We have gone from one extreme to the other, with excess rain over the last week. The excellent cleanout of paddocks has been replaced with a dirty, muddy appearance after a few hours of grazing. It’s not that there is damaging poaching, but an unappetising smear. I presume the affected area will green up again quickly.

Last week was the first time this year when we were told to keep our beef cattle for the moment. The short weeks with no killing on Good Friday or Easter Monday had provided the perfect excuse to offer a slightly lower price and an indifference as to whether or not we sold.

In the event, a week or so extra will do the most forward pen no harm, so we will wait and see how the trade settles. This had been an extraordinary spring for the cattle trade, but even so, I have never seen it peak in April, so I refuse to panic.

With all the stores fully out, we have a good supply of silage left, so we will take it as it comes. Anyway I have little say in the matter, as we have no option but to sell everything to the factory.

We have been given an official notice that we must have our annual herd test within the next month, so we will aim to have as many of the beef gone as we can to reduce the stress on forward cattle.

About 50% of the grass area is closed up for first-cut silage and the aim is to cut at the very end of May, weather-permitting. On the crop side, I was disappointed to see some Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) on the Cassia winter barley.

Since the withdrawal of the effective anti-BYDV seed dressing, this has been a recurring problem. Why don’t we sow one of the new resistant varieties? The answer is straightforward – our contract is for Cassia and if that is our customer’s barley of choice, we will try and produce it as well as we can.

Last autumn, we sowed it early and gave it an aphicide in late October. Should we have given it a second application? Perhaps. The infection at this stage seems to be slight, so we can only hope that the eventual effect on yield will be small.

We have closed the gate on the oilseed rape. The crop looks well, but the recent wet and cool weather that transformed the beans will not have done the oilseed rape much good.