As we continue to sell bulls through spring for less than we had hoped, the dilemma was inevitable – do we go back into the market and replace as usual, or make extra silage and prepare to buy more in autumn? At that stage, the eternal Brexit uncertainty should be clearer and market prospects more certain. But are market prospects in beef ever predictable? So with spare grass, we decided to buy in and keep numbers up. Weight gain at grass is crucial to the system, especially when beef and feed prices are so volatile.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had, for the first time in many years, a reactor in our herd test. The Department duly sent me a notice restricting the farm and forbidding any sales of stock except for slaughter, and enclosing a permit authorising the disposal of the reactor.

I felt that salt was rubbed in the wound when I read the Department letter carefully, specifying that I was not eligible for any compensation

All of this is standard, but what surprised me was that when I rang my usual factory to know at what time they could handle the reactor and how they wanted him delivered, I was told that they couldn’t accept any reactors, but to try one of the other factories in the area. I gather that this is a condition of doing business with some high-end customers, but I felt that salt was rubbed in the wound when I read the Department letter carefully, specifying that I was not eligible for any compensation.

The same dilemma applies to how to treat the cereal crops that are now growing well. With the nitrogen, rain and an absence of frost, crops are a dense, deep green; while the oilseed rape is past peak flowering, with the very earliest stages of pod formation happening lower down on the plants.

The drop in the forward price for grain and the threat of a hangover of stocks because of high maize imports (as highlighted by Andy Doyle last week) doesn’t fill me with optimism for this year’s harvest prices, but the crops are all in the ground and most of the costs have been incurred. At this stage, I cannot see any logic in not trying to maximise yields and as with the cattle, we will spend cash now in the hope of profit later.

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