You’d want a thick skin to be involved in farming at the moment.

What could be perceived as insults seem to be thrown at farmers both from outside of the sector and within. This CAP reform, like the last, was going to raise potential areas of dispute among farmers.

Defining an active farmer was likely to be a thorny issue but it appears it has less potential to alienate farmers, certainly in comparison to some of the comments regarding commercial and productive farms. There’s almost as much opportunity to divide as unite farmers at the moment.

While the introduction of carbon budgets offer a chance to unite farmers against them, care is needed that the fallout from CAP doesn’t divide farmers too much against each other.

Farming is in the spotlight at a level I’ve never known.

It’s easy to see why farmers are frustrated at the moment and policy is at the heart of it. Ten years ago, dairy farmers were in the early stages of expansion in preparation for the removal of milk quotas. No one was expecting there to be such a policy handbrake turn in such a short time. That usually happens over a generation, at least.

On Tuesday, the Taoiseach made comments regarding the need to protect our biodiversity through a variety of imaginative schemes.

I hope the schemes are imaginative and not imaginary. More of the farm would have been planted already only that would have resulted in me being financially penalised in terms of reduced basic payment and a reduced area which would affect the on-farm stocking rate.

Policy has held me back from implementing some changes but, hopefully, it can also help instigate change in future. But it won’t be the only factor. For all the driving in different directions policy can do, uncontrollable influences such as weather and market fluctuations can drive change at farm level at a faster rate.

The lift in fertiliser prices is a good example. Based on current prices, it’s likely to get farmers thinking differently next spring. Soil sampling will increase in importance and slurry will be viewed in a different light too. There’s been less of a reliance on artificial fertiliser here over the last number of years, so it’s likely fertiliser will only be used for the silage crop or on fields that don’t have a high percentage of clover.

A lot of faith is being put in largely untested multispecies swards (MSS) and it appears their adoption is possibly going to be the biggest on-farm trial conducted in the State. I’m saying that as someone who is heading for a fifth year using them. The area sown is increasing every year and it’s very much a learning process.

I think they will fail on many farms as the management differs from a straight ryegrass sward. I’ve learned that the hard way. But the response to MSS is telling. It’s the great solution to some, to others it’s either not proven or viewed as weeds.

Whether the term remains on the national airwaves or not, the cattle herd is likely to contract over the next decade as it is.

Environmental restrictions will act as a cap on it in areas with bigger cattle numbers while in the peripheral areas there are other factors at play. Changes in rural populations driven by increased education and smaller families come into play, as do labour issues. The labour-to-income ratio is another dynamic to watch.