I don’t know which is worse; rain as you finish spraying a field or rain as you start. With the latter, it’s not much fun being parked up on the headland watching the crop dry and more showers stacking up.

Or if the wiper is on as you finish, it’s a financial loss – to put anything at all in the 3,000l tank is €1,000 and a typical load could be double that.

Now I know most chemicals today are reasonably rainfast (and more so than we think) but immediate rain is never good. Reluctantly I switch on the wiper with a few expletives. Faithful spraying companion Billy knows to keep his head down. Billy’s seen it all.

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Time was when we used to track showers in the contrasting sky and watch nervously as they approach or maybe, if you’re lucky, swing left or right leaving a wide berth.

Nowadays most of the shower tracking is on the Met Éireann app. But you can be sure of something; put Roundup (glyphosate) in the tank and showers will appear from nowhere.

Rainfastness is still a big issue with cheaper generic glyphosate products. But the newer Roundup products have improved hugely in this regard.

I usually err on the side of caution but this can bring the lingering regret of a missed opportunity. Most tillage farmers hate to miss an opportunistic weather window.

But some of the big tillage boyos – perhaps because their workload demands that they do – seem to spray away regardless in windy conditions. But it’s easy for me to criticise as a medium-sized operator who has it pretty handy with all the land together.

Fellows even slag me that the combine’s header has never been off. This is, of course, nonsense. It’s off at the moment – it won’t fit in the shed.

In a strong breezy (force three or four) conditions, I use the ‘three lows rule’; low pressure, low speed and low boom. Modern sprayer booms (but not the Bateman Contour, as it’s an ancient mechanical design) can hold a low target height very well. Horsch sprayers are apparently very good in this regard, particularly with 30m plus booms. That’s a game changer in windy conditions.

While dodging showers spraying the ear wash on the wheat, I was surprised and encouraged by how the crops look. Yes, there are a few clumps of brome that we missed spraying out with Roundup two months ago but the wheat is now looking quite nice.

But the weather for flowering has been too showery which is never good. However, if crops do fill well with clean ears, wheat should be alright and with semi-respectable yields.

The beans are doing well with a good plant count and are now at the start of flowering and due their one and only fungicide.

I mentioned generic glyphosate earlier but with few exceptions I hate generics, in every form. I don’t like generic Weetabix, generic Wranglers, generic Vise Grips or generic anything.

But most of all I hate generic sprays. Before you even open the overtightened lid, it’s inferior. Then it’s a foil seal on a big thick white ignorant can with no graduations that, once empty, takes about 50t to crush.

Once opened, the chemical vomits out leaving two inches of solid shit in the bottom that a fire brigade hose wouldn’t wash out. Folpet is a particular case in point. Neither do I trust the formulation as there are no guarantees that it will do exactly as it says on the can.

Yes, they are cheaper but cheaper is never better. Generics versus branded sprays are like comparing Belarus and Fendt. I was tempted to say Massey and Fendt but that would be a little unfair.