It’s the extra payment and the extra swings in costs that makes the difference in farming.

I find it difficult to reduce costs – the classics of feed, seed, fuel, fertiliser and contractors’ help are well fixed so we have tried to add as much value as we can to what we produce.

The aim is to produce farm crops and animals to meet the specifications of my processing customers. On the beef side, we produce bulls for the specialist Italian market.

A fortnight ago, representatives of the buyers came out to examine the cattle but, more to the point, to take blood and urine samples from them. I am not quite sure what they were looking for. I haven’t been subjected to such a thorough examination since the use of hormones in beef production was outlawed in the very late 1980s. That period was marked with all kinds of cocktails being used but my best view is that their present-day use in Irish beef production is pretty well non-existent. In any event, the samples were taken as well as samples of the feed – most of which is home grown.

We also had to supply documentary proof that the animals met the required number of days on the farm. Apart from that, we continue to meet, to the best of our ability, the weight, age and grading criteria laid down. So far, I have heard nothing so I assume no news is good news.

While this cattle examination was going on, we were trying to make the best of the suitable weather to get the last of the grain crops in. The normal seed wheat on which my premium depends is subject to a rigorous Department inspection during the growing and critical pre-harvest period. With the gluten-free oats we had a full sower inspection and, as with the seed wheat, a careful collection of the labels to show that the proper seed was purchased and that the amount purchased tallies with the amount sown.

It has been one of the earliest autumn sowing periods that I can remember. The only crop left is beans which we hope to sow as near to St Patrick’s Day as possible.

This year, we paid the price for sowing at the end of April to be followed by the long hot spell, which halved our normal bean yield. But not all crops were similarly affected. I just got some of the details on the seed wheat from the 2017 harvest – some of the ordinary feed variety busheled 85kg – an extraordinary figure for an Irish wheat crop.