It’s a case of do as I say but not as I do on my farm at the minute. I’m strip-grazing heavy covers of grass in wet weather – something I’d be giving out hell over if I saw anyone else doing it. I was getting away well last week with reasonable clean-outs, but heavy downpours have turned things into a bit of a mess. I don’t know whether it’s stubbornness or laziness that’s keeping me at it.

Two days will finish out the field beside the yard. Once grazed, I’m going to house some cattle from this batch, to wean the calves. I can’t bring myself to bring them away from the yard for a couple of days to have to turn around and bring them straight back again.

Second-cut silage will hopefully be harvested this week. I should have, and could have, had it done but the good weather made me complacent – a week of rain and now the panic is on.

Ground conditions are poor enough in places, but next week looks a bit better. I had intended baling it all, as I thought it wasn’t worth taking the cover off the pit for all I was going to get. I’ve decided, however, to cram a little more in. As the pit is only 30ft wide and we are working with wagon silage, I’m going to need a few willing volunteers who are handy with a grape to try to keep the sides built.

Anybody looking for a good workout next week, feel free to head in my direction. I will need you to supply your own grape, however, as I only have the one, and only ever use it as a last resort. But light refreshments will be served, as much bottled water as you want, and there will be no membership fee, unlike other gyms.

I’ve been asked several times this week about the Beef Plan’s pickets. Some farmers have said that all it will do in the short term is cause a backlog or damage markets and actually make things worse.

If a farmer has cattle about to go over 16 months or 24 month or needs money to pay bills, what is he or she to do? All these points are valid but the farmers on the picket line are not trying to solve a short-term problem. They are trying to achieve some kind of a sustainable long-term future and for this they can only be commended.

In a perfect world, every farmer in the country would stop supplying cattle, every haulier would stop drawing cattle – but a perfect world it is not. The picketing has at least achieved a meeting between both sides. By the time you are reading this, the meeting will be over and will hopefully have achieved something, or I’m sure it will be back to the pickets.

I was hugely disappointed by national media coverage of the protests – or should I say the lack of coverage.

A huge issue for rural Ireland was barely discussed by the national broadcaster and the one time I did see it discussed, I thought it was very anti-farmer.

The wider community needs to be informed as to what is going on, especially the wider rural community, so they are able to support their farming neighbours and are not left thinking there’s another bunch of farmers complaining again over nothing.

A fellow farmer said to me recently, if someone approached the Government or Enterprise Ireland with a business plan that was worth as much revenue to the country and employed as many people as the beef industry, then the politicians would be falling over themselves to implement it. But no one seems to care about the beef industry.

It is hard to see a future for beef after a hard Brexit and obviously an industry that can’t make a profit could not and probably should not survive. But without farmers spending money, the rural economy, small towns and villages will be decimated, and that is a fact.

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Farmer writes: grass, grass and more grass!

Farmer Writes: enjoying a few lazy days in July