As we come into autumn, the continuity of farming decisions that have to be made always strikes me. There is no real switch-off time.

With the increase in stock values and the end of the tax year looming, we have already received a note from the accountants to have all the relevant details assembled, presumably so that we can make the most efficient financial decisions and retain as much of the increase in values as possible. But on the land, we have to decide on the cropping plan for the 2026 harvest.

While this year’s prices have not been set, the on-account prices for standard cereals leave me wondering where realistic profits are to be earned. 

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We are in a rotation of winter barley, oilseed rape, oats, winter wheat, beans and winter wheat. While it has delivered down the years, with reasonable yields and the odd hiccup, there have been wildly variable profit levels. The oilseed rape which may make €480/t this year, we sold for €770/t in 2022. There are similar declines in wheat, barley and to a lesser extent beans, but with some cushioning with the protein production aid.

Should this production aid approach be something more widely applied if some of the extreme and damaging income volatility is to be avoided?

For this planting season, we will stick with the programme, but we will keep it under review. We have taken advantage of the early harvest to clean out ditches that were becoming choked with silt and vegetation, but a difficulty we have is where overhead power lines create a danger of conducting electricity through the digger and causing severe injury or worse.

We will look for guidance from the ESB as to the best way of dealing with it.

On the grass/cattle side, growth has slowed dramatically. The second-cut silage is fully covered and all the hay is safely under cover. The critical decision is when and how many cattle to buy in for the winter.

We have some land to reseed which we should get done over the next 10 days.

It is old, permanent pasture but has become seriously weed-infested with docks and dandelions smothering out the grass.

It has hardly ever been cut, but it’s a dry area and has been intensively grazed with slurry the main fertiliser and, my view, it is that regime that has contributed to its declining productivity.

An expensive reseed seems to me to be the only real solution.

During the summer, we have taken the opposite approach to many and opted to buy slightly heavier cattle that cost less per kg liveweight than the very light animals.

Almost all have come in with accessible commercial beef values through the ICBF website, so the aim is to have finished beef sold in time to have housing space available early next spring.