G7 has come and gone. Boris spent the first half cosying up to Joe Biden and, from the photo shoots, it looks like Carrie and Mrs Biden were inseparable.

But come Sunday morning, Joe went to church and Boris went for a swim, a man who had recently married into the Catholic church and had his son baptised.

We knew the game was up for trade deals with the US.

Boris then invited the PM of Australia to supper at No 10 on Tuesday night and the trade deal was struck.

Boris, you have thrown us under the bus

Bad as this may be for beef and sheep farmers, for me as a dairy farmer, my concern is that it sets the benchmark for a deal on dairy products with New Zealand.

Boris, you have thrown us under the bus.

At the moment, we are out of the EU, into the unknown world of ELMS, into worldwide trade deals and about to be in the constraints of our carbon footprint, but our politicians must be aware we “can’t go green if we are in the red”.

I heard one farmer state that perhaps we should be allowed a two-tier production system, one to Red Tractor standard, one to Australian, and let the consumer decide.

Silage

We’ve finished first-cut silage, a bumper crop off reduced acreage, due to the need for an increased grazing platform because of an increased herd, and are now looking hard for second cuts.

Any deficiencies in the winter will be bolstered by bought-in maize silage, brewer’s grains and fodder beet.

We enjoyed a few days in north Wales. I am very fortunate that the other end of the table enjoys looking at farms and herds as much as I do.

We were able to visit a farm that had been using only our bulls for the last 10 years. It was very pleasing to find a very uniform herd, producing 6,000l from very little meal.

Three robots and no cows

We also saw a 300-cow herd sale. There seems to be a lot of these about at the moment.

We went on to visit a farm with three robots and no cows. The cows were sold in March – the robots hadn’t worked.

Then on to Anglesey to visit two spring-calving herds and a herd calving indoors all year. As always, it’s whatever floats your boat.

Yield is vanity, profit is sanity

As a friend of mine who runs both systems states: “The robots help you thrive in the good times, and the grass-fed helps you thrive in the bad times.”

I would add something I heard on a visit to Ireland: “Yield is vanity, profit is sanity.”

While on the island, we heard of farmers who had cancelled their contracts with the Irish-based Glanbia factory, but were now having to send their milk to Yewtree in northern England because the promised processing factory on the island was not yet completed.

I visited the site and saw no activity whatsoever, not even a security guard on-site.

Arriving back home, the grass on the paddocks is still growing well.

After a non-existent start it has roared away, but it's now going to head rapidly, needing constant pre-mowing or topping, and the milk is dropping.

But, as my father used to say: "The milk drops when the wheat is out in ear.”