I had not realised, though I clearly should have, that if you use your own saved seed for replanting, you have to pay the plant breeder a royalty.

During the week, I received a very clear letter from a body I had never heard of – the Plant Variety Development Office – instructing me to fill out a supplied form asking me whether or not I used farm-saved seed or certified seed.

And if I claimed only to use certified seed, then I should be prepared to produce official invoices showing I had purchased accordingly.

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The body seems to be operating under full statutory authority and conveyed a not-very-subtle threat that if I did not pay whatever royalties are due, that I would be liable to pay the costs incurred by the Department of Agriculture, debt collection agencies, legal, professional and law enforcers.

The royalties due to the plant breeders for using home-saved seed were spelled out and vary from a minimum of €38/t for some oats varieties to €2,790/t for all the main oilseed rape varieties.

The minimum fine is €5,000, but farms less than 12ha or 30 acres are exempt from payment.

As it happens, we only use certified seed, but I still found the whole correspondence slightly intimidating.

Even though much of the east and southeast of the country has been submerged, it is still astonishing how quickly land dries out from now on.

Looking at the ditches at the peak of the water levels, I saw drains that I never knew existed run into the watercourses, while our mole drains that we put in last year have proven to be a real success with helping previously wet, impassible spots dry, and allowing water to run through the gravel-filled moles to an outlet.

February has also triggered the need to get fertiliser quotes, but first I had to check up if our soil test results left us with scope to put out an early N P K compound, and to see if it all tied in with our obligatory nutrient management plan. The bureaucracy and paperwork seem never-ending.

I am also permanently conscious that we don’t go over the 170kg of organic nitrogen per hectare. But with an almost half tillage, half livestock mix, there is still scope on that side.

We have now bought the first of our cattle for the grazing season of 2026.

Looking at the prices, if everything goes as we expect, it looks as if we will be back to the margins between buying and selling of three years ago, though of course the cost of staying in business has grown significantly, but for the portion of the herd bought with our own funds, there has been a capital gain.