The young stores’ brief period of being out by day and in by night has come to a shuddering halt.

The snow, followed by heavy rain, last week has left land in a quagmire. It is turning out to be a long winter, with silage supplies still looking adequate for a normal spring, but, if the present cold weather continues, we will be looking at things differently.

One striking effect of the conditions is the visible difference in grass covers between grazing ground that was closed up in early November compared with paddocks that were grazed into early December.

I am putting the differences down to temperature and excessive rainfall, both of which seem to have reduced grass growth in the paddocks that were bare coming into the winter, as well as very little contribution from clover. The freshly reseeded areas have certainly more grass than the permanent pasture, but the ground is not fit at this stage to carry even light cattle.

From roughly 20 October last year through to now, we have not been able to do anything on the tillage land – we got one small field ploughed but that was it.

Towards the end of last week we took delivery of enough fertiliser for the first round of application. While it is roughly half the price of last year, the continuing drop in the futures prices for wheat and barley more than counteracts the fall in fertiliser prices.

With last week’s rain and a mediocre forecast, it will still be some time before we can get out on the crops. They are now, especially the winter barley, beginning to look yellow and in need of nourishment as soon as possible.

We have earmarked the land that we intend to put in beans though, following last year’s late sowing with a direct drill, I am still keeping an open mind whether we plough and sow with the normal one pass or opt for the direct drill. There is still some time before we have to make that call.