So far we have not had one night of frost. Grass growth has been continuous, with astonishing regrowth in paddocks that we had grazed out and closed up until spring. At least that was and still is the intention.

As it is, the lush cover on many of the remaining paddocks has meant the ground is staying damp and soft under the dense mat of grass, which makes it very difficult to graze out cleanly compared with even a few weeks ago. But we will stick with it and try and get everything grazed down over the next few weeks.

The extra growth has given the newly reseeded ground a real boost, but it also seems to have encouraged chickweed – which is the last thing we need in a new ley.

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I am not quite sure how it can be controlled at this stage – I suspect we may have to wait until spring, when I hope an early grazing with light cattle will knock back whatever chickweed is there without damaging the new sward.

Over the last week, we snatched the opportunity on one of the dry days to get slug pellets out on the winter barley following the oilseed rape and on the wheat following the oats. The rest of the cereals, including the wheat after beans, seems clear of slugs at least for the moment.

All the wheat is now above ground, with the tramlines becoming more visible by the day, but whereas the quad spreading the slug pellets did very little damage, I am nervous trying to spray an autumn herbicide until the land recovers from the recent showers of heavy rain.

At this stage, as we advance into November, we will probably combine an aphicide on the barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) vulnerable variety of winter barley when we get the chance.

Brother Tony Dolan RIP

I was sorry to hear of the recent death of Brother Tony Dolan.

A member of the Franciscan community at the agricultural college in Mountbellew, he served many years as principal until going to Kenya and Uganda to teach and participate in agriculture and rural development.

His life and dedication to agricultural education and the improvement of rural people’s lives was an inspiration to all fortunate to have known him. May he rest in peace.