With no calving stock and tillage as well as grass fields inaccessible, it’s down to cattle and slurry management as well as taking the opportunity to tackle some long-postponed maintenance jobs.

By transferring slurry between tanks and selling another load of fit cattle, we still have some very limited room for storing slurry. Part of the problem in transferring slurry is that you inevitably take the most dilute fraction, unless you agitate thoroughly. You store up difficulties for later on in the season with high dry matter material left that needs added water to be able to handle it.

We have added a biological additive to all the tanks which normally makes the slurry much easier to agitate, as well as spread, in addition to having a reduced smell when spreading.

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This year we are using a different one from our normal, so hopefully in a few weeks we will see how it performs. Given the new volatility in beef prices – our October price was far higher than what we received for the most recent load – we are intent on keeping numbers up and replacing with lighter cattle, as each load goes to the factory.

At least the continuous rain has let us catch up on the endless paperwork that is part and parcel of modern farming. We had been missing one part of the documents needed to complete the TAMS grant checking process for our solar installation. The completion of a farm health and safety course within a definite time was part of the requirements.

I was sure we had sent it on with the original application, but in any event, we were able to trace it and send it on. We are now just waiting for the cheque or at least to see the payment reflected in our bank statement.

As we are registered for VAT we have also got our VAT returns fully up to date and have ordered most of our fertiliser for the year.

One of the major changes ahead is transferring all our cattle data from the Department’s long-standing Blue Book to an electronic system.

While I acknowledge we should have done this ages ago, it took the offer of an incentive from one of the meat groups to whom we occasionally sell cattle to actually persuade us to move into a modern age, where we electronically record not just cattle details, but also the newly expected sustainability practices – which will hopefully justify a modest bonus payment.