There have been three cataclysmic events in recent times which will impact on farming and food production.

Brexit, the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine. I was once told that Ukraine is the bread basket of Europe – maybe this is one of the reasons Putin wants it.

He can currently exert a stranglehold on our power supply and this will enable him to do the same on our food supply. It is a terrible thing to say, but very often war is good for farmers, as food supplies get disrupted and food prices rise.

One thing that bumbling Boris has not been given credit for is the fact that neither of the above events have so far disrupted our economy dramatically, which surely can’t have happened by chance. But, going forward, someone or something will have to pay. The economy will suffer.

Fertiliser costs rising

With fertiliser costs rising astronomically, I’m sure some will look at the opportunity of going organic.

We certainly will, but there is a severe note of caution here; 'only a rich nation can afford conservation, and only a rich nation with a sound economy can afford inflated food prices'.

Farming without fertiliser costs sounds like a good option, but only if the increased cost of production and reduced output can be purchased by an affluent nation with a sound economy.

Buying local

My initial research of consumer spending habits changing since on the onset of the pandemic showed that more people are interested in buying local than buying organic.

This is backed up by the sudden movement of people wanting to buy unpasteurised milk from vending machines and a move towards glass bottles.

The desire for glass bottles puts things firmly back in the hands of the producer as opposed to the retailer (obviously the supermarkets would find it incredibly difficult to do glass bottles).

Cows housed

On the home front, we had the cows out for several days, but because of the wet weather and tender soil conditions, they’ve had to come back in.

Since then, it’s been a bit like the hokey cokey: in-out, in-out…

Hopefully it should become drier soon and they can go out and alleviate some of the urea problems we are having.

Most of the spring heifers have calved to our own black and white bull with small, strong, healthy, active calves.

Now the cows have started calving to our Angus stock bull and sexed Holstein Friesian semen.

The Aberdeen Angus calves are a bit big and we have found applying gentle traction to the head as well as the legs makes a tremendous difference when the presenting calf is big.