We are now beginning to feel the effects of the blockade on the meat factories.

The plant we supply has had minimal disruption from pickets but they have now closed and the sensitive 22-month age deadline on our bulls is being passed on an increasing number of them.

The penalties on each overage animal are very substantial and at this stage I am not sure what scope there is for negotiations around the age limit. We will also see an increasing number go over the strict carcase weight limits.

There must be a lot of increasingly anxious finishers out there in the same position, whose land will begin to become increasingly unable to carry cattle as the autumn progresses.

Last week, we got our second-cut silage made in absolutely perfect conditions

The only consolation, if it is one, is that there is lots of fodder around after an exceptional grass-growing season.

Last week, we got our second-cut silage made in absolutely perfect conditions. We have also opened up our first cut and from visual and smell inspection it looks as good as we have ever made.

Now that the silage is out of the way, we are taking the opportunity to replace some worn-out concrete and old single slats.

I am not sure if replacing slats that are 45 years of age this autumn is a justified act of faith in the future of the business in a year like this, but I think that we will continue to have cattle on the farm even though most of the place is now in winter cereals.

We still have the oaten straw to bale

At this stage we only have the beans left to harvest and the oilseed rape for the 2020 harvest is tentatively peeping above ground.

Never before have I seen the OSR emerge just eight days after sowing but the misty light rain at the end of last week probably helped.

We still have the oaten straw to bale. I am reluctant to use an 8x4x4 baler as it packs so tightly and unless the straw is exceptionally dry and “fit” it tends to get musty, which is fine for mushrooms but not desirable for cattle, so I would rather a less dense round 4x4.

With a fine few days promised, we are going to spray off the volunteers in the winter barley stubble.

Last week I went to an excellent Teagasc tillage forum and the point was forcibly made that with the new ban on the useful seed dressing Redigo Deter that the carryover of barley yellow dwarf virus on live green material from this year’s harvest to freshly sown crops over the next month was a real possibility.

Given the reduction in yield BYDV can cause spraying off potentially infected material seems logical.