Year end: As we approach year end, we can look back on what was a rare good year for the sector.

The weather remains relatively good, albeit seasonal, with a piercing cold at times.

There is a lot of ploughing taking place and many of the main tillage areas are 75-100mm below their 30-year average rainfall as we head into Christmas.

Land is still solid and that is a bonus with an odd sprayer still out. Crops are mainly solid too and a full crop is a huge advantage as we head into spring.

Hopefully they will stay that way.

The current spell of cold weather must be more of an advantage than a disadvantage overall.

The cold will slow everything down and that is primarily a good thing now, as it is has an important seasonal impact.

Essential farm records: With a few weeks of relatively quiet time ahead, it is important to catch up on essential paperwork and to work out a plan for the escalating production costs in 2022. The obligatory jobs include ensuring your pesticide use records are up to date and that you complete your fertiliser records for 2021.

The other job that should be done this year is your fertiliser use plan for spring 2022. If you do this on a spreadsheet, leave space for the calculation of the comparative fertiliser cost for this year and next.

As well as keeping you within your total nutrient allowances, this exercise will help sharpen the focus on N, P and K purchases for 2022.

Your farm allowance gives the maximum amount of N and P that can be legally applied in a year. Subtract any organic N or P applied, or to be applied, to the current crops to calculate the maximum artificial N and P you can use.

All farmers are obliged to have a record of all chemical purchases for each year and where every product was used, on a field-by-field and crop-by-crop basis.

This record must also include any stocks carried into this season and anything not used during the season should be recorded as closing stock.

Basically, each grower is obliged to account for where purchased agrochemicals were used, on what crop and at what rate.

Doing this exercise helps ensure that the stated use rate accounts for all the stock and purchases of a product.

As an example, you purchased 120 litres of a product for a single spray on 100ha and you had 5 litres in stock from last season. If you applied this at 1.25l/ha there would be no stock remaining. But if you had 8 litres left over, the application rate should be 1.17l/ha.

Soil tests: Recent soil test results form a great basis for calculating your fertiliser allowances and guiding the most efficient use of expensive nutrients. So get fresh tests done as soon as possible to guide these important decisions in spring, especially regarding soil pH.

Best wishes: From Stephen, Siobhán and myself, we want to wish all our readers a happy, healthy, peaceful and safe Christmas.