Once Christmas is over, I usually begin wondering about fertiliser, the quantities needed, what I am actually going to apply and the prices. As far as I can see, fertiliser prices are at their lowest for several years, while the grain futures prices seem to be increasing by the week. This is most unusual, as normally fertiliser prices track grain prices fairly closely. If this trend in rising grain prices continues, then it would seem inevitable that fertiliser prices will strengthen, so I am anxious to tie down my needs.

The deals are now done and I have committed myself, with the main nitrogen product Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) down about 10% on last year’s prices. I feel slightly guilty sticking with CAN as my main source of nitrogen for the cereals, but I am still slightly uneasy about urea in dry weather and I particularly like having an extra source of calcium going out on the land. Over the last six months, we had everywhere fully soil tested so that we can complete our nutrient management plan. It is also at about this time of the year that I run out of grain for the cattle and have to begin buying on the open market. I have always used an outside firm to store, dry, roll and deliver back the grain that we keep over from harvest.

Sometimes I regret that I did not invest in facilities for ourselves. I have used the excuse that our policy has allowed maximum flexibility in growing crops such as seed wheat and barley, oats and oilseed rape. In other words, we try and grow crops with some element of premium and buy bulk commodity grain for the cattle. This year, soya has boomed. When we had the young bulls we were confined to using non-GM sources – this always made soya more expensive, so we had the fall back on the high-protein residues from the Irish distilling industry.

This year, consumption of whiskey and spirit alcohol is significantly reduced due, I am told, to the COVID-19-related shutdown of so much of the hospitality industry worldwide. This has reduced alcohol production and means that, at least from my point of view, this source of undried wheat and barley distillers is unavailable and so we are thrown back on expensive imported products – not soya because of the price, but dried maize distillers from the US.