The sudden appearance of dry sunny weather has worked wonders for the ground. The task over the last few days was prioritising what was most important.

The oilseed rape and winter barley were ranked first. We spread, with our TAMS grant-aided fertiliser spreader, an NPK compound with sulphur on both crops.

We put out about 35 units of N, which should get growth going in both crops, though I was glad to see that the winter barley never got to the stage of that bleached sickly yellow that can sometimes be a feature of this time of year.

The next job will be to get some kind of herbicide out on at least one of the fields intended for my only spring-sown crop – the beans

The oilseed rape, even without any fertiliser, was greening up and showing signs of life, but the pigeon-grazed areas left a lot of ground to make up, so I am glad to get some nutrition onto the crop. The next job will be to get some kind of herbicide out on at least one of the fields intended for my only spring-sown crop – the beans.

It is, in my view, much too early to have them out day and night

Land can become fit for ploughing very quickly at this time of year, so I don’t want to miss the opportunity to get everything ready to catch the optimum bean sowing time.

In the meantime, we have begun seriously grazing the store cattle by day, with minimal damage to the paddocks.

It is, in my view, much too early to have them out day and night, even though we are keeping an eye on how quickly the remaining silage pit is reducing. As if there isn’t enough going on with the farming side, we have received our Basic Farm Payment forms.

This year, we were informed of another 2% reduction because of a budgetary shortfall

While the cash is always needed and the delivery by the Department efficient– provided everything is in order – I am really taken aback by how convergence has eroded the value of the payment over the last five years. This year, we were informed of another 2% reduction because of a budgetary shortfall. With the UK no longer a contributor, I know it could have been much worse, but it’s irritating at the least to have to take another cut in income on top of squeezed beef margins.