Last week we completed what is normally the single most important task of the year — the submission of the Basic Farm Payment application. We are getting used to it at this stage, just as the present scheme comes to an end.

For this year we had everything pretty well ready, with all the acreages of the individual fields and plots as well as the individual crops sown. We already knew we were compliant with the three-crop rule as well as not having too high a proportion of the tillage ground in one crop.

We also knew how much, and of what crops we were going to declare for the Straw Incorporation Scheme: the oats and the oilseed rape. As far as I can see, once you make these declarations there is no way back.

However, if there is a possible forage shortage because of high fertiliser prices this year, it might make sense to have some kind of late change of mind option. Anyway, we have submitted the form and printed off a copy. Alongside the completed form we were given a detailed estimate of our payment in succeeding years.

The effects of front loading, convergence and young farmer deductions really hit me at that stage, with an immediate 25% reduction next year and continuing reductions over the next four years (2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026).

We really are seeing the end of direct payments as compensation for reductions in guaranteed prices. Instead they are morphing into a mixture of environmental and social payments.

At this stage, my calculations assume that we qualify for the full new eco payment. I was disappointed to see the European Commission reaction to the Department of Agriculture and ministerial submission querying whether enough was being asked of Irish farmers in the work necessary to qualify for the eco money. The sooner we get a clear answer the better.

Meanwhile on the grass/cattle side, there is not much more we can do. We are fully stocked for the summer — all the first cut silage ground is closed up and fertilised. Some of it has got slurry after a tight grazing and while it seems to have been washed in, the last thing we need is any contamination affecting fermentation.

I will look for advice to see should we apply an additive instead of relying solely on wilting, as we have been doing over the last few years.