We seem at least at this stage to have skipped spring and gone straight into summer. It has allowed us to get through a lot of work.

The beans are now sown in excellent conditions and have got their pre emerge herbicide.

One of the great innovations has been the availability of GPS technology on fertiliser spreaders and sprayers.

Like most things you only miss it when it’s not available.

We also see the oilseed rape plants growing rapidly taller and just beginning to flower

We bought our sprayer before the technology was widely available so we sprayed the pre emerge herbicide by stepping out the field as best we could. I wondered if we should investigate the cost of upgrading it.

We had no such problem with the fertiliser spreader which we bought more recently with a contribution from TAMS.

We also see the oilseed rape plants growing rapidly taller and just beginning to flower.

Despite the cost the crop has now had its full rate of nitrogen with sulphur. In another three weeks or so I expect the oilseed rape fields will be a vibrant yellow.

We have also applied a growth regulator that also acts as a mild fungicide and we should now be able to close the gate until we start thinking about the harvest.

I have been tempted to supplement them with barley or other meal at grass

All the rest of the crops have now got their first split of nitrogen, while we will close up for first cut silage in the next few days.

Most of the store cattle are now out day and night but we will keep taking in the very forward stores for their final finishing stage.

I have been tempted to supplement them with barley or other meal at grass.

While I have seen it done very successfully abroad, it appears to me that it complicates the daily routine with less efficient utilisation of grass. We have got it to the stage where about a month on full feed gives a good finish and kill out.

At this stage we’ve bought in most of the store cattle we need for the summer so we will just replace each time we sell a load of fit cattle.

Over the last few years of producing the dairy beef steers, the autumn performance at grass has been disappointing, so buying during the late summer in the expectation of cheap autumn liveweight gain has not materialised.

It is noticeable that grazing off grass throughout November has caused a deterioration in the quality of the sward, so the aim this year will be to have enough high quality silage and everything grazed off and closed by early November.