Having gone through our soil analyses, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that we have no option but to go ahead and order compound fertiliser for the tillage crops and the ground intended for silage. There is no point in blaming anyone for the prices this year.

As I mentioned, I have already bought about half our nitrogen requirements at €670/t compared with around €200/t last year. Most of the tillage ground has a reasonable level of phosphate, but K levels are too low. With grain future prices holding up and all the establishment costs incurred, it doesn’t make sense to leave the crops short of essential nutrients.

I am hoping that I can cut back on the nitrogen I apply to the oilseed rape, which has a dense, tall canopy

So far, we have sold nothing forward. Last year, I sold some winter barley at below the eventual harvest price, so I will sit tight for the moment. Nevertheless, I am hoping that I can cut back on the nitrogen I apply to the oilseed rape, which has a dense, tall canopy.

The oats also look forward and may need less than normal, but the winter wheat and barley will, I imagine, need the same as usual. The only crop left to be sown is the spring beans and again they will need some kind of high K fertiliser.

Over the weekend, we took delivery of the first of the 2022 purchased cattle. They were a mixture of early 2021 Aberdeen Angus and Hereford crosses and cost over €100 more than their equivalents last year.

The aim is to get them out onto grass as soon as possible and get as much weight gain from grass as possible before bringing them in next winter.

I had sheep grazing after grass before Christmas

From my experience with these dairy-cross Aberdeen Angus and Herefords, there is no real prospect of finishing them off grass at less than 24 months, so this year, the aim will be to make silage of as high a quality as possible and only have them on a high meal diet for the last five to six weeks.

I had sheep grazing after grass before Christmas – they have done a good job in eating down the lush autumn growth and have now left a bare field ready to take slurry and later on nitrogen and potash for silage, with the aim of cutting in late May/very early June, depending on the weather at the time.