When we did the figures, I couldn’t believe how little growth we had during April – an average for the month of around 35kg of dry matter per day.

I admit I am paying the price of relying on clover, which needs higher temperatures than grass to really get growing.

On the other hand, the silage ground that was closed up and received its full quota of nitrogen has powered ahead.

This year, we have a new variety of oats

But the harsh, cold, dry weather has let us get through a lot of work on the tillage side, with the first round of fungicide on all the cereals completed, as well as the growth regulator on the oats, barley and wheat.

This year, we have a new variety of oats. The old Barra had long looked as if it was becoming outclassed, despite its excellent eating qualities.

Apart from its mediocre yield, it could also lodge badly in weather like we had at the beginning of this week, with rain and strong winds.

It was with some trepidation that I went out to see how the crops had reacted to the sudden change in conditions, but all of them, including the winter barley and the oats, were unaffected, while the beans that were so badly affected by last year’s May drought looked as if they had been given a new lease of life with the rain.

The inevitable dilemma in these kind of jobs is to decide which is best

A long-threatened job we also got done during the long dry spell was to drain one of the few real wet spots in the place.

The spot was on the edge of a field of oilseed rape and while the old drainage system would eventually let the water after heavy rain drain away, it drained too slowly, and especially in winter crops, there was inevitably an area where nothing grew.

The inevitable dilemma in these kind of jobs is to decide which is best – to knit in with the old system or bypass it.

In this instance, we bypassed the old system, which I expect will keep working, but put in a new parallel drain over to the watercourse.

Further down the same field, we knitted in with the old system, which had the characteristic narrow tiles.

I reckon they were put in well over 120 years ago, when wheat was booming and before the corn laws were repealed, so it’s not surprising that there are cases of drain breakdowns and necessary rejuvenation of parts of the system.

The key requirement is the capacity to identify the problem and the skill to operate the machine.