So it emerges that nine farmers have applied for the fodder transport scheme. That’s hardly one per county in the areas where need was identified by the Teagasc survey at the start of 2018.

In fact, the applicants all hail from two counties. Donegal six, Roscommon three – it sounds like the score of a rugby or Gaelic football match.

There are two possible explanations for the extremely low uptake. It could be there never was a need for such a scheme in the first place. The same school of thought would have held the tillage crisis fund was unneccessary. That saw only 167 applicants, with less than half paid 18 months on.

The alternative view is that there was and is a pressing need for a fodder scheme, but it was delivered in a form that actively discourages applicants.

Holding off

It may be that, as the Department maintains, farmers are holding off with applications until they have stock out and grass growing.

One application at the end of the feeding season might be strategy.

But it has a familiar feel to it – a Department response that annoys farmers. Instead of creating the sense of solidarity with farmers at the coalface, there is a detachment that can feel like indifference.

The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between.

The reality is the Department is terrified of open-ended support schemes for farming losses, and understandably so.

Opening the floodgates (almost literally) for farmers to expect compensation if it rains too much, or not enough, is a recipe for, well, disastrous disaster schemes.

What is the solution? The schemes should be sparingly introduced, but when they are, they should be as simple and accessible as possible.

People who spend their whole lives dealing with paperwork must always remember farmers don’t have animals and crops in offices or on spreadsheets.

They are people who work outside in messy and imperfect conditions – at the best of times. When things are at their worst, as they could be about three wet weeks from right now, they need to feel someone is on their side.