The regulatory cut-off date for maintaining green cover on land intended for spring crops is 1 December. Usually it’s hard to know what to do with fields of regenerated stubble but this year there is no doubt.

Ground conditions are excellent and the forecast for the next few days is dry so I have no difficulty in getting out the sprayer and going out with a Roundup equivalent on the luxuriant crop of oaten stubble. While the nights are cold, I am reasonably confident in getting a good kill and then, depending on weather conditions, ploughing for my spring beans.

The aim is to sow in the last few days in February, with St Patrick’s Day, 17 March, as the cut-off date.

Last year, we got them in on 18 March but some beans in the area were not sown until the very end of the month, going into early April and the result was a really poor crop, so timing is important. The weather that has given such good ground conditions has also left ditches as dry as I can ever remember them at this time of year.

We still have some cattle out, though even with plenty of grass, weight gain is, I suspect, negligible.

We have the bulk of the fertiliser we need for next year bought – some of it has been delivered and stored and some is a definite contract with collection next spring. Payment dates are very clearly specified and must be observed.

We are continuing to sell bulls as they become fit – fitness in our case is that they are less than 22 months of age, grade at least 2= for fat and are a maximum weight of around 420kg. This year, the weight limit is not proving to be a problem. We have an unusually large number of animals killing less than 380-390kg. One of my main priorities is to analyse the weights to see if performance at grass was less than the very good grass year of 2015.

One thing is clear, one group of cattle grazing my excellent, newly sown grass on reclaimed land did poorly with that tell-tale stary coat suggesting copper deficiency. We will give cattle going into that section a bolus next year but first, I want to get a blood test to confirm my diagnosis.