badly grazed by pigeons but the snow is only now thawing from the headlands and it’s going to be a few days at least until the field is travelable. I am in a similar quandary with the beans’ ground.

Green material

We waited for whatever green material was going to emerge before spraying it with Roundup – while we got the Roundup on a few days before the deluge of snow, now that the centre of the fields is free of snow, I see few signs of the normal orange tinge that should tell me that the Roundup is working.

In any event, the field is far too wet to attempt to plough it, so it seems that the prospects of meeting my St Patrick’s Day deadline are non-existent.

Elsewhere, while the winter barley appears to have an excellent plant population, the crops have now turned a hungry yellow indicating to me at least that the sooner they have their first dressing of nitrogen, the better.

A bright spot following the snow and frost is that at least no damage appears to have been done to the gluten-free oats – the most sensitive of the crops to frost kill. But I have never seen such a healthy crop of volunteer beans in seed winter wheat, so again, the sooner these are sprayed the better, but while we have the chemical in stock, we are waiting for the last of the snow to thaw on the headlands and the land to dry out to some kind of acceptable state.

We are, however, back grazing by day some very dry paddocks with weanlings. Some damage is being done but it is being minimised by the restricted hours and the cattle having an appetite.

It will be a while before any cattle are out full-time. The grass itself, especially the new leys, is showing the benefits of the January slurry.