It’s a long time since I have seen drains flowing into watercourses as vigorously as this year. After constant rain, land is both unworkable and untravellable. Last week, I mentioned that the downpipes from two of the slatted sheds were threatening to flood one of the tanks as the water backed up the outlet pipes.

After gingerly feeling our way with the digger and pushing and “rodding” from the outlet into the ditch, we identified where the blockage was.

As we suspected, a section of the underground pipe had collapsed. We gingerly felt our way working very slowly with the digger and found where the section had collapsed.

It was only a matter of putting in about 10ft of pipe and joining it up with the existing system and all was fine, but we will keep an eye on it to check that all the roof water is getting away.

Ideally, I would like to put in a rainwater harvesting system as it seems a pity to let excellent water flow uselessly into the ditch.

As I looked at the water gushing down to the Liffey I recalled looking at several monasteries I have seen in different parts of the world.

The first thing the monks did was dig a deep tank to trap the rainwater to act at a minimum as a reserve of water when the rain or pumps failed. I will get a quote and see what the cost is likely to be.

Apart from cattle feeding, weighing and sorting by age, weight and finish, field work and slurry work is at a complete standstill as we wait for the land to dry out.

We have now bought most of our fertiliser for the coming season and we will go out with 10.10.20, hopefully within a month or so and then follow on with nitrogen.

In the meantime I have to fill out the Irish Grain and Feed Association handbook, which will form the basis of the information on the crop side in the event of a full inspection.

The amount of detail needed is mind-boggling including the PCS numbers for all the agri-chemicals used, as well as the maintenance records for sprayers and spreaders.

The rain has shown up vulnerable areas of the farm where ponds are forming. A few of these should be relatively easy to drain so we have earmarked them for attention once we get some dry weather.