Monday wasn’t a good day for my cheque book as it took yet another hammering to satisfy the unquenchable thirst of the root crop gods.

I first travelled to Kildare to look at a nice machine, a Grimme DL 1700 similar to the one we already have, but was a little put off by a few options on the machine. After deciding against it, I travelled to Meath to look at another harvester.

The second harvester was a newer model and I was able to buy a front mounted topper with it to give me a complete harvesting rig for parsnips that would allow me to simultaneously harvest both carrots and parsnips when the season gets busy. It cost me a little more than the original machine but on balance it was good value with far more options that suited my crops.

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Starting out in a new crop such as parsnips has been a painful experience as regards purchasing. Generally in this business there are very few problems sorted for less than €10,000, which is €10,000 more than I would generally like to spend.

On the plus side, the welcome rains has saved us a few quid as the irrigators in both Waterford and Carlow have been reeled in and parked up. I would expect to be back pumping water towards the weekend or early next week judging by the forecast, which has been gradually revising down the rain for the week each day I check it, a sure sign we will have next to nothing.

Early starts and long days have been the norm for the last while as we start harvesting early and trying get our heads around this new crop. Our backs have been against the wall to certain extent in trying to get systems and processes into some sort of rhythm with parsnip harvest, but with each day another hurdle is removed from the track. My birthday yesterday was dominated from start to finish by thoughts of parsnips.

I have just had a quick run around the dairy stock on the farm that we are looking after. You can see why stock men love having dairy cows around; it’s a pretty relaxing feeling walking the stock and checking them over. Can’t imagine I will be as relaxed at 6am tomorrow morning standing beside a roaring tractor and root crop harvester.