The newly bought-in weanlings are demolishing the supply of grass that has built up since the drought broke. I have stopped buying any more weanlings for the moment as the last thing I want is for the weather to sharply deteriorate and to find ourselves with sheds full of almost fit cattle but too many outside and not enough grass to see them through to the stage where there is enough shed space to house them.

Despite the disappointing oats and beans results this year, I am going to give both of them another go, though with a slightly reduced acreage of each. Talking to farmers, it seems very clear that the difference between various varieties of oats was among the largest within any crop, whereas all the beans seem to have been equally badly affected by the combination of late sowing and hot, dry weather just at the wrong time.

We have now pretty well all the winter barley safely in the ground. For the first time in many years, I am trying a small field of a six-row variety to see if the yield difference is as high between it and the two-row that I would normally grow, as is the case in the Department trials. The last time I grew a six-row, I found the bushel weight disappearing and a lot of contamination in the succeeding crops. Since then, our post-harvest stubble cultivation has improved as has the quality of the six-row barley, so we will see.