We look towards 2019 with mixed memories of 2018 but it is always impossible to know what next year will bring. There will be very mixed reaction for a repeat of the spring/summer weather but we can only hope to see the same type of price levels again.

But as high prices cure high prices, this seems unlikely unless there is a significant hit on yield levels around the globe. The lesson learned from 2018 is that scarcity drives price but producers are not good at heeding that lesson because as one pulls back someone else drives on.

If a normal supply scenario prevails for grain it seems likely that global grain prices will be weaker in 2019.

High green prices last harvest are leaving the market undermined by cheap maize imports and this is weakening demand for native grains. A good growing season at home could produce above average yields in 2019, especially in fields that had low yields this year.

Straw is more difficult to predict but it is not impossible that prices could well halve on 2018 levels when scarcity prevailed.

It seems inevitable that rationalisation of stocking rates is likely to reduce the need for forage crops in the years ahead.

This will leave more of the total tillage area producing grains, which could impact negatively on beet and maize prices.

Potatoes could see a very different year too. Growers will hope for an easier and cheaper year with better yields but price could be a casualty.

With Brexit still in the balance, issues such as access to seed potatoes, flour for baking and chemical registration will have to be looked at more seriously in the years ahead.