Slowly I dragged myself on all fours to the feeding passage, rolled over, sat on the silage and phoned my wife. That was the low point. I had gone out last thing at night to check the yard and sheds as usual.

There had been a ballcock that had been inclined to stick so I just went round to the back of the first slatted shed to have a look. All was fine.

We had put down new hardcore right across the back of the sheds and, as I walked quickly across it, I slipped, fell heavily on both knees and when I tried to get up, realised that I was unable to use my legs, with no power whatsoever in my knees.

After 10 minutes or so catching my breath, with the cattle clearly wondering at the strange goings-on, I forced myself up using the feeding barrier to steady myself and, leaning on my wife, we made it to the house.

The next day I had a full X-ray and, with no fractures or bones broken, I was put on anti-inflammatories and told to rest for a few days to let the bruising and swelling go down.

I presume and hope that I will soon be back to normal but what a lesson.

I have always made a habit of bringing my mobile phone with me whenever I leave the house and go by myself either out in the fields or to the yard.

With bulls around it is really important that help can be summoned but also it has only now really struck me that any kind of an accident leaves you desperately vulnerable if you are completely by yourself.

An accident can happen so quickly and the consequences can be so long-lasting that giving in to the natural temptation to hurry to get finished can be an awful mistake.

Shooters

Meanwhile, farming life continues as normal.

Our local group of shooters has begun in the oilseed rape and have put a stop to the pigeons’ uninterrupted gorging on the crop.

I have no doubt they will continue to look for opportunities but at least they know there is a chance of a shotgun being around.

We now have every single beast inside.

Already a lot of the fields have good covers though these can disappear quickly with severe January frost.

The field drains are running again and even though the recent rain has made land soft and conditions sloppy, I am not sorry to see water tables recharged after the summer drought.

As we come close to the turn of the year, overall crop establishment is as good as I have seen it so as ever in farming we look forward to another year.

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Keeping children safe over Christmas, the new year and all year