I manage: “It’s all arable. We contract-farm for three families over 1,800ac. We got another contract in the autumn which has increased this. We have wheat, winter barley, spring barley for distilling, oilseed rape as well as winter oats.

Staff: “There are two full-time employees plus myself and we take additional help in the harvest time.

This week: “We’re trying to be patient. The weather has not been conducive to spring sewing. We’re doing a bit of ditch cleaning and if it dries up we might do a bit more fertiliser and nitrogen on winter crops and they’ve already had 40kg of nitrogen. There’s still some spring ploughing to finish, around 50ac.

Working with the late spring: “We have been in this position before and it will catch up. We are ready to work with our spring barley just as soon as the weather picks up.

Best bit of kit: “Interestingly at the moment what you’re on is the thing you can’t do without. We have three tractors, but generally the forklift does us all year round. But my son pointed out the welder is also something – being able to fix something at the time of need is important.

Outlook for the year: “It’s trying to keep costs down and see how others do it as well. We still work with a plough so if the weather turns foul we can keep things going. We work with other people so it’s speaking to them and seeing how we can help each other.

Quotable quote: “What Monty Python said: ‘Always look on the bright side of life’. It’s about maintaining your humour, there’s always an occasion when the heat is on and you just have to step back.”