Happy new year to you all. I hope that the festive season was kind to you and if you managed to get a hangover it was the one that you deserved.

It was a good Christmas here at Rhynaclach. We had planned it to make sure that everyone was on minimal hours so we all got a chance to recharge.

It was my first Christmas at home with the wee one since I spent last Christmas in the care of the NHS after my farm accident in 2018.

On the farm, autumn has given way to winter and all that entails. It feels a bit like Groundhog Day with the constant feed round. The only thing that changes is the mud in the gateways gets deeper, and the cows get more and more used to being pushed out of the way as the net wrap gets fought off the bales.

While wintering stock outside is definitely good for the costs, there are times – usually three or four of them every wet day – where I can see the attraction of sticking the whole lot in a big dry shed.

The cows have all been scanned, with good rates of conception – four yeld (barren) from nearly 100 cows scanned over the two holdings.

Two of the yeld cows are old girls so it’s probably a bonus that they are free of the bull, and another was a late-calved heifer who had been caught by the bull a year earlier than planned. So all in all only one real disappointment.

When it comes to farm politics, as well as future input and output prices, uncertainty remains the only certainty. How is Brexit going to shape up? What is the beef price going to do? Are feed prices going to take a jump due to the poor winter planting rates south of the border in England?

But these things are outside my control so I intend to try and remain adaptable and take the opportunities that I can as they present themselves.

Just before Christmas when I was out on the hill I came across some of the Neolithic rock art that is dotted around this area. These patterns, carved into the rocks, have been there for roughly 4,000 to 4,500 years.

Scotland was a very different place and much has altered since then, but one thing hasn’t really changed - the folk who carved those rocks all those years ago were farmers.

Like you and me, their principal aim was to grow enough to feed, clothe and power those who relied on them. All these years later we are still doing the same thing. With that in mind I look forward to the next year and the excitement it is sure to bring.