From a distance, the place is greening up but, looking closer, progress is far from where I would like it to be; but real life has to go on. Last week, I mentioned that due to a combination of circumstances over the last few years, I had some spare silage. While we are not in a classic dairy co-op area, I got a call from one of them asking about quality, tonnage and would I be willing to sell it. I find this sensitive territory, when there is such a fodder shortage on so many farms.

They came down, tested the silage instantaneously with one of those new electronic sensors and asked me how much I was prepared to accept for my surplus. I Could only reply that I would take their standard offer price for that quality and so, at €30/t, the deal was done.

While we will still have a buffer of silage to cope with normal demand, I hope we will not go short. Several paddocks have more damage than I would like and grass growth on the old, permanent pasture is incredibly slow. We have also done a certain amount of damage around gateways and tracks in fields in getting slurry out but we really had no option. My first slurry tank had an attachment that would fire the slurry over a hedge or fence as you drove down a road or internal lane but I haven’t seen one of these for years and seem to remember them being banned.

We snatched one of the few mostly dry days to spray the volunteer beans in my seed wheat. The sprayer was mounted on a four-wheel-drive tractor with wide tyres and after just one pass on the ground, the tramlines were acceptable, with little compaction. We have taken delivery of the N for the second split on the cereal ground and it badly needs doing at this stage, especially the winter barley. We also need to decide what land to close up for first-cut silage. We still have no cattle out day and night. My hopes for sowing beans are steadily evaporating as each wet day re-wets the ploughed ground.