I think Oscar Wilde put it very succinctly when he wrote “and all at once summer collapsed into fall”, as I don’t think we’ve had a day without some form of rain in the past fortnight.

Though welcome at the start after a few weeks with little to no moisture around, it’s beginning to look very autumnal these mornings, with misty rain and patches of fog creeping around the hedgerows, not to mention the swallows gathering on power lines.

While there’s still plenty of grass around it’s feed value is dropping all the time, and in line with that we’ve upped the ration for the older weanlings we’re hoping to sell next month, and a couple of hi-mag lick buckets were placed with the cows.

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On one of the wetter days, the central gutter in our slatted shed succumbed to the deluge of water falling, causing a waterfall to appear in the feed passage. Thankfully it missed a hay bale by a couple of feet and a speedily placed wheelbarrow held the majority of it in check, but it also meant that it was time for some winter preparation work around the farm, beginning with one of my least favourite jobs; cleaning out the gutters.

Now it’s not the task itself I have an issue with, the problem is standing on top of a double ladder and thinking of the sizable splat I’d make on the concrete below. Whilst I have no fear of heights (having taken up rock-climbing as a ‘relaxing’ pastime in college) there’s something about being on top of a ladder that has always given me the heebie-jeebies.

Once that job is ticked off the list, everything else looks much easier and next up were a couple of bars on the feeding barrier that had broken in spring. A ratchet strap had been an acceptable fix temporarily, but a couple of new bars got welded in and will hopefully hold up to some daily rough treatment by the cows this winter.

We had struggled to catch a few cows cycling earlier in the year, so I certainly did not expect to find our oldest weanling in heat one morning at a bare 10 months old. Normally our pedigree Limousins are much later maturing than the commercial stock and she will be a nuisance in the shed over winter, but being sizable for her age we can plan to breed her in late spring.

Surprisingly, so far all the cows served with sexed semen have gone in-calf, even the heifer who had the caesarean, although until a few months pass we won’t say she’s out of the woods just yet. While I know conception rates for sexed semen continue to improve, I also give a shot of Receptal when they’re in for AI and so far it’s worked every time.

Now whether that’s down to pure luck, the technician’s skill, or science, I’ll never know, but for now I’ll continue to do so, even if it’s only to convince myself that I’ve done my utmost to get them in-calf.

On a different note, it can take someone with fresh eyes to show us how lucky we are to live on this little island. My brother returned home from Estonia for a week, and during his stay he went off for a day fishing on the Sligo coast. It’s not something many of us would ever think of doing, but according to him it was an exciting and rewarding day out, returning with approximately 4kg of various fish – with the mackerel proving favourite among us all.

I’d take a boat and rough seas over a ladder any day, so another day trip may be on the cards for some of us in the near future.