We need another cattle shed. Normally we can count on being able to leave the light cattle out until early December, but for the last fortnight we have had unremitting rain and we leave every paddock after what was meant to be the last grazing of the season badly poached.

I don’t know if any real lasting damage is being done but we are doing what we can to minimise the damage by moving the fence on often so that there is fresh grass in front of each group every day and sometimes twice a day.

The reason for my problem is fairly clear. Last autumn, we bought more younger weanlings than usual. They went out to grass for the spring and summer but we kept some of them, with the benefit of hindsight, out too long to get as much cheap gain at grass as possible, to be followed by as short an intensive finishing period as possible.

Obviously, it is the final, intensive finishing period that costs the money but no matter what way it is managed, it still takes 100 to 120 days. As a result, for bulls taken into the shed in early September, they are still in that final finishing phase and there are too many not gone for slaughter.

These are occupying the pens that should be full of new weanlings and so, my need for more cattle accommodation.

It is not that we have more land under grass – we haven’t, but we have reseeded some old ground and also some reclaimed area, so the decision to graze more cattle over the summer was justified by the increased productivity of the grass land that I have.

During September and October, I was congratulating myself on the use I was making of my autumn grass – now I can’t wait until everything is housed as soon as possible.

But a few lessons are being learned. Even in this weather, it’s remarkable how the palatability of the new grass is so far superior to the old sward. We will, I think, do some more reseeding next year.

Also, if we are going to graze into early December, it may be more sensible to have some bullocks around instead of young bulls who get so restless at this time of the year if there is any harsh weather.