All groups were given the option of shelter on Saturday evening, ahead of the strong southeasterly gales that were expected. Wind from that direction is always the worst at the home yard and it didn’t let up.

They lingered for most of Sunday and the week of sunshine around the Ploughing was blown into memory.

You’d swear we’d just skipped October and went straight into November.

The last bit of silage was made and slurry was cleared out before the weather broke, but I never envisaged being comfortably into a yard routine this early in the year. But with cold temperatures keeping a lid on grass growth, no matter the clover content and fertiliser used, the decision to house some animals early took the pressure off.

Cold, wet winters; dry, warm summers; wet, mild summers – I’d like to think I’m prepared for those, but a cold, dry summer wasn’t on my radar. That was something I hadn’t figured on happening before and will have to be factored into planning for future fodder supplies.

It didn’t even feel like it was dry either. Heavy rain and mist felt constant, but northern gales meant ground conditions held firm. Those winds also made things feel uncomfortable. In hindsight, it’s like we went from winter to autumn, with the length of daylight the main difference. Jackets, hoodies and hats got great mileage this year.

There are always a few weeks in the year where the farm kind of coasts along, but that never happened. Since August it’s been a case of managing the endgame of this year’s grazing.

The replacement heifers are the only ones who seem to be maintaining a bit of normality when it comes to grazing.

Next week sees the TB testing lottery take place, so the scanning of the cows won’t take place until after that. Its results will also determine the final winter housing plan.

Numbers were reduced on the out farm ahead of testing and the cows with bull calves all arrived home along with a few younger cows or any in poor condition.

They will be held in until after weaning and let out on selected paddocks. Given there isn’t much of a clover cover where they are means I’ll have to direct them to the paddocks where it’s less plentiful here too. Fields with high clover content will be grazed by the stock that’s used to them.

Sheds will be fairly full next week for the test and after that weaning will begin for whatever groups are convenient. It nearly makes more sense to keep the weanlings in and let the cows tidy up the grazing where they can.

While they will be full, the sheds will be comfortable as the first group of finishing heifers went last week and their comrades and the first group of cull cows won’t be around too much longer either.

React now rather than get in trouble. As ever, there’ll be a few tweaks to the system for next year when it comes to the grazing and calving plans. Some of the changes forced on by weather this year proved useful and may not have happened only for the year being so bad.

Any changes or investments made on the farm centre around where I can reduce costs or the amount of labour involved, but no finer details can be decided upon until after next week.