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Politically and farming wise, it has been most interesting year.
Three years ago, when the Brexit referendum was announced, I stated in this newspaper: “This is political poker, political dynamite and liable to damage our political system for the next 20 years.”
Even I did not foresee how disruptive it would turn out to be.
I still firmly believe that Boris and his cronies saw this as a path to power rather than the "best thing for Britain".
Game
I am sure that now he’s donned the referee's jersey, he’s finding it far more difficult to control the game than he ever imagined.
The only consolation is that no team can score a goal when half the team is kicking the ball the wrong way.
Also, the goalposts are continually being moved farther and farther away, hopefully into oblivion, but I do wonder what all those Welsh sheep farmers, who voted almost to a man to leave the EU, are going to do with their lamb next Easter since 90% of it usually goes to France. Whether we are in or out I can see some officious French official nitpicking paperwork while the refrigerated lorry runs out of diesel.
Cash
It is a given that, over the next few years, the Single Farm Payment will not be able to compete with the NHS.
My accountant tells me that 40% of beef and sheep farmers just live off the Single Farm Payment and that financially, without it, their farms only break even.
From my point of view, this should make more land available for dairy farming.
40% of beef and sheep farmers just live off the Single Farm Payment
My expert adviser on transport, who makes a fortune advising governments around the world on transport trends, assures me that the Irish border is an easily resolved smokescreen using modern technology.
But I am seriously concerned. If the voting goes the wrong way, what will happen to all the Northern Irish milk?
Grass growth
On the farming front, this has been a year of prodigious grass growth. To cope with the increased cow numbers, with our original paddock size, we have had to put the cows in when the grass is past its best to get enough bulk to be adequate. Since we are putting in a new water system, paddock size will have to be addressed.
Forty yearlings have suffered an enormous amount of new forest eye, and up to 10% needed treatment.
We were told by the vet there is a lot of it about, possibly because these animals were in longer thistly grass, the suggestion was that, as they dived in amongst the longer forage, they scratched their eyes.
Computer problems
A month ago, the original parlour computer started to give problems. A new computer was installed, but the engineer struggled to move the program over from the old to the new.
At the moment, the cows are being under-caked, but we have just started feeding brewers' grains, mainly because grass growth has slowed down completely.
The hot weather six weeks ago stressed the grass, causing it to go to head, but the following thunderstorms got it moving again, but it has now slowed up.
Since the autumn group has started calving, we are considering starting the winter ration.
The new cubicle building that was supposed to have finished a year ago is now up with roof and walls, but is still awaiting the infrastructure of 140 cow cubicles.
Family
Being a family farm, it’s sometime tempting to talk about the family. During the summer holidays, the grandchildren wanted a swimming pool.
Son-in-law Chad found one 20ft by 15ft free on eBay. He then spent the evening with copper pipe and a soldering iron constructing a coil which he set in a 50 gallon oil drum and lit a fire. Adding a small electric pump and connecting to draw water from the pool and pump it through the coil and back into the pool, he is achieving a respectable 30 degrees.
The grandchildren are happily stoking the fire all day and measuring the returning temperature of the water. This is giving them a working knowledge of the calorific value of different woods.
So far, they have discovered that ash is the best, returning the water at an amazing 46 degrees. So I recited to them the last two lines of a poem I heard as a child. “Ash wet or ash green, makes a fire fit for a queen.”
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