This is meant to be an in-between time of the year. Not this year.

I never remember real gales in mid-June but this year, a large ash tree was blown down and the place was littered with leaves and broken branches.

It was with some trepidation that I went out to look at the winter barley. While tossed, there was none lodged. Thinking about it, driving rain combined with gale force winds would have been a disaster – without the rain, there was no real problem.

Absence of rain

But the absence of rain is increasingly affecting the appearance of the crops – even the winter wheat leaves are curling in a typical response to prolonged dry weather.

While the limited moisture that has fallen has been of only marginal help to the beans, which need all the help they can get.

Grass growth in newly grazed topped paddocks is almost zero. A perennial problem at this time of the year is crows queuing up to land in the passages of the slatted houses, where the finishing bulls are on a mainly cereal diet.

This year, the hard ground seems to have driven them to the cattle yard as one of the few sources of feed in the area, though I suspect they will shortly be targeting the two-row winter barley as it ripens – the dislike of crows for the prickly six-row varieties is definitely one of their pluses.

Best defence

I have come to the conclusion that regular shooting from some kind of hide – whether the tractor cab or a shelter of bales – is the best defence. We intend, weather permitting, to cut our silage this week on the paddocks that were grazed up until 1 May.

The bulk since they were closed up looks good and the quality should be high but I want to get a good wilt so as usual, we could do with some rain, but not just yet.

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